ANT KATZ

Wording not released, but outcome is fait accompli?

The anti-Israel “Cape Town Declaration” was approved by all committee members, including the DA, with the notable exception of Israeli stalwart ACDP Committee-member Cheryllyn Dudley.

The Declaration was at first expected to have been discussed and ratified by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee last Wednesday – but was then delayed as the wording had to be finalised.

PICTURED RIGHT – the ACDP’s
Israel stalwart on the Portfolio
Committee Cheryllyn Dudley, MP

Dudley was promised a chance to present to the Committee by the chair – when the matter arises.

Last Tuesday Dudley told the SAJR Online that she had been advised that “the report is not ready for us to discuss,” and that “the meeting to discuss the Cape Town Declaration is postponed till next week Wednesday 26 February.

There was no official version of the Declaration published by government as it was still a work in progress, and Dudley confirmed to the SAJR Online Sunday that there has been “no sign of the draft report as yet!”

A leaked version of the original 15-point Declaration, included:

• SA must expeditiously deal with South Africans serving in the Israeli Defence Force;
• SA must stop all financial transactions with Israeli settlement companies and banks and companies involved in the Israeli settlements.
• Entrance into SA for Palestinians must be made easier.
• Conference supports the freedom of Marwan Barghouti and all Political prisoners.
• Conference supports BDS.
• Complete military, financial and political sanctions must be applied against Israel.
• All SA political parties must clearly communicate their stance on the plight of the Palestinian people and make it timeously known in the build-up to 2014 elections.
• The SA gov’t must campaign for Israel to be suspended from the SWIFT banking network.
• SA must table the Declaration at the AU, UN and IPU.

Delay may be good or bad news…

“Government is in a difficult space,” said an MP whose information is normally impeccably reliable, but who did not want to be quoted ahead of the debate and elections. “While the ANC is following the BDS line, Cabinet appreciates the value of the $1-billion in bilateral trade between the countries and the real jobs it provides on both sides,” says the source.

So, while the ANC blusters about Israel, the government is happy the way things stand. “That leaves them standing with one foot on either side of the divide,” SAJR’S source. “But now government is coming under increasing pressure from BDS to deliver on the ANC’s promises.”

This may mean that, by the time the Declaration sees the light of day on Wednesday, it will be a watered down version of the one that the conference adopted AND government and still does not impugn healthy trade relations.

Nu, so what does the DA have to say?

Although, much to the disgust of many among the Jewish Community and large local Israeli contingent, the DA voted in favour of the Cape Town Declarations, long-serving DA Joburg City Councillor Darren Bergman, earmarked for a seat in Parliament after the election, told Jewish Report last week that the DA had not changed its standing policy on the Middle East.

PICTURED LEFT – Darren Bergman

“Our policy is very clear and always been,” he said, the DA supported “a two-state solution with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.” He was unsure how the DA would vote in Wednesday’s Committee meeting, said Bergman, but even with one ACDP vote and two DA votes, the Declaration is likely to be approved in the form in which it is presented on Wednesday morning.

Related reads on this site (with lots of comments):

DA’S DARREN BERGMAN RESPONDS

IS ACDP ISRAEL’S ONLY ALLY?

BOARD & FED ANGERED BY DECLARATION

SA CALLS FOR EXRTREME MEASURES ON ISRAEL