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1 year ago
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Defend Our Democracy has called for an end to Israel's killing of thousands of Palestinians.
- Defend Our Democracy has called for an end to Israel's killing of more than 7 000 Palestinians.
- "We believe that the first step to a just peace and negotiated settlement for both Palestinians and Israelis is an end to Israel's apartheid policies, occupation and settler colonialism," the organisation said.
- Capetonians and other South Africans have held protests in support of Palestinians.
Civil society group Defend Our Democracy called for the immediate end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas as the aerial bombardment of occupied Gaza continues.
For the more than 1 400 Israelis killed, more than 7 000 Palestinians have been killed, including children, the organisation said.
By Sunday afternoon, the total death toll in Gaza had risen to 8 005 people, according to a statement released by the health ministry in Gaza.
On Saturday, Capetonians protested in support of Palestine and its people. Hundreds of people took to the streets in the city centre.
One person told the SABC:
We need to give [Palestinians] actual support, providing them with aid [and] support.
Another said: "The South African government must ask for cessation of the attacks of ordinary people by the Zionist regime and also to open up the borders to allow humanitarian aid."
READ | Qaanitah Hunter | The violence in Israel didn't just happen. Consider the context
On Sunday, protesters headed to Sea Point Promenade in Cape Town where roses, with attached messages, were displayed in memory of children killed in the Gaza Strip.
The protests follow pro-Palestinian protests in Johannesburg and Potchefstroom, which were organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
For the past days and weeks, the marches have persisted. Recently, a large number of pro-Palestine people from Johannesburg protested outside the US Consulate in Sandton.
Defend our Democracy, which officially launched as a civil society movement this year, has weighed in.
It said in a statement:
We lend our voice to that of the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, calling for humanitarian aid – food, water, medicine and fuel – to be allowed into the Gaza Strip immediately and on the scale that is required.
The United Nations Security Council - after the US, Israel and 12 other countries voted against a resolution - failed to reach an agreement on getting aid to ordinary Palestinians.
And Defend Our Democracy called this "simply unconscionable".
"Watching the distressing visuals on our television screens and on social media daily, we are appalled at Israel's bombardment, for over two weeks, of hospitals, one of the oldest churches in the world, mosques, shopping centres and residential buildings in Palestine," Defend Our democracy said in the statement.
"As it stands, 7 000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's aerial bombing of the Gaza Strip and in recent raids in the West Bank. Of this disturbing number, some 2 900 are children!"
In addition, 5 000 people, mostly from Gaza, are languishing in Israeli jails.
Defend Our Democracy condemned what it called the "racist rhetoric of some Israeli officials".
"It is not so long ago that the vast majority of people here lived under apartheid, occupation and colonialism. We believe that the first step to a just peace and negotiated settlement for both Palestinians and Israelis is an end to Israel's apartheid policies, occupation and settler colonialism."
