BY JIBRIL TURE

South African leaders unambiguously sympathize with the suffering inflicted on the citizens of Gaza by Israel with its relentless bombing and ground invasion that have so far claimed more than 10,000 lives of Palestinian civilians. During a conference held last week in Egypt on the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa likened the situation in Gaza to the suffering endured by black South Africans during the ill-famed apartheid regime.

“As South Africans, we can relate to what is happening to Palestinians. Our people waged a brave and courageous struggle to achieve their freedom. And we are subjected to untold suffering. Just like the Palestinians are going through,” Ramaphosa told the audience.

This is not the view of at least one analyst who spoke to the Voice of America, VOA.

Speaking to a VOA reporter, Ron Halber, executive director of the Washington-based advocacy group Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said that President Ramaphosa is “misinformed” about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. He described Ramaphosa’s comparison of the conflict to apartheid as “ridiculous.”

“The South African white minority was fully oppressive of the black majority, said Halber, adding that the white South African minority “at no time tried to negotiate peace and suppressed (Black South African’s) will within one country.” Halber insisted, “It was a matter within their own country and not an external territory that attacked them previously.” He pointed out another difference between apartheid and the situation in the Gaza Strip, saying that Israel “seized the Gaza Strip and maintained control over it” after Israel was attacked in 1967. The Jewish state, he said, acted in self-defense.

Another analyst interviewed by our VOA colleague made a more nuanced remark.

Michael Walsh, an adjunct fellow at the Center for African Studies at Howard University in Washington, stresses the distinction between expressing solidarity for the Palestinian people and support for Hamas. The Howard University professor echoed the concern voiced by some people about the South African leader who, he feels, placed more emphasis on the siege of Gaza than on Hamas attack: “I think that there is a lot of concern about how much more emphasis was given to the siege of Gaza by Israel than the attack by Hamas on Israel by the South African government.”

To read more about South African leaders’ stance on the Israel-Hamas war, click here