The government of Israel reacted to news that South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), was likely to lose its majority for the first time, by noting the South African government had been a “lawyer for Hamas.”
South Africa held elections on Wednesday amid wide dissatisfaction with ANC rule after 30 years. The ANC led the free world in demonizing Israel, and used anti-Israel messages in its campaign, notably in the Western Cape, where Muslim voters are a significant minority of the population.
But as former opposition leader Tony Leon observed, the ANC collapsed in the Western Cape, and did poorly on a national level as well, “Free Palestine” posters and all:
Here is a side bar on ANC collapse in Western Cape. Their combis yesterday were decked with CR's face and slogan "Free Palestine" -yet the ANC decline of 9% mirrored by 9% rise of Patriotic Alliance, the most pro Israel party on ballot. Interesting how this issue actually played
— Tony Leon (@TonyLeonSA) May 30, 2024
Asked by Breitbart News to react to the results, Israeli government spokesman David Mencier responded:
I will resist the opportunity to interfere in South African internal politics and their elections. That’s obviously up to South Africa’s people. … What I can say is that the South African government, in supporting, in initializing and championing the effort to prosecute Israel at the ICJ was simply, in effect, was to act as a pro bono lawyer of the terrorist organization of Hamas. It was quite frankly a shocking attempt by a state that was unfortunately held in very high regard in this country — need I remind you that so many Jews accompanied Nelson Mandela on his long walk to freedom — and to have that state acting in partnership with Iran and other negative, detrimental forces around the world was a shocking development. None of us will forget that South Africa were the pro bono lawyers for Hamas’s case against us.
South Africa continues to pursue its case against the ICJ, in which it is accusing Israel of “genocide” in Gaza.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
