/ 28 May 2010

More dirt revealed on apartheid SA’s cosy Israeli ties

The cosy relationship between apartheid SA and Israel was underscored this week when information about a nuclear deal during the 1970s came to light.

The cosy relationship between South Africa’s apartheid government and Israel was underscored this week when information about a nuclear deal between the two countries during the 1970s came to light.

In The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, released this week in the United States and South Africa, US academic Sasha Polakow-Suransky reveals that in 1975 PW Botha’s government struck a deal with Israeli defence minister and now president Shimon Peres to buy nuclear weapons from Israel to boost the apartheid government’s nuclear capacity.

The military cooperation between the two countries was so secretive that even South Africa’s foreign minister at the time, Pik Botha, was unaware of it, Polakow-Suransky writes. As an extra security measure, the agreement included a provision that both sides would deny its existence. Israel has not admitted to involvement in building nuclear weapons.

Polakow-Suransky told the Mail & Guardian from New York that he was presented with minutes from the post-apartheid South African government proving the deal was signed, but was never consummated. He said: “In 1975 the relationship between South Africa and Israel was becoming increasingly intimate, and after 1977 it became even more significant and a vital link for South Africa due to the UN arms embargo. South Africa [under Botha] saw the nuclear deal as explicit, but it was never consummated.”

Polakow-Suransky says South Africa supplied Israel with uranium, which the Jewish state used for military purposes. The deal was also an outlet for Israeli arms exports.

“That is why they were unwilling to leave it — they were making a lot of money from it, which was an important part of the Israeli economy.”

The Israeli government tried to block the release of the documents from which Polakow-Suransky gleaned the information about the secret meetings.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation declined to comment, but released a statement reiterating South Africa’s commitment to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.