The ANC has condemned the DA’s defence and continued support of the “apartheid State of Israel”, following the party’s federal chairperson, Helen Zille, sidestepping a question about whether genocide was being committed in Gaza.
Zille, the DA’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate, sidestepped questions during an interview about Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, where widespread destruction and mass civilian deaths have led international observers and rights groups to label the assault as genocide.
Helen Zille
Zille drew sharp criticism about genocide in response to a question on Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Genocide is a very big word. I haven’t been to Gaza, and I don’t know. But I certainly do know that Hamas has spent all its energy trying to obliterate the state of Israel,” Zille said.
Pushed by the presenter to answer if Israel was committing genocide after the UN commission of inquiry found that a genocide was being committed, Zille sidestepped the question.
“The Democratic Alliance has not discussed that particular issue. What we do discuss is the issue of what we propose to solve the problem, and that is a two-state solution.”
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Genocide
ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu said the UN just recently confirmed that what is happening against the people of Palestine is “genocide”.
“The DA has come out guns blazing to justify and support the annihilation of the Palestinian people by Israel.
“Whilst the latest UN inquiry, headed by South African judge Navi Pillay and through their own investigations, confirmed that Israel is intentionally destroying the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, imposing measures intended to prevent births as well as to inflict conditions of life deliberately designed to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians as a people, these acts have been defined as genocide by the Rome Statute and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” Bhengu said.
Palestinian state
Bhengu said a number of states, amongst others, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Mexico, have recently recognised the State of Palestine, lending support to the two-state solution.
“However, in South Africa, we continue to see this recognition of the State of Palestine and support for the two-state solution being undermined by the DA, through its Federal Council chairperson, Helen Zille.”
South African Muslims
The United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA) (Council of Muslim Theologians) Secretary General Moulana Yusuf Patel said they are “deeply appalled” by Zille’s recent remarks.
“This shocking statement suggests that one must physically ‘visit Gaza’ before recognising genocide. Such a view is both factually baseless and morally indefensible.
“It trivialises the suffering of millions, undermines established international law, and seeks refuge in semantic evasion while the world watches atrocities in real time,” Patel said.
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Gaza
Patel said the scale of death, destruction, displacement, and deliberate deprivation of essentials in Gaza leaves no room for doubt that a genocide is being committed.
“One does not need to walk Gaza’s shattered streets to reach this conclusion; the evidence is documented by the United Nations, humanitarian agencies, journalists, and satellite imagery.
“To deny or downplay this reality is to engage in genocide denial. Like Holocaust denialism, it desecrates memory, erases humanity, and emboldens perpetrators. Such abject obscurantism must be recognised for what it is: an assault on truth and a crime against the conscience of humanity,” Patel said.
Israel under pressure
Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war against Hamas in Gaza, launched in the wake of the 7 October 2023 militant attack, which has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.
With more than 80 per cent of the international community now recognising the state of Palestine, diplomatic pressure has ramped up on Israel as it continues its genocidal war on Gaza, where more than 65,300 Palestinians have been killed and the enclave has been turned into rubble.
A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have also shifted their long-held positions as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, which began almost two years ago with Hamas’s 2023 attack.
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