South Africans Hold Protest against US Al-Quds Move

The South African Communist Party organized the Friday pro-Palestine protest in front of the US consulate in Sandton suburb in Johannesburg city.
 
Hundreds were present in the protest in which a letter of demands was delivered asking the US president Donald Trump to backtrack on his recognition of al-Quds as Israeli entity’s capital and immediately cancel his plan to transfer the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city of al-Quds.
 
They called on the US administration to respect the understandings and agreements reached regarding the two-state solution and exert more efforts to achieve a final solution to the conflict.
 
The protesters also asked the US to stop selling weapons which the Israeli regime uses to commit war crimes against the Palestinian civilians, pressure the Israeli regime to lift the siege on Gaza, recognize the Palestinians' rights to freedom, independence and return, remove the separation wall and end all forms of apartheid in the Palestinian territories.
 
Deputy secretary general of the South African Communist Party Solly Mapaila affirmed that his party will continue to organize similar protests until all these just demands are achieved.
 
The protest included a series of activities in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails especially children and Ahed al-Tamimi.
 
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has decided to downgrade its embassy in Tel Aviv to a liaison office over a US decision to recognize al-Quds as Israel’s capital.
 
The December 2017 decision was taken at the end of a five-day ANC conference, in which Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as its new leader. Ramaphosa was this Thursday took over the presidency of South Africa after Jacob Zuma’s resignation.
 
When under white-minority rule, South Africa was one of Israel’s few allies on the continent. But after the 1994 demise of apartheid, relations cooled as the black-majority ANC took over. The ANC has condemned Israeli occupation of territories where Palestinians seek statehood.