Ambassador to South Africa Dov Segev-Steinberg will ask Pretoria for
clarifications regarding what is viewed in Jerusalem as nothing less than a
South African call for a boycott of Israel, diplomatic sources said on
Monday.
The sources said a call by South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister
Ebrahim Ismael Ebrahim on Sunday to his countrymen to refrain from visiting
Israel “let the cat out of the bag,” and demonstrated the hollowness of South
African government protestations that it was against boycotts, and that the
recent move to label items from the settlements was just trying to “promote
transparency.”
“The truth is coming out,” Foreign Ministry spokesman
Jonathan Rosenzweig said.
“This is a public call for a
boycott.”
Ebrahim told the City Press newspaper he was “discouraging”
South Africans from visiting Israel.
“Israel is an occupier country which
is oppressing Palestine, so it is not proper for South Africans to associate
with Israel,” he said. “We discourage people from going there except if it has
to do with the peace process.”
The weekly paper said a planned trip to
Israel by KwaZulu-Natal mayors and officials last week was called off because of
pressure from the country’s pro-Palestine lobby.
Ebrahim’s comments came
three months after South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry issued a
memorandum stating that products from the settlements
must not be labeled as
Israeli products.
The South Africa Israel Public Affairs Committee issued
a statement following Ebrahim’s comments, saying he has increasingly “allowed
his personal agenda to drive South Africa’s policy towards Israel to the
detriment of South Africa and its economic well-being and international
relations.”
“Of course it is perfectly acceptable for the South African
government to allow visits to all Arab/Muslim countries in spite of their
appalling human rights records and real application of Apartheid policies,” the
statement said. “South Africa’s ‘balanced’ approach to Libya and Syria has been
noted in their lack of statements on what has [been] and is transpiring in these
countries.”
The statement added that with corruption running rampant in
South Africa, the government’s “increasing actions against Israel are all red
herrings and classic attempts to sidetrack voters, fool the world” and retain
its aura of “moral authority” amid “rapidly declining momentum.”