The African National Congress (ANC) leader in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, Khalid Sayed, tabled a motion this week calling for an immediate halt to all trade between the province and Israel.

Sayed urged an “immediate end to all coal exports to apartheid Israel amidst the Gaza genocide,” emphasising that the Western Cape exports more than R195 million worth of fresh grapes to Israel annually.

The motion draws attention to what Sayed described as the ongoing genocide in Gaza, while questioning the role of the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led provincial government in sustaining trade ties with Israel.

According to him, the DA has consistently supported Israel’s occupation of Gaza and continues to deny the atrocities taking place in the region.

Sayed argued that maintaining trade relations with Israel may indirectly enable and support actions that conflict with South Africa’s foreign policy and international obligations.

He further called on Premier Alan Winde to review and assess the implications of the province’s trade relations with Israel, stressing that these ties must be weighed against the Western Cape’s stated commitment to human rights and adherence to international law.

Death toll

A classified Israeli military intelligence database reviewed by The Guardian, together with +972 Magazine and Local Call, indicates that five out of six Palestinians killed in Gaza by Israeli forces have been civilians, a rate of civilian casualties that analysts describe as almost unprecedented in modern warfare.

According to the investigation, by May 2025 Israeli intelligence officials had identified 8,900 members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead.”

Yet during the same period, Gaza’s health authorities reported that 53,000 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli attacks, a toll that includes both combatants and civilians.

IOL NEWS 

Source link