South Africa’s parliament has voted to downgrade the status of the country’s embassy in Israel. The resolution, passed by a vote of 209 to 94 on Wednesday, was proposed by the National Freedom Party (NFP), which only has two seats but has allied with the ruling African National Congress party to push the resolution forward.
There are 400 members of the parliament; the resolution received the support of 52% of lawmakers.
The resolution is meant to show “solidarity” with the Palestinians, according to the NFP, which said in a statement the party was “delighted that the draft resolution downgrading the South African embassy in Israel has been approved by Parliament. … While many will argue that downgrading our embassy in Israel will affect our ability to act as a neutral mediator in the conflict. The NFP believes that neutrality is not an option in the face of repression and human rights abuses.
The Zionist Federation of South Africa in a statement accused the government of “obsessing over Israel, which is the size of our Kruger National Park, while conducting naval warfare exercises with organized by Russia that are responsible for horrific war crimes and the deaths of thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians over the past year.” According to the decision, the Israeli embassy in the South African capital of Pretoria will be downgraded to a liaison office.
