Thousands march to Parliament calling for end to genocide in Gaza

Protesters from different civic, religious, and political groups came out in their numbers to march to Parliament on Saturday to demand an end to the war in Palestine. Photos: Matthew Hirsch

Thousands of people filled the streets of Cape Town’s city centre on Saturday with green, red, white and black in protest, calling for an end to genocide in Gaza and a boycott of Israel. 

Protesters gathered at the Muir Street Mosque in District Six before marching to Parliament. Placards read “boycott apartheid Israel” and “You can’t bomb the truth away”. Protesters also chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

The mass march was organised by the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), the Al-Quds Foundation South Africa, and the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), with the support of political parties and trade unions. Civil society groups such as South African Jews for a Free Palestine, South African Christians for Palestine and Mothers4Gaza also participated.

Reverend Frank Chikane thanked people for coming out in their numbers.

At Parliament, speakers from political parties and religious leaders addressed the crowd. Reverend Frank Chikane thanked people for coming out in their numbers.

Protesters handed over a memorandum to Cedric Frolick, Parliament’s House Chairperson of Committees, Oversight and Public Participation.

The memorandum calls for Parliament and the South African government to shut down the Israeli Embassy, end all trade and other relations with Israel, prosecute corporations “complicit” in Israel’s violation of international law, prosecute South Africans who enlist in the Israel Defence Forces, and outlaw Zionism as “a form of racial supremacy equivalent to apartheid.”

The memorandum also demands that the apartheid bill be passed. This bill, introduced before parliament by Al Jamah, would criminalise apartheid, as defined by the UN Apartheid Convention.

The march was supported by Mothers4Gaza members and their families.

At a meeting on Thursday ahead of the march, activists called on governments around the world to do more for Gaza. Irene Govender, of Mothers4Gaza, said, “We need the bombings to stop. The killing has to stop. The time for talking is over. We need to save the people of Gaza and Palestine.”

Professor Usuf Chikte of the PSC said they were grateful to the South African government for taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). But, he said, more action is needed.

Chikte called for a full boycott of Israel. “Israel is committing a genocide and practising apartheid. We are heeding the call, the desperate cry from Gaza, from the West Bank, from the occupied territories of the Palestinians,” he added.

MJC President Sheikh Riad Fataar said, “There’s an ongoing genocide. There is forced starvation. Palestinian babies and children are dying.”

“We are standing up to the world to show humanity still exists,” he added.

This action comes in the same week as President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the UN General Assembly in New York. “There is growing global consensus that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Just last week, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza.

“As Palestinians continue to face genocide and famine, we have a duty to act,” he said. DM

Originally published on GroundUp.

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