Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is visiting South Africa as a guest of the African National Congress, and on Sunday he met the party’s top leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, Times Live reported. On Monday night, the ANC hosted a dinner for Meshaal. ANC spokesman Keith Khoza said Meshaal and his delegation had been invited to South Africa so they could learn from South Africa’s experience under apartheid.
“It is also to register our support for the withdrawal of the occupying forces of Palestine,” Khoza said.
South Africa’s Jewish leaders have blasted the ANC for the meeting with the leader of a group which “enthusiastically endorsed the cold-blooded murder of Jewish civilians,” and for timing the visit to coincide with the terrorism Israel is facing in Judea and Samaria.
Mary Kluk, head of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, and Ben Swartz, head of the South African Zionist Federation, said in a statement Tuesday that “during these meetings, [Hamas] are likely to continue to portray themselves as a liberation struggle, similar to that of the ANC, while at the same time portraying Israel as a tyrannical nation that purposefully targets innocent women and children.”
Kluk and Swartz added that “the manipulation of facts is particularly distressing in light of the current wave of terrorism plaguing Israel. During these past few weeks of deadly violence in Israel, Hamas has enthusiastically endorsed the cold-blooded murder of Jewish civilians and instigated dozens of lethal attacks against them. Hamas has also congratulated those who have carried out barbarous attacks on Israeli citizens.”
Israeli media reported on Monday that Israel had summoned South Africa’s deputy ambassador to deliver a “strong protest,” but on Monday night the spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation Clayson Monyela said his department had not received any reports of its ambassadors being summoned.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, said: “We believe this invitation encourages terror by giving some legitimacy to a terror organization, recognized as such by the civilized world.”
The South African Zionist Federation issued a separate statement saying that “contrary to what is claimed, the ideology, values, aims and strategies of Hamas are diametrically opposed to the principles of the ANC, as embodied in the Freedom Charter.” The federation’s statement added that, “simply speaking, Hamas wishes to destroy Israel altogether and seeks to establish an Islamist dictatorship in its place.”
Meshaal will be leaving South Africa for Doha in Qatar Wednesday, follwoing a morning visit to Cape Town.