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South Africa Is Not Pro-Palestinian, It’s Pro-Hamas
A general view inside the International Court of Justice (ICJ), at the start of a hearing where South Africa requests new emergency measures over Israel’s operations in Rafah, in The Hague, Netherlands, May 17, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
On October 5, 2024 Sheikh Riad Fataar declared, “We are all Hamas.”
Fataar — who is the president of the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), a large Muslim organization in South Africa — delivered this message at a rally in Cape Town. Fataar’s comments and other actions coming out of South Africa reflect an open embrace of Hamas, the terrorist group that massacred 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped another 250 people last year on October 7.
In South Africa, support for Hamas and hostility for Israel isn’t limited to Muslim clerics.
President Cyril Ramaphosa described October 7, 2023, as “the start of an onslaught against the Palestinian people” rather than a murderous and antisemitic attack on Jews.
Ramaphosa also invoked past grievances to justify Hamas atrocities. The week after the October 7 massacre, he cast the event as a consequence of the “occupation of Palestine,” as if killing women and children and raping girls at a music festival is the inevitable outcome of disputes over land.
Ramaphosa also compared Israelis snatched out of their beds and held in dungeons in Gaza to Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails for plotting, supporting, or carrying out terror attacks against Israelis.
But this support for Hamas isn’t new.
The South African government’s friendship with Hamas extends back to at least 2006, when it was one of the few countries to recognize the terrorist group’s victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Pretoria’s ruling party affirmed this relationship by hosting Hamas delegations in 2015, 2018, and even during the current war.
Then, in December 2023, the South African government established itself as Hamas’ lawyer on the global stage by initiating an International Court of Justice (ICJ) case accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Though US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others have described the case as “meritless,” the proceedings have nevertheless helped normalize the outlandish charge of Israeli “genocide,” and increased political pressure against Israel. By doing so, South Africa has rewarded Hamas’ strategy of endangering Palestinian civilians for political gain.
The government’s open support for Hamas helps explain Sheikh Fataar’s declaration of allegiance to Hamas. Fataar similarly said in September 2024 that the whole world was praising Hamas and bragged about the meetings that his organization has held with Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal and the late Ismail Haniyeh.
The October 5 rally at which Fataar spoke featured large pictures of leaders from Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist groups. Signs declaring “Death to Zionism,” “Death to Israel,” “We are Hamas,” and praise for the “Al-Aqsa Flood” — Hamas’s name for the October 7 attack — dominated the procession of thousands.
Al Jama-ah Party chief Ganief Hendricks, who is a member of South Africa’s cabinet, clarified how he worked to bring about “Death to Zionism.”
Hendricks said, “I call the Parliament in South Africa to arm the resistance in Palestine. I invited Hamas to Parliament. I’m not sure whether they got the weapons, but soon after my call, they came to parliament.” Hendricks went on to say that he went to Iran and “asked Iran to give weapons,” and that Israel “needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth.”
Hendricks is hardly the only member of his party openly embracing Hamas. In November 2023, Thapelo Amad, a Johannesburg city councilor from the Al-Jama-ah Party, posted a picture of himself holding an assault rifle with the caption, “We stand with Hamas.”
In his rally speech, Imtiaz Sooliman, director of Gift of the Givers, a humanitarian organization, crossed the line between violent anti-Zionism and rank antisemitism. Sooliman declared that “Zionists … run the world with fear. They control the world with money.”
Seemingly aware of the anti-Jewish stereotypes he employed, Sooliman continued, “And every time you say something, they terrify you and they say you’re antisemitic.” Gift of the Givers and the MJC were part of the Union of Good, according to the union’s website in the early 2000s. The United States sanctioned the union in 2008 for funding Hamas.
President Joe Biden or his successor should determine if the South African government has disqualified itself from receiving trade and investment benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act by supporting Hamas’ political objectives and engaging “in activities that undermine United States national security or foreign policy interests.”
And the US Department of the Treasury should investigate — and possibly sanction, depending on the results of those investigations — South African leaders who declare or demonstrate that they “are all Hamas.”
David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD.
The post South Africa Is Not Pro-Palestinian, It’s Pro-Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Merz Says Criticism of Israel in Germany Has Become Pretext for Hatred of Jews
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends celebrations of the newly completed renovation of Reichenbach Strasse synagogue in Munich, Germany, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Angelika Warmuth
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.
Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews, Merz said that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.
“‘Criticism of Israel‘ and the crudest perpetrator-victim reversal is increasingly a pretext under which the poison of antisemitism is spread,” he said.
Germany is Israel‘s second biggest weapons supplier after the US, and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, in part because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”
Last month, however, Germany suspended exports of weaponry that could be used in the Gaza Strip because of Israel‘s plan to expand its operations there – the first time united Germany had acknowledged denying military support to its long-time ally.
