Why the South African ANC Party Takes an Anti-Israel, Pro-Hamas Stance

All this stems from the dark days of apartheid. Israel, conscious of its obligations to South Africa’s large Jewish community, maintained diplomatic, military and trade relations with the government – even as it condemned the regime’s apartheid policies and imposed trade and cultural sanctions from 1987 until the end of apartheid. The African National Congress (ANC), fighting tooth and nail to eliminate apartheid, saw Israel as something less than a sincere friend and embraced the Palestinian cause.

After Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, one of the first leaders he met was his close friend and confidante, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat. When he visited Israel in 1999, Mandela was very supportive of the Palestinian cause.

Israel’s efforts to repair relations, especially after the election of the ANC government in 1994, had little or no effect, although bilateral trade remained healthy for many years. In 2012, bilateral trade peaked at $1.19 billion, but as the ANC’s anti-Israel policies began to harden, trade began to decline.

In 2015, then-ANC leader and South African president Jacob Zuma hosted a Hamas delegation, including Khaled Mashal. By 2019, when South Africa downgraded its Tel Aviv embassy to a liaison office, bilateral trade amounted to just $407.7 million. By 2023, it had fallen to about $350 million.

The ANC ruled South Africa for 30 years until the May 2024 general election, when the party lost its majority. As part of the deal that brought the ruling coalition together, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had repeatedly referred to Israel as an apartheid state (while never visiting the country), was re-elected. Since then, the ANC-led coalition government has maintained its staunch opposition to Israel, despite coalition partners’ much more lenient stances toward the Jewish state.

Israeli Foreign Ministry legal adviser Tal Becker and British lawyer Malcom Shaw sit at the International Court of Justice, January 12, 2024. (Source: THILO SCHMUELGEN/REUTERS)

When South Africa, under the ANC, took Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January over accusations of genocide in Gaza, the ANC’s main rival, the right-wing Democratic Alliance (DA), opposed the move. The right-wing populist Patriotic Alliance (PA) called the move a “joke.” Both the DA and PA are now in coalition, as is the conservative, Zulu-backed Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which has avoided condemning Israel. The question must be whether the views of the coalition partners will change the ANC’s staunchly anti-Israel stance in the future, and in particular whether South Africa will maintain its legal fight against Israel at the ICJ. The answer to that question may be lost in the fog of rumour and possibly unproven allegations surrounding the ANC’s approach to the ICJ.

The facts are that shortly before South Africa accused Israel at the ICJ of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the ruling South African National Council (ANC), known for its long-standing and crippling debts, suddenly announced that its financial problems had been resolved. It provided no information as to how this had been achieved.

In May, a group of 160 lawyers from 10 different countries wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for ANC members to be investigated under the Magnitsky Act for engaging in “acts of significant corruption, including bribery.” The act, signed by President Barack Obama in December 2012, authorized the U.S. government to impose sanctions on foreign government officials worldwide who are human rights offenders or have engaged in significant corruption.

The lawyers’ letter said ANC officials had agreed to bring a case before the ICJ accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip in exchange for bribes from Iran to cover ANC debts.

The letter revealed a series of events that began in October 2023, shortly after the war broke out. Then-South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor traveled to Iran to meet with the Iranian president. In December, South Africa filed charges against Israel with the ICJ. In January, despite widely publicized, crippling financial difficulties at the ANC, the party unexpectedly announced that its finances had been stabilized.

The lawyers wrote: “This change in economic conditions coincided with the South African government filing a complaint with the ICJ. This sequence of events strongly suggests that the ANC’s financial problems were resolved by Iran as a quid-pro-quo for South Africa’s anti-Israel complaint.” The ANC leadership, the letter continued, engaged “in the corrupt practice of accepting bribes from Iran in exchange for serving as Iran’s diplomatic representative against Israel.”

The lawyers who signed the letter are calling on the White House, the Attorney General and the US Congress to investigate how the ANC mysteriously got rid of debt, what deal it made with Iran and why the ANC government is so supportive of Hamas.

If the allegations are ultimately proven, it could explain why the South African government continues to stick to the ANC’s rigid anti-Israel line, despite the presence of other parties in the coalition known to oppose the ANC on the issue. If the ANC were to accept payment to settle Iran’s debt, it would be obligated to deliver the goods. The ANC has denied all allegations of corruption.

Former Israeli Ambassador to South Africa Reflects on Relations

FORMER Israeli ambassador to South Africa Arthur Lenk believes Israeli-South African relations will remain tense as long as the Gaza conflict and the Hague affair continue. The anti-Israel stance, he says, is consistent with the ANC’s broader foreign policy, which has always been, to varying degrees, aligned with anti-Western concerns.

Speaking before the last election, Lenk indicated that the ANC government saw the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as a key international grouping. This led to South Africa deepening its relations with China and supporting Russia, albeit unofficially, in its war with Ukraine by abstaining from voting against Moscow at the UN.

As for the ANC’s obsession with Israel, Lenk said it is “cold and calculating… They literally represent Hamas, but it serves a purpose; it is in line with the ANC’s foreign policy…”

In forming what he called a “national unity government”, Ramaphosa appointed the Muslim Al Jama-ah party as deputy minister – a clear signal that he intends to continue supporting the Palestinians in their fight against Israel, despite opposition from the DA.

This perception was reinforced by the appointment of former Justice Minister Ronald Lamola as Foreign Minister. As a lawyer, Lamola led the opening arguments in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.

Everything indicates that the impasse between South Africa and Israel will last a little longer.

The author is a Middle East correspondent for Eurasia Review. His latest book is Trump and the Holy Land: 2016-2020. You can follow him at a-mid-east-journal.blogspot.com.