During the interview, Ngombane, who joined the ANC while in exile in 1980, stopped short of explicitly endorsing that comparison. But he said he is reminded of apartheid policies whenever he enters the West Bank, and he spoke of “very similar patterns of people who cannot really do what they want to do.” Similar to what he experienced in apartheid-era South Africa, he said, in the West Bank he observed a “situation where’s there’s a preponderance of force that is ready to be used at any given point” against unarmed Palestinians. “Soldiers deployed left and right, and you don’t pass a day without seeing Israeli soldiers — that tells you that something’s wrong.” the veteran diplomat said. “Everytime I go [to the West Bank], I’m meeting girls and boys who are ready to shoot me,” he said, suggesting that he is scared to make a wrong move or gesture while at the Israeli checkpoint. “That’s the truth. And this is how we lived.” ‘Every time I go to the West Bank, I’m meeting girls and boys ready to shoot me’ Asked whether the South African government considers itself balanced in its approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ngombane spoke of the “power imbalance” in the region. Israel’s army is one of the largest in the world and uses “brute force” against “people who’ve got nothing,” he said. While he said he is aware of the Israeli argumentation that the army is needed to safeguard Israeli civilians, he called such arguments “a fallacy… You don’t create security by oppressing other people.” timesofisrael/south-africa-looks-to-new-era-in-relations-with-israel-envoy-says/
Posted on: Thu, 22 May 2014 15:19:11 +0000
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