'Mama Action' Nomvula Mokonyane calls for civil disobedience, boycott of Israeli goods

27 May 2021 - 15:57 By nonkululeko njilo
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Nomvula Mokonyane has added her voice to calls to boycott goods from Israel. File photo.
Nomvula Mokonyane has added her voice to calls to boycott goods from Israel. File photo.
Image: GCIS

ANC NEC member Nomvula Mokonyane has added her voice to growing calls to boycott goods from Israel over the conflict with Palestinians, saying there was a need to cause chaos and civil obedience to show solidarity.

She was addressing members of the ANC Women's League in Pretoria on Thursday. They had organised a picket to highlight the plight of women and children who suffered from the consequences of the conflict. 

“Ours is that those goods are dripping the blood of innocent Palestine children, we must refuse to touch them,” she said.

Scores of people were reported to have died and hundreds were injured as a result of the conflict. 

“When you go buy groceries, fill up a trolley with goods from Israel. On arrival at the till point, leave the store and say you cannot pay because they are from Israel. That’s part of rolling mass action we want to see, let's cause chaos, lets make is'phithiphiti.

“We want civil disobedience we are not killing anyone, we are showing our dissatisfaction,” she said. 

The sentiments come after labour movements joined the SA Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (SA BDS) Coalition at Durban harbour on Friday to support dock workers who refused to offload cargo from an Israeli container ship in a stand against the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

She commended the move, adding that it needed to be extended to other provinces and civil society.

Mokonyane also moved to lambaste people who had chosen not to take sides on the conflict, arguing that when there was apartheid in SA, the world took a side through sanctions, among other things.

“You must not say you don't take sides.”

Those who attributed the conflict to religion were wrong, according to Mokonyane.

“We are not anti-Christian, this is not a religious war. We are fighting a regime that does not love God, that does not love thy neighbour as they are supposed to. We are fighting against an evil system of apartheid,” she said.

The former minister also reiterated the need for the government to review its trade  policies amid the conflict and made an impassioned plea to white South Africans. 

“We are calling on fellow white patriots, don’t send your children to go and be part of ... Israel, because we know that some of them are recruited from here.

“We are Palestine and Palestine is us.

“Let the Palestinians lead their own self-determination and we must give them the support. Nobody must tell Palestinians what's good for them, we stand by them in their own quest for self determination.”

A list of products which needed to be boycotted and various forms of action that party structures would embark on in solidarity with Palestine was expected to be drawn up at the weekend, Mokonyane added. 

TimesLIVE


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