An open letter to DIRCO and the SA government

Donovan McNeill, Johannesburg

Clearly, your skewed view of facts and your obvious procurement of information from sources with a predetermined biased against Israel, leaves you with ill-informed, uneducated and ignorant choices regarding your statements about a situation where people’s lives are at stake.

The fact that absolutely zero responsibility for the deaths of so many people is directed at the internationally recognised terror organisation Hamas, who claims to be the “leadership” of the Gazan population, only highlights the fact that the South African government chooses to act clueless about the real driving force behind the bloodshed.

Not a single call to refrain from approaching and breaking through the borders of another country with weapons (slingshots, Molotov cocktails, kites with incendiary devices attached and machetes are weapons and can kill) has been made by the South African government; not a single call for diplomacy; no plea to the Palestinian Authority; and no public communication with Hamas (who were communicated with quite enthusiastically when they were in South Africa) has been made.

After all this, the South African government still wants everyone to believe it can play a pivotal role in any kind of peace talks in any part of the world.

The kind of lawlessness that South Africa is currently battling with, is indicative of the moral compass that the South African government is now using to steer its path with regard to condemnations of Israeli defence policies.

DIRCO and President Ramaphosa, these choices of yours to demonise Israel put you in the category of “part of the problem”, not of “part of the solution”.

Please, for the sake of both Gazans and Israelis, I ask that you reconsider your positions – and your sources.