National 28.4.2015 04.30 am
ANA
FILE PICTURE: Blade Nzimande. Picture: Neil McCartney
The South African Communist Party, Cosatu and Boycott Divestment Sanctions SA on Monday demanded that the government expel the Israeli ambassor to Pretoria in response to Israel`s denial of a visa to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande.
The organisations said if the department of international relations did not do so, they would said stage a protest march to the Israeli embassy on May 15.
"If the Department of International Relations and Co-operation does not expel the Israeli Ambassador 10 days from now, our progressive organisations will take upon ourselves to be at the Israeli Embassy on the 15th of May to expel the Israeli Ambassador in a protest march which will also commemorate the Palestinian Nakba."
They added that Israel was not Nzimande`s chosen destination and if he had been able to reach the Palestinian territory without permission from Israel he would have done so.
It emerged last week that Nzimande, who is also the general secretary of the SACPP, had been denied a visa the day before he was due to leave on a visit aimed at promoting co-operation between Nzimande the University of Johannesburg and Palestinian institutions.
Solly Mapaila, his deputy in the SACP, said Nzimande`s outspoken support of the Palestinian demand for recognition of statehood was not an individually-held position but was backed by the ANC and its alliance partners.
"Minister Blade Nzimande`s support for the Palestinian struggle and boycott of Israel is not a personal position but representative of the resolutions of the various organisations that he is a leader of - the SACP and ANC in the main, " he told a media briefing at Cosatu House in Johannesburg.
Mapaila said the SACP and labour movement would take several other steps to protest the manner in which Nzimande was treated, including meet with the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries to call for an immediate end to agriculture ties with Israel.
They would also call on all levels of government to heed a call by the ANC`s National Executive Committee for a travel ban to Israel.