The world press, which has widely reported South Africa’s invitation to the Palestinian prime minister and the objections by the South African Jewish community, has failed to publish in full what the South African minister himself said in defending the decision. I am reprinting it below.
Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said South Africa's own experience showed the need to talk to all sides:
"Those who myopically object to such invitations merely show that they have learnt nothing from South Africa's transition," Kasrils said in a statement.
"Such logic as they espouse would not have allowed [apartheid era president] PW Botha to have met with the imprisoned [Nelson] Mandela nor his release by [former president] FW De Klerk as a partner in negotiations."
The idea that inviting Haniyeh is a reward to terrorism is yet another attempt to avoid dealing with the larger terrorism which has been taking place for 40 years, namely the foreign military occupation by Israel of three million Palestinian civilians.
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