JOHANNESBURG- The brutal IOF aggressions against innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip and the West Bank have drawn wide-scale condemnation in South Africa and Britain as a trade union federation in S.A. and an academic body in the UK decided to boycott the Hebrew state.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) which is the largest trade union federation in South Africa and a strong ally to the ruling party in Pretoria the ANC called on the South African government to impose a boycott on all Israeli goods and to sever diplomatic relations with the Hebrew state over its brutal policy against the Palestinians.
The move was supported by South African intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils who is Jewish although this differs from his government’s stand on the issue.
Kasrils was in Ramallah city a month ago and met with PA chief Mahmoud Abbas before extending an invitation to PA premier Ismail Haneyya to visit South Africa which Haneyya accepted and awaits the proper time to carry it out.
“The best way to have Israel comply with the UN resolutions is to pressure it by a diplomatic boycott such as the one (previously) imposed on the apartheid South Africa” said Willy Madisha the Cosatu president.
For his part Patrick Craven the spokesman of Cosatu explained that although his union’s main objectives didn’t pertain to the Middle East and that it was focusing on improving the living conditions of its 1.8 million members “It couldn’t stand idly by as Israel perpetrated atrocities in Palestine”.
The Cosatu boycott campaign will start Friday with sermons in South Africa’s mosques on the agonies and plight of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation before Churches close to the organization start addressing the issue during masses on Sunday sources close to the Cosatu affirmed.
In addition to the South African big blow to Israel Britain’s University and College Union (UCU) decided to boycott Israel’s academic institutions accusing them of sanctioning Israel’s bloody policy against Palestinians.
Israel condemned the decision and described it as “scandalous discriminatory and one-sided” as Israeli education minister Yuli Tamir said she would address the British education minister on the matter.
The decision was approved by a 158 to 99 votes and called for freezing European funding for Israeli academic institutions for “cooperating with the occupation”.
Over the past six years IOF troops killed more than 5000 Palestinian citizens and wounded more than 55000 others in addition to arresting tens of thousands of Palestinians of all age categories retaining more than 11000 of them in jails till now.
Over the past two weeks those troops killed 50 Palestinians and wounded more than 200 in relentless air and land bombarding of the tiny and populated Gaza Strip.
Hamas Movement welcomes UCU decision
For its part the Hamas Movement on Thursday welcomed and appreciated the UCU decision to continue boycotting Israeli academic institutions
“We express our sincere thanks for such efforts that are always biased to the values of justice truth and humanity” the statement elaborated.
Hamas urged Arab academics and politicians to follow suit and to boycott Israel pointing to that western model that courageously embarked on a campaign against Israeli occupation.
The Movement finally expressed its gratitude and salutation to the British academics’ courage hoping that the campaign would expand to include all European Arab and Islamic countries in a bid to end the suffering and oppression befalling the Palestinian people.
