SOUTH AFRICA SAYS CITIZENS FIGHTING WITH ISRAELI FORCES IN GAZA WILL BE ARRESTED

Wed 13 March 2024:

South Africa’s foreign minister has said that any of her country’s citizens who fight with the Israeli armed forces in Gaza will be arrested when they return home.

Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor made the comments earlier this week at a Palestinian solidarity event attended by officials from South Africa’s governing African National Congress Party.

“I have already issued a statement alerting those who are South African and are fighting alongside or in the [Israeli military]: We are ready. When you come home, we are going to arrest you,” Pandor said, to rapturous applause from the audience.

She also encouraged people to protest outside the embassies of what she called the “five primary supporters” of Israel and its military action in Gaza.

In December, the foreign ministry said that the South African government was concerned that some of its citizens or permanent residents had joined the Israeli military to fight in Gaza.

Those with dual South African-Israeli citizenship could be stripped of their South African citizenship, the foreign ministry said.

Pandor’s comments represented an apparent hardening of the government’s stance.

It’s not clear how many South African citizens have fought for Israel during the current war in Gaza. South Africa has a significant Jewish population of around 70,000 people.

The South African government was a vocal supporter of the Palestinian people and a critic of Israel even before the current war.

The issue is close to the ruling ANC party and many South Africans, who for years have compared Israel’s policies against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with the treatment of non-whites in South Africa during its apartheid era of forced racial segregation and oppression.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCY

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