South African president says Palestinian self-determination close to their hearts

Cyril Ramaphosa, South African President, and president of the ruling African National Congress( ANC), adresses a crowd at a Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) May Day rally in Athlone, near Cape Town, on May 1, 2024 [RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images]

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said Palestinians’ right to self-determination is something very close to their hearts and they can never turn back their support, Anadolu news agency reported.

Addressing an event in the Western Cape Province on the weekend, Ramaphosa said the country’s first democratically elected President Nelson Mandela taught them to support the Palestinian cause for freedom and they will continue to do so.

“We will fly the flag of the Palestinians high and that is South Africa’s stand and South African people particularly, the African National Congress party,’’ he said.

Ramaphosa also said: “We are never going to turn back from supporting the cause of the Palestinians be sure about that,’’ he said as he sought support for his ruling party ahead of the May 29 elections.

He also said his country supports the Freedom Flotilla which will carry humanitarian aid to Gaza, as it continues its preparations.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since the 7 October Hamas incursion, which killed around 1,200 people.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Tel Aviv, in comparison, has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians and wounded 77,700 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities in the Palestinian Territory.

More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85 per cent of the enclave’s population into internal displacement besides a crippling blockade on food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which, in January, issued an interim ruling that ordered it to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

READ: First Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine to be held in South Africa

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