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The human rights and Palestine solidarity organisation BDS South Africa is not convinced by claims made by Israel's embassy that senior ANC leader, and North West Premier, Comrade Supra Mahumapelo will be attending the Israeli Embassy's Water seminar  in Johannesburg. The allegation is meant to confuse and try to gain Israel some legitimacy by using the ANC, South African Government and, in this case, Comrade Supra’s name.

The Israeli embassy's is to serve the dishonest purpose of lying, providing mistruths and false allegations in its attempts to justify Israel's illegal occupation, its murders of innocent Palestinians, ongoing oppression and its Apartheid policies. In this light, we are skeptical of any claims the Israeli Embassy makes, especially ones that are aimed at weakening or dividing the governing party and solidarity movements.

We have received several concerned enquiries regarding the latest claim made by the Israeli embassy that ANC Provincial Chairperson and Premier of North West province, Cde Supra Mahumapelo, will be addressing an event during a publicity stunt that forms part of a propaganda week that the Israeli Embassy is calling SAIsraelWeek. See attached letter and program signed by Israeli Ambassador to South Africa, Arthur Lenk, making the allegation that the North West Premier is one of their main guest speakers.

BDS South Africa has written to the ANC and we are confident that this claim is false. The integrity and reputation of the Israeli Embassy will be damaged if Cde. Supra does not attend the Israeli Embassy SAIsraelWeek propaganda event. The non-attendance of Cde. Supra would be in line with long standing ANC resolutions, positions and policies on discouraging relations with Apartheid Israel.

We are all increasingly familiar with the tactics used by the Israeli embassy, their peddling of misleading claims, dishonesty and attempts to confuse the public.

We remain confident that the ANC and its leadership will continue to respect and further implement its IR resolutions.

We also welcome the statement by Swaziland's PUDEMO on this issue.

See attached letter and program

Issued by BDS South Africa