STAFF REPORTER

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SA does not subscribe to BDS ideology

Sixteen of the ANC’s most senior young academics and business leaders from around SA, visited Israel and Palestine in their personal capacities on an educational tour this month which has resulted in so much consternation that it again begs the question: Who sets SA’s political policy towards the Middle East?

So much panic did this cause in the anti-Israel ranks when they found out about the trip shortly before their departure, that a US-based NGO reportedly offered an inducement of R640 000 to get these future SA leaders not to go. None accepted – and now they face the wrath of ANC-aligned structures.

Needless to say, BDS yesterday denied they had made this offer – and then proceeded to blame the misunderstanding on the Zionists. But make it they did, say the sixteen rebels.

The apparent disconnect over SA/Israel policy between (ANC Secretary-General) Gwede Mantashe’s ideologists at ANC headquarters, Luthuli House and Jacob Zuma’s ANC-led government’s pragmatic approach has had every reason to widen over the past five years.

Yet, clearly, any discomfort between the two centres of power has been well-managed. The meteoric growth of trade and tourism with Israel, largely in SA’s favour, is clearly indicative of this.

While the ideologues have pacified groups like BDS-SA, the local arm of the US-based NGO Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (Israel) campaign, by assuring them that the ANC and SA will adopt their anti-Israel policies as their own, the governing pragmatists haven’t bothered one iota with it.

This begs the question whether these internal differences are well-disciplined and managed, or whether they don’t exist and are merely stage-managed to placate as many voters as possible.

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