After her acclaimed Mandela Lecture, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ms Francesca Albanese, was invited by the Portfolio Committee on International Relations to share her perspectives on the war in Gaza. It should be said that her repeated description of Israel as a “colonial settler entity” and her contestation of its inception, and its right to exist as a Jewish state has angered the Israeli government.
In his opening remarks, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on International Relations, Mr Supra Mahumapelo, explained that the committee had invited Ms Albanese because the South African Parliament is a creature of the Constitution and of a maturing democracy that embraces a diversity of views without fear or favour. He went to draw a comparison between South African and Palestine, saying that South Africa still has a long way towards the completely non-racial and prosperous South Africa espoused by former President and icon of democracy Nelson Mandela.
In her address, Ms Albanese commended South Africa for the progress it has made but also noted the continuing grave consequences of apartheid for the country, and urged her audience to continue their efforts in resolving the glaring contradictions. She also emphasised her belief in negotiating a way out of hostilities when and wherever they arise. In that regard, she relayed her appreciation of the Mandela Foundation for affording her an opportunity to deliver the Mandela Lecture and to advance his enduring legacy to humanity.
She also declared that the most urgent crisis facing the world at this time is the genocide that has befallen the Palestinian people at the hands of a criminal Israeli regime. She urged her listeners to continue to seek solutions at a time of so much injustice in Gaza and asked what would become of humanity, of the future of our children, if we failed to prevent and to eventually stop the genocide. Commending Mandela’s global status, she reminded her audience that he had declared that South Africa will not be free until Palestine is free.
In her view, Palestine is a crime scene manifested by the complicity of the financial sector and current global politics. “Palestinians don’t die because they are enemies of Israel, but because they are resisting its colonial project,” she stated. She commended South Africa for taking a resolution to the International Court of Justice, thus bringing to the fore the possibility of ensuring that the perpetrators of this colonial genocide face justice.
She urged South Africans to encourage the international community to join its support for Palestine and to meet with European governments to amplify the sorry plight of Palestinians. She also recognised that South Africa could only do so much within its own political means and could not be expected to abruptly severe its ties completely with Israel because it is still tied economically to unjust regimes and colonial and apartheid economic structures.
Nonetheless, one committee member, Ms Nqobile Mhlongo, urged the government to cut all diplomatic ties with Isreal and called upon other nations to impose economic sanctions on Israel to ensure that it is economically isolated.
When Rev Kenneth Meshoe asked Ms Albanese her views on the feasibility of the two sovereign states idea for the region, she claimed that “the international law convention does not protect the state, but the rights of human beings to exist and of their self-determination.” What matters now, she said, is that “Israel already exist as a criminal state wanted for war crimes.”
Ms Andisiwe Kumbaca, another member of the committee, said that in the face of these gross injustices, a multilateral response to the Palestinian cause is needed that would establish an international accountability framework in forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Pan African Parliament and the African Union that goes beyond mere condemnation of Israel, to ensure that UN and International Criminal Justice resolutions on this matter are enforceable.
Mr Mahumapelo