CAPE TOWN (PIC)– South African intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils has received Hamas’ senior political leader and member of its political bureau Mohammed Nazzal in the South African city of Cape Town on Friday and discussed with him latest developments in occupied Palestine.
Nazzal’s visit to the African country came on an invitation from the South African “Friends of Al-Aqsa” organization to attend a conference it had organized commemorating and highlighting the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe or usurpation of Palestine at the hands of armed Zionist gangs) in 1948.
Kasrils who is known for his anti-Israeli occupation stands expressed his country’s firm solidarity with the Palestinian people and with their legitimate quest for freedom.
He also affirmed his government and his country’s president Thabo Mbeki’s full recognition of the PA unity government which is led by Hamas Movement being a legitimate and duly elected government.
In addition Kasrils praised Hamas Movement for the sacrifices it had made including conceding a number of portfolios among other compromises for the sake of the Palestinian people’s national unity and harmony.
For his part Nazzal hailed the South African people’s struggle against the apartheid regime that occupied and ruled them for decades before being overthrown by the people’s power.
“The South African liberation Movement that [former South African president ] Nelson Mandela had led against the racist regime serves as a model for us Palestinians and for all peace loving peoples in this world” Nazzal underlined.
He addressed the South African leadership saying “Your Struggle against racism was and will remain an example that all people under occupation will follow as we in occupied Palestine face a similar racist regime on our occupied land since 1948”.
Two weeks ago Kasrils paid a visit to Ramallah city and met with PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and invited PA premier Ismail Haneyya to visit his country.
The Palestinian people and the PA unity government that they had democratically elected were slammed with a wing-clipping economic sanction imposed by the USA Israel and their international and regional allies since March last year as mass punishment to them for practicing free democracy and for electing Hamas to rule them.
