Dear President Ramaphosa
We write to you as our President, head of South Africa’s Government of National Unity and as the rotating Chair of the G20.
In your remarks to the G20 Foreign Minister’s meeting in Johannesburg last week you said, “South Africa welcomes the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas as a crucial first step toward ending the severe humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians in Gaza.” On the same day that these comments were made, Hamas paraded four coffins of Israeli civilian hostages in a macabre ceremony that violated basic human rights principles and every standard of basic human decency.
In the coffins was an 84-year-old grandfather, two babies and their mother, all of whom had been snatched from their beds by Hamas terrorists on the 7th of October 2023. Autopsies on 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel showed they had been strangled by their captors and their bodies mutilated to hide the atrocity. Their mother’s body had been exchanged for another woman which was only discovered when the body reached the Israeli authorities.
It is reprehensible that on the very day that these depraved acts that so shocked the world, once again exposing the brutality of Hamas, you chose to omit any mention of this in your comments regarding Palestine in your speech at the G20. You only mentioned the suffering of the Palestinians. Had these babies been returned on the 8th of October 2023 together with the other 242 hostages, this horrific war could have been averted.
Had you used your relationship with Hamas when they visited the ANC Luthuli House headquarters on 6 December 2023, or had your then International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor called for these babies and the other hostages to be released when she phoned Hamas leader Haniyeh on 17 October 2023, they could have been released alive.
Your complete lack of any form of sympathy for this elderly man, these babies and their mother, and your failure to call out Hamas for this atrocity shows how far your government has deviated from the moral compass we were recognised as having in 1994. When the brutal murder of babies is ignored, we know that we are no longer a beacon of human rights. Most countries, including a number of leading Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE expressed deep sympathy following these heinous acts.
Morally aware South Africans bow their head in shame that when we have the powerful G20 international platform in our country, our President refused to mention the kidnapping and brutal murders of the Bibas babies and mother in his remarks on the Gaza war. It is further noteworthy that at this traumatic time for your own Jewish South African community whose members are shocked and grieving by this tragedy, you could not bring yourself to show any degree of empathy.
Mr President, in the past 16 months you have done nothing to end the horrific war in Gaza. Instead, you and your government went about further polarizing the sides, while other nations worked to bring about a ceasefire.
We feel ashamed as South Africans that our leadership has failed the Bibas babies and other hostages whose return could have ended the war to the benefit of both the Gazan and Israeli people.
We wonder if South Africa has lost its credibility to lead such an important organisation as the G20 during these critical times.
Yours sincerely
Zev Krengel Prof Karen Milner
National President National Chairperson