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The National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] supports the protest that took place on Monday in Ramallah by Palestinian activists against the continuous betrayal by South African government officials.

NEHAWU reaffirms its standing support for the downgrade and shutting down of the SA embassy in Israel.

Firstly as NEHAWU, we want to reject and express shock at the decision of the African National Congress International Relations Sub-Committee to meet with Israeli politician, Tzachi Hanegbi. We are still baffled by the fact that the ANC agreed to a meeting with this racist who is known to supports and partakes in the atrocities performed by apartheid Israel including ethnic cleansing.

Hanegbi is notorious for his involvement in the expansion and sustaining the illegal occupation of Palestine by Apartheid Israel. He is also infamous for his racism against Africans especially his support for a legislation against African refugees.

These action by both the government and the ANC is disturbing in that our very own comrades have completely forgotten that our own freedom came as a result amongst others of international solidarity and the assistance of progressive countries who fought side by side with the ANC during the dark days of apartheid while currently Israel continues to be an apartheid regime guilty of serious human rights abuses.

Lest we forget that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was on the side of the progressive forces and the ANC-led liberation movement. The PLO like Zambia, Tanzania and the Soviet Union was a reliable ally of our liberation movement while it is a known fact that Israel supported the South African apartheid regime. Taking into consideration our history of apartheid, South Africa should be playing a more supportive role in assisting the Palestinians and not hosting silly meetings with racists’ settlers. We want to warn the ANC IR committee to desist from such anti-revolutionary behaviour.

As NEHAWU, we support and will participate in the protest action to take place at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation [DIRCO] next week Tuesday 28th November 2017. The protest action is done in conjunction with the Young Communist League of South Africa [YCLSA] and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions South Africa [BDS-SA].

The aim of the protest action is to highlight our anger in which our government continues to be caught on the wrong side of the struggle against apartheid Israel. We will also place workplace demands affecting our members at DIRCO include our demand that government does away with the proposed Foreign Service Bill [FSB] which is a criminal attempt to a regressive transformation and agentization of DIRCO, to model it along American lines and ultimately prepare its way for corporate and foreign capture. The General Secretary of NEHAWU, Cde Zola Saphetha, will address the event.

As a union organising at DIRCO we will mobilise all our members to join the protest action. As NEHAWU, we also believe that the may be a faction inside DIRCO that seems hell-bent on selling out the Palestinian struggle. The SA Zionist Federation and the Israeli Embassy are pulling out all stops to ensure that the resolution of the ANC Policy Conference to downgrade relations with Israel does not see the light of day. As NEHAWU, we support this resolutions and we shall see to it that it is adopted the 54th National Congress and that it is implemented thereafter.

Nelson Mandela said our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians. Those words from our former president should invigorate us to redouble our efforts to ensure that Palestine is freed from the river to the sea.

Issued by NEHAWU