More than 100 pro-Palestine activists launched protests on Thursday in three major South African cities, calling on the government to ban coal exports to Israel, which has been blamed for committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The energy embargo protests, organized by the activist group Palestine Solidarity Campaign, took place in Pretoria, Cape Town, and Durban. The protesters handed over a memorandum to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, according to local media.
South Africa has exported approximately 1.6 million metric tons of coal to Israel, the memorandum said, criticizing the government for allowing South Africa’s ports to be used as “conduits for transporting fuel, minerals, and other dual-use goods to Apartheid Israel.”
The protesters claimed in the memorandum that the South African government should “lead in implementing a coal embargo and stop our complicity in feeding the Israeli electricity grid that fuels the genocide, illegal occupation, and Apartheid Israel’s military industrial complex.”
The South African government has accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza following a deadly Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed and some 200 taken hostage.
Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 62,000 people and injured over 157,000 others, according to Gaza-based health authorities.
Source: Xinhua
