/ 16 January 2009

SA’s approach to Gaza conflict ‘one-sided’

South Africa has a ”one-sided” approach towards the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, Israeli ambassador Dov Segev-Steinberg said on Friday.

If it adopted a ”more balanced attitude”, the country could help in bringing peace to the Middle East, he told members of Parliament’s foreign affairs portfolio committee.

Segev-Steinberg also said he had been ”bashed very, very badly” by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Fatima Hajaig when he was summoned to her office on December 29 last year to explain the Israeli army’s push into Gaza.

”I hope that this session is not going to repeat itself,” the newly appointed ambassador — who had been invited to explain his country’s position and answer questions on what was happening in Gaza — told MPs.

Segev-Steinberg, who assumed his post last month, noted South Africa had ”great influence” in international organisations, and could potentially play a helpful role in the Middle East peace process.

”Unfortunately what we see is a country that is one-sided [and] unbalanced … I think it is difficult, when a country is one-sided completely, to play a role, and I hope that the attitude and the role of South Africa will change in the future.”

He said the war being waged in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force against Hamas was a war against a radical organisation that aimed to wipe out Israel.

”What is happening in Gaza is a war against a radical organisation whose aim is to eradicate the State of Israel. It’s an organisation that is an arm of Iran … another arm is Lebanon. Both of them are working according to a covenant that calls for the elimination of Israel.”

Segev-Steinberg said Hamas was driven by ”extreme religious ideas” and supported by Iran, a country itself motivated by ”religious radicalism”.

”What we see … is a new phenomenon in the Middle East, where from a political struggle over land between us and the Palestinians … there are certain elements who are shifting this conflict to a religious conflict.

”We don’t understand the behaviour of Iran. We have nothing against Iran. We don’t have a border with Iran; we’ve never had a war with Iran; but Iran wants to eliminate the State of Israel.”

This had been clearly stated by the Iranian president several times over the past year.

”According to them, jihad is the only way.”

This was a matter of great concern to Israel.

”We have now a new situation in the Middle East. On the one side, radical elements, like Iran … and Hamas. On the other, moderate countries [such as] Egypt, Jordan, the Gulf States and the Palestinians.

”Iran is a coming power in the area … and a very radical power, which tries to eliminate the moderate regimes, and Israel as well …”

On a halt to the fighting in Gaza, Segev-Steinberg said it could end once the threat from Hamas had been eliminated.

”When the operation [Operation Cast Lead] is finished, and we come to the conclusion there is no threat anymore to our population in the south — where Hamas is not going to shell us, where munitions are not going to be smuggled into Gaza, where Hamas is going to recognise Israel’s right to exist — at that time we hope a ceasefire will prevail and that both [countries] can go back to the negotiating table …”

He emphasised Israel had no intention of seizing Palestinian territory, and was acting only to neutralise the threat from Hamas.

On the heavy death toll among civilians in Gaza, Segev-Steinberg said this was the result of Hamas using civilians as ”human shields”, and locating its rocket battery positions in residential areas, schools and mosques.

Responding to a question on the use of chemical weapons by the Israeli Defence Force in Gaza, he said reports such weapons were being used were ”pure rubbish”.

On Thursday this week, the committee heard Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, Ali Halimeh, sharply criticise Hamas for letting the conflict in Gaza escalate.

Serious business deals
Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) wants the South African government to cease all relations with Israel and close down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria.

The moves are among several agreed to at a meeting on Wednesday concerning developments in the Middle East, Cosatu said in a statement on Friday.

”Many South African parastatals and companies have serious business deals with Israeli companies and workers must reject them, with Telkom being an example,” Cosatu international relations officer Bongani Masuku said in the statement.

”In their refusal to handle Israeli goods, workers will be protecting their own jobs in the true spirit of the Proudly South Africa Campaign …,” he said, accusing supermarket chains of selling Israeli products at the expense of local produce.

”We should call for the expulsion of Israeli security agencies and Mossad at our airports,” Masuku continued.

”The security of South Africa is compromised by allowing these Israeli security agencies to operate at our airports and harass people going to Israel …,” he said, citing a case involving members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union and Cosatu.

The relationship between South Africa’s national carrier South African Airways and its Israeli counterpart El-Al should also be terminated, he said.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended by Cosatu’s alliance partners, the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, union affiliates, international solidarity organisations, NGOs, social movements and academic activists. — Sapa