Hamas in South Africa

Last week top leaders from Hamas, Palestine’s Islamic liberation movement, made an official visit to South Africa. The delegation, led by Khaled Meshaal himself, visited the country at the invitation of the African National Congress, the ruling party.

At a press conference, it was explained that the ANC and Hamas had signed a letter of intent aimed at fostering closer relations between the two liberation movements. The goal, ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe explained, is to build “a long lasting relationship” between the two parties.

The Israeli government was unsurprisingly not happy about the invitation, and summoned the South African ambassador in Tel Aviv to protest at the conferring of legitimacy on what it claims is a “terrorist” group.

But ANC spokespeople responded that their leaders were once considered to be “terrorists” by western governments too, and that it regarded Hamas’ struggle against Israeli occupation to be a legitimate one.

In glossed-over versions of history all-too-often favoured in the West, it is too easily forgotten that the ANC, via its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, also led an armed struggle against the racists in the ruling white regime during the apartheid era. MK was founded by none other than Nelson Mandela himself. It was banned, and Mandela remained on the US “terrorism” list as late as 2008.

In that period, the apartheid regime forged strong links with the Israeli regime. Veterans of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa have therefore not forgotten Israel’s aid to its oppressors, and are now strong opponents of Israeli apartheid.

During the visit, Meshaal praised the historic struggle of the ANC, and made explicit parallels between the apartheid regime in South Africa and the apartheid practices of Israel.

He also praised the efforts of activists around the world to step up popular pressure on Israel for its current crimes and atrocities in Palestine, through the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement: “We need to see a sincere effort exerted from the international community and the free people of the world to boycott Israel and to impose sanctions on the Israeli apartheid occupation. We encourage all the efforts that have been made all over the world … by the global BDS movement. Israel is an apartheid occupation regime and it should be boycotted, isolated and sanctioned for its crimes.”

Meshaal and his delegation met with South African president Jacob Zuma during the visit, as well as with a variety of activist, civil society and religious groups.

BDS South Africa (one of the world’s most well-organised and professional BDS groups) seemed pleased with the visit and issued a press release emphasising Meshaal’s encouragement of BDS as a tactic.

Secretary-general Mantashe talked about the possibility of Hamas opening up an official office in the country, in order to facilitate dialogue. Such a move would be a major diplomatic coup for Hamas, bestowing increased international clout on the movement.

But it would also entail very real dangers. Israel is known to operate in the country – it has official (if, in recent years, tense) relations with South Africa, and its embassy is also a base for Israeli spies to operate around the whole of southern Africa.

In February this year, documents leaked by an apparent whistle-blower within the South African State Security Agency gave an insight into the extent of Israeli spy activity in the region. In 2012 a group of hackers claiming to be former Israeli spies threatened the South African finance minister with a massive cyber attack on the country’s financial sector unless the BDS campaign ended and certain individuals linked to BDS were prosecuted.

Israel has a long record of targeting Palestinian political and military leaders with their death squads. Mossad agents in 1997 attempted to murder Meshaal while he was based in Jordan. But they were foiled by Meshaal’s bodyguard who managed to capture two Mossad agents, meaning Israel was later forced by a livid King Hussein to hand over the antidote to the poison they’d used on him.

So for Hamas to operate in South Africa would entail additional risks. But they are manageable risks which will likely be outweighed by the prospective diplomatic benefits.

The diplomatic offensive Hamas (especially as led by Meshaal) has been on in recent years mirrors in many way the path taken by Fatah during the 1970s and ’80s when it led the Palestine Liberation Movement during the period when the PLO really was a genuine national liberation movement (as opposed to the empty shell it is now under the Oslo regime).

As recounted in the excellent biography of PLO diplomat Shafiq al-Hout, My Life in the PLO, this led to tangible benefits for Palestine’s struggle for freedom. But it also laid the ground in many ways for the eventual sell-out that the Oslo accords represented. Hamas, then, will be wary of treading the same path.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.