WILLIE PATTERSON

The ANC government in South Africa reached a new low by hosting a delegation of Hamas, an entity certified as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations Security Council. On the very same day that the ANC received the Hamas delegation, Hamas officials in Gaza called upon Palestinians to resume suicide bombings against Israelis.

The ANC government refused to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama, a man of peace, but received Omar Al Bashir, a man to be charged by the International Criminal Court for genocide. Now the ANC government received a delegation from a well-known terrorist organisation. 

For some people, Hamas might be freedom fighters, but can it be called other than terror if such an organisation incites people to violence and to kill innocent people by blowing themselves up to pieces? It seems that the SA government condones these acts of violence by receiving them with open arms and bestowing them with gifts – violence and murder rewarded.

RIGHT: Patterson is furious about the meeting between the ANC and Hamas last weekend

The South African government chose to be on the wrong side of history and effectively excluded themselves as a legitimate partner in any future Israel-Palestinian peace process. The ANC government also spoilt their wish to become a member of the United Nations Security Council.

How could the government justify their support for Hamas with the hateful and uncompromising content in the Hamas Charter? Just the following minute extract of the Hamas Charter is enough to let any morally conscious person think about the agenda of Hamas:

ANC’s moral bankruptcy can divide SA

Article 13 of the Hamas Charter: “[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad…

…”There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. The initiatives, proposals and international conferences are but a waste of time, an exercise in futility. The Palestinian people are too noble to have their future, their right and their destiny submitted to a vain game.”

The moral bankruptcy of the ANC government has the potential of dividing the nation. Without strong moral leadership, South Africa is doomed to failure. In fact, we already see the evidence of poor leadership reflected in the levels of crime, tender fraud and the general level of disobedience in this country. Now it has also filtered through to international relations.

It seems that the opposition parties in South Africa are too weak to counter-balance the disastrous foreign policies of the government. The opposition are too internally focused and in so doing they are bystanders and onlookers to how this beautiful country is going to the dogs.

Hopefully, sanity will somehow be restored before it is too late to rescue this country.

• Willie Patterson is a Christian pro-Israel activist and writer. He is a regular reader and contributor to the SA Jewish Report, Times of Israel, News24, the Cape Fed website, and Hebrew People among others. He is the founder of the Fair Media Reporting Initiative which promotes factual reporting and exposes propaganda as a tool to promote personal agendas and radical ideologies