Pretoria – South Africa’s Parliament voted in favour of downgrading its embassy in Israel to a Liaison Office.
The parliamentary motion, introduced by the National Freedom Party, passed 208 for and 94 against.
Parties that voted in favor of Tuesday’s historic motion included the African National Congress, Economic Freedom Front, African Independent Congress, Pan African Congress, United Democratic Movement, Al Jamaah and the National Freedom Party.
Parties that voted against the Palestinian resolution included the Democratic Alliance and the African Christian Democratic Party.
Commenting on the development, Africa4Palestine said it welcomes the “historic motion adopted, with an overwhelming majority, by the Parliament of South Africa, to support the downgrade of South Africa’s Embassy in Israel to a Liaison Office”.
“Finally, we support the NFP Parliamentary leader, the honourable Shaik Emam, who explained that the downgrade of the South African Embassy in Israel to a Liaison Office should ‘serve as a catalyst to start the process of progressively and completely isolating Apartheid Israel’,” said the rights body, Africa4Palestine.
