CAPE TOWN: Several hundred people marched through central Cape Town Saturday waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel slogans in a pro-Gaza rally to mark the first anniversary of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
With placards accusing Israel of genocide and racism, the marchers — many of them wearing the keffiyeh scarf that symbolizes the Palestinian struggle against Israel — walked to parliament in a protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
“Israel is a racist state” and “We are all Palestinian,” chanted some of the marchers. Others held up placards stating: “We are all Hamas” or “Zionism is racism.”
Some marchers said they agreed with the South African case before the International Court of Justice that alleges the Israeli military operation in Gaza, launched in response to the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants, amounts to “genocide.”
“I am appalled at Israel and the genocide and the attack on innocent people, children... and now moving on into Lebanon,” Linelle Arendse told the News24 channel.
Many South Africans compare Israel’s stance toward Palestinians with the racially oppressive system of apartheid that imposed white-minority rule on South Africa until the first all-race election in 1994.
“I have been through the apartheid struggle so I know the pain of the Palestinians and Lebanese,” Shafiek Barnes told News24. “I am here because I am Muslim and I feel the pain that they are going through.”
The organizers of the march handed to parliament a memorandum demanding the government implement the UN’s 1973 Apartheid Convention which declares apartheid systems a crime and allows for action against them, such as boycotts.
Also called the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid, it was signed by the South African government in May 2024.
Pro-Gaza marches were also due Saturday in the cities of Johannesburg and Durban and around the world ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 attack.
South Africa: hundreds march for Gaza on war anniversary
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South Africa: hundreds march for Gaza on war anniversary
- The marchers — many of them wearing the keffiyeh scarf that symbolizes the Palestinian struggle against Israel — walked to parliament in a protest
EU assembly weighs freezing US trade deal over Trump’s Greenland threats
- Signatories were mainly fellow members of Clausen’s Left Group, but also included center-left Social Democrats and Greens
- Greens lawmaker Anna Cavazzini said the only argument in favor of the deal was to bring stability
BRUSSELS: The European Parliament is considering putting on hold the European Union’s implementation of the trade deal struck with the United States in protest over threats by US President Donald Trump to seize Greenland.
The European Parliament has been debating legislative proposals to remove many of the EU’s import duties on US goods — the bulk of the trade deal with the US — and to continue zero duties for US lobsters, initially agreed with Trump in 2020.
It was due to set its position in votes on January 26-27, which the MEPs said should now be postponed.
Leading members of the cross-parliamentary trade committee met to discuss the issue on Wednesday morning and decide whether to postpone the vote. In the end, they took no decision and settled on reconvening next week.
A parliamentary source said left-leaning and centrist groups favored taking action, such as a postponement.
A group of 23 lawmakers also urged the EU assembly’s president Roberta Metsola on Wednesday to freeze work on the agreement as long as the US administration continued its threats to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.
“If we go through and approve a deal that Trump has seen as a personal victory, while he makes claims for Greenland and refuses to rule out any manner in which to achieve this, it will be easily seen as rewarding him and his actions,” the letter drafted by Danish lawmaker Per Clausen said.
Signatories were mainly fellow members of Clausen’s Left Group, but also included center-left Social Democrats and Greens.
Greens lawmaker Anna Cavazzini said the only argument in favor of the deal was to bring stability.
“Trump’s actions show again and again that chaos is his only offer,” she said.
French lawmaker Valerie Hayer, head of the centrist Renew Europe group, said on Tuesday the EU should consider holding off a vote if Trump’s threats continued.
Many lawmakers have complained that the US trade deal is lopsided, with the EU required to cut most import duties while the US sticks to a broad rate of 15 percent.
However, freezing the deal risks angering Trump, which could lead to higher US tariffs. The Trump administration has also ruled out any concessions, such as cutting tariffs on spirits or steel, until the deal is in place.
