Today, MPs are due to vote on the motion brought by Julius Malema’s EFF for the Israeli embassy to be closed. The governing ANC is expected to soften the text to ask for a temporary closure of the embassy until Tel Aviv agrees to a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Gaza conflict.
This newspaper has no vote to cast today. But it has a vested interest in our country’s diplomatic relations with the world, and is interested in the peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians. We support the two-state solution to the conflict. Since October 7, we have unequivocally condemned the violence and urged a quick return to negotiations.
Today, we urge MPs to vote against the closure of the Israeli embassy in SA. We make this call not in support of one side over another. We do so because we believe peace in the Middle East is worth our time.
A permanent closure would render SA irrelevant in brokering a peaceful end to the conflict. All formal diplomatic channels, which facilitate a free flow of credible information from the conflict zone, would be shut down.
Already, Pretoria has recalled all its diplomats from Tel Aviv for consultation and, before then, downgraded diplomatic relations with Israel. In the past week it rebuked the Israeli ambassador.
A temporary closure of the Israeli embassy would be counterproductive. Reopening would be as cumbersome as having to re-establish diplomatic relations. Worse, SA, with a notoriously indecisive president, is already in an election year in which the governing party’s unpopularity is growing by the day.
A more populist posture would be to shut down the Israeli embassy and expel its diplomats.
Three steps are required right now. First, the conflict in Gaza has to end immediately. Second, the conflict has to be contained from developing into a full-blown regional one where countries such as sanctions-ravaged Iran are provoked to openly join it. And third, negotiations, the only guarantee for a durable solution, should be given space and further impetus by countries such as SA.
SA, which potentially has much to offer in resolving this conflict, cannot shut down the remaining diplomatic channels and still hope to offer a mediation role. Conditions for negotiations are harder to create than war drums.
In his weekly newsletter yesterday, President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared more alive to this reality of hard work ahead of negotiations. His nuanced and level-headed approach that recognises the complexities deserves support. His call for tolerance is more important than his party’s and the EFF’s belligerent approach to the conflict.
Similarly, we need to commend the police and the protesters at last week’s opposing marches in Cape Town for exercising restraint. What we need now is to ensure that our painful and divisive past does not polarise us further.
When our MPs vote this afternoon, we ask them to keep the following considerations in mind: making peace is far more tedious than making war, and we need to place the victims’ hardship at the centre of the vote.
If we want to stay relevant as possible honest brokers, we need to keep the remaining diplomatic channels open. Shutting down the Israeli embassy will deprive us of this opportunity.
