Pic Courtesy: NewzRoom Afrika
By Hassen Lorgat
Helen Zille has failed to cross the rubicon on Palestine and like the Groot Krokodil she will feel the heat for her double standards. In an interview with Newzroom Afrika’s Xoli Mngambi’s question on Israel’s on Gaza she replied as follows: Genocide is a vey 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 to obliterate the state of Israel.
Bernie Sanders too once shied away from using the word, genocide has a week ago, come around to admitting that Israel with America’s help is committing a genocide. It has been a journey for the senator but in a statement it was clear that a leaked classified Israeli military database confirms that 83% of those killed have been civilians: “More than 18,000 children have been killed, including 12,000 aged 12 or younger.” But Zille could not get herself to be balanced (yes, Sanders was balanced in terms of the requirements in western eyes and started with Hamas’s attacks and the same old, same old mantra, Israel like other states “has the right to defend its from Hamas”.
But Zille and the DA have stuck to their DNA, that there is not genocide in Palestine.
Whilst the DA pretends to be neutral they are in fact siding with Israel as I will explain;
The Democratic Alliance (DA), Patriotic Alliance (PA), and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), travelled to Israel for a week. To be exact from 4 to 10 April 2025. The visit was organised by the South African Zionist Federation Member, the South African Friends of Israel (SAFI). The SA Jewish report noted proudly: :
It was the first such political visit to the region since the 7 October 2023 Hamas massacre, and included a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
It is a matter of public record that the SAZF is not a neutral body and by going on their junkets to Israel at the height of a genocide makes the DA complicit in the genocide. The DA must have known that the Zionist Federation are “advocates for Israel in this country, our mission is to build strong support and love for the Land and State of Israel.”
The then DA DA Shadow Minister of International Relations and Cooperation by
Emma Powell MP issued a media statement on the 11 October 2023 where they
quite correctly affirm support for the “the principles outlined in Article 51 of the 1977 Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits and regards as a war crime the carpet bombing of cities, towns, villages, or other areas containing a concentration of civilians.” However, inexplicably whilst affirming that civilians be safeguarded, do not ask for the war crimes to stop but rather the DA “urge(d) the exercise of maximum restraint where civilian populations are affected.”
This duplicity is reiterated with Powell saying that they back the two-state solution and so on. The statement goes on to recognise “Israel’s right to defend herself and protect her people” and the Palestinians rights to self-determination is stated but I fear not as strongly. Powell asserts that these goals are “mutually compatible within the framework of international law” she did not say that Palestinians have the right to defend herself and to protect her people especially since Palestinians have been killed in record numbers, protected by the USA and the DA.
These figures are detailed by UN Women which reported in February 2025, using The Lancet study on mortality estimates in the Gaza Strip which found that the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza has likely under-reported fatalities by 41 per cent, pointing to an alarming gap in available data. Using this methodology the UN Women estimates that over 28,000 women and girls have been killed since the start of the war. These figures have ballooned to unimaginable numbers but it is the horror of the degradation of women that that the new UN report on the Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide commented upon. They wrote that:
“The Commission notes that female detainees were subjected to sexual assault and harassment in military and Israel Prison Service facilities, as well as threats to their lives and threats of rape. The sexual harassment included attempts to kiss and touch their breasts. They reported repeated, prolonged and invasive strip-searches, both before and after interrogations. Women were beaten and harassed and had sexual insults directed at them. Female detainees were photographed without their consent and in degrading circumstances, including in their underwear in front of male soldiers, and these photographs were often posted on social media.”
They further write about the impunity thus:
“On 15 August 2025, a recording of the former head of Israel’s Military Intelligence (who stepped down from his position in April 2024) was published by Israeli media. He stated that “the fact that 50,000 have already been killed in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations.” He added that for every Israeli killed on 7 October 2023, 50 Palestinians should die, and it does not matter if they are children, noting that “they need a Nakba from time to time to feel the price.” “
Helen Zille is not to be patronised but I wonder who she can cut herself off from these facts and still speak of good governance and international human rights law.
I give the last word to Bernie Sanders who at last called it out directly:
“The truth is, whether you call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or mass atrocities or war crimes, the path forward is clear. We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people. That is why I have worked with a number of my Senate colleagues to force votes on seven Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop offensive arms sales to Israel. The United States must not continue sending many billions of dollars and weapons to Netanyahu’s genocidal government.”
Sanders further called for an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of “humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN”….In addition, He spoke out against the “starvation of children (which) cannot be tolerated” and like the DA statement of 11 October 2023, he speaks against the “flattening of cities must not become the norm. Collective punishment is beyond the pale.” Finally he warned that if there is “no accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow war criminals, other demagogues will do the same.”
“Enough is enough. No more genocide” – I agree Bernie. But we cannot wait for Helen to join us.