The decision followed mounting pressure from the public and his junior coalition partner over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In his speech in Berlin on Wednesday, Merz mentioned his about-turn, saying that criticism of the Israeli government “must be possible,” but added: “Our country suffers damage to its own soul when this criticism becomes a pretext for hatred of Jews, or if it even leads to the demand that Germany should turn its back on Israel.”
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Israeli Anti-Missile Laser System ‘Iron Beam’ Ready for Military Use This Year
Iron Beam laser defense system. Photo: X/Twitter screenshot
A low-cost, high-power laser-based system aimed at destroying incoming missiles has successfully completed testing and will be ready for operational use by the military later this year, Israel’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
Co-developed by Elbit Systems and Rafael Advance Defense Systems, “Iron Beam” will complement Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow anti–missile systems, which have been used to intercept thousands of rockets fired by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, by Hezbollah from Lebanon, and by the Houthis in Yemen.
Current rocket interceptors cost at least $50,000 each while the cost is negligible for lasers, which focus primarily on smaller missiles and drones. “Now that the Iron Beam’s performance has been proven, we anticipate a significant leap in air defense capabilities through the deployment of these long-range laser weapon systems,” the ministry said.
After years in development, the ministry said it tested Iron Beam for several weeks in southern Israel and proved its effectiveness in a “complete operational configuration by intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios.”
The first systems are set to be integrated into the military‘s air defenses by year-end, it said.
Shorter-range and less powerful laser systems are already in use.
Iron Beam is a ground-based, high-power laser air defense system designed to counter aerial threats, including rockets, mortars, and UAVs.
“This is the first time in the world that a high-power laser interception system has reached full operational maturity,” said defense ministry Director-General Amir Baram.
Rafael Chairman Yuval Steinitz said that Iron Beam, which is built with the company’s adaptive optics technology, “will undoubtedly be a game-changing system with unprecedented impact on modern warfare.”
For its part, Elbit was working on the development of high-power lasers for other military applications, “first and foremost an airborne laser that holds the potential for a strategic change in air defense capabilities,” CEO Bezhalel Machlis said.
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Iran and European Ministers Make Little Progress as Renewed UN Sanctions Loom, Diplomats Say
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian and European ministers made little progress in talks on Wednesday aimed at preventing international sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program being reimposed at the end of this month, two European diplomats and one Iranian diplomat said.
Britain, France, and Germany, the so-called E3, launched a 30-day process at the end of August to reimpose UN sanctions. They set conditions for Tehran to meet during September to convince them to delay the “snapback mechanism.”
The offer by the E3 to put off the snapback for up to six months to enable serious negotiations is conditional on Iran restoring access for UN nuclear inspectors – who would also seek to account for Iran‘s large stock of enriched uranium – and engaging in talks with the US.
The status of Iran‘s enriched uranium stocks has been unknown since Israel and the US bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.
TALKS WITH EUROPEANS FOLLOWED ACCORD WITH IAEA
Wednesday’s phone call between the E3 foreign ministers, the European Union foreign policy chief, and their Iranian counterpart followed an agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency last week on resuming cooperation, including, in principle, the inspection of nuclear sites.
Several Western diplomats have said, however, that the accord is not detailed enough, sets no timeframe and leaves the door open for Iran to continue stonewalling.
There has also been no indication of a willingness from Iran to resume talks with Washington.
Iran says it is still refining how it will work with the IAEA.
In the call, Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi expressed willingness to reach a “fair and balanced” solution, according to a statement on Iranian state media.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has entered into dialogue with the International Atomic Energy Agency with a responsible approach … on how Iran will fulfil its safeguards obligations in the new situation … It is now the turn of the opposing parties to use this opportunity to continue the diplomatic path and prevent an avoidable crisis,” Araqchi said.
GERMANY SAYS IRAN HAS NOT MET CONDITIONS
Germany’s foreign ministry said on X that the E3 had “underscored that Iran has yet to take the reasonable and precise actions necessary to reach an extension of Resolution 2231,” adding that sanctions would be reimposed unless there were “concrete actions in the coming days.”
The sanctions would hit Iran‘s financial, banking, hydrocarbons, and defense sectors.
Four European diplomats and an Iranian official said before the call that the most likely scenario would be the E3 going ahead with a reimposition of sanctions.
An Iranian diplomat said Tehran had reiterated that it would retaliate if the decision to restore UN sanctions was made.
“The understanding in Tehran is that the UN sanctions will be reimposed. That is why Tehran refuses to give concessions,” an Iranian official said.
The West says the advancement of Iran‘s nuclear program goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran says it wants nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.