Chants of “Free Palestine” reverberated through busy afternoon traffic in Durban on Wednesday in a protest which mirrored those in other parts of the country.
Among them was Ayesha Seyam, 38, said: “All the world must wake up and listen to Palestinians and find a solution.”
Having settled in South Africa five years ago, Seyam said she is haunted by what was happening in her home in Gaza.
“There is now no electricity. The situation is worsening. Immediate action should be taken,” said Seyam.
Seyam, who holds a PhD in pharmacy, cautioned that if the situation continued more deaths would be on the horizon.
“Last night I lost contact with my family. What I have to do is to raise my voice for the world. Now schools are being bombed where people had taken refuge in the midst of calamity,” said Seyam.
Pressure was also needed from the humanitarian organisations to extend assistance, she said.
Seyam said she was disconcerted after US President Joe Biden went on television proclaiming that Israelis had the right to defend themselves.
“How come Palestinians don’t have that right? Why don’t they say we are human beings and we deserve to live? They can’t blame us just because there are soldiers from Israel killed. Innocent people and kids have been killed for 75 years now.”
She said Gaza had an abundance of highly educated people who could not find jobs, forcing their departure from the country. “There are no opportunities to work and that is why citizens leave. Israel does not allow us to do anything.”
However, the oppression of Palestinians would not silence them, she added.
The South African Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (SA BDS) Coalition’s Roshan Dadoo said they were upping the ante with protests.
“We will not be silent as we watch the devastating scenes of death and destruction raining down on the open-air prison of Gaza by the Zionist, apartheid, settler-colonial state of Israel,” she said.
According to Dadoo, the weapons used to bomb and kill Palestinian men, women and children are supplied by the “warmongering, imperialists United States of America. The US is a settler-colonial country founded on white supremacy, slavery and anti-black racism that came into being on the genocide of indigenous people,” said Dadoo.
The coalition has called for a number of changes, including:
- Ending sports, cultural, academic and other links with Israel and corporations complicit with Israel;
- Declaring the Israeli ambassador in Pretoria persona non-grata and severing all diplomatic relations;
- The prosecution of South African joining the Israeli occupation forces in the total contravention of regulation of foreign military assistance act; and
- Ending Israeli impunity and act within the UN to reinstate the special committee against apartheid towards international sanctions and institute an international protection force against apartheid Israel’s barbarism towards Palestinians.
Former KwaZulu-Natal MEC for economic development and environmental affairs Ravi Pillay said the political instability in the region had been a longstanding issue.
“It's been a campaign issue. It's formed part of the ANC’s international policy. The ANC and government have been very clear on its position,” said Pillay.
Heightened levels of depravity had prompted his presence at the protest, he said.
“There are those who are correctly concerned by the loss of life. We are too. But there have been many commentators who have said we have to look at the root causes Even if there has to be some response. In it there should be some degree of proportionality.”
The tipping point had been the denial of food, water, electricity and movement which could be described as a war crime, added Pillay
“If we don’t express our disgust in all of this, it does not mean it won’t happen in other parts of the world. What is concerning is the position of some world leaders who have shown no leadership, thus accelerating the crisis.”
Also rallying behind the Palestinians was Abahlali baseMjondolo chairperson Sibusiso Zikode, who said they were in full support of those who were brutalised.
“Mandela often said that freedom of South Africa is not complete without that of the Palestinian people. They [Palestinians} have been robbed of their land by the colonialists,” said Zikode.
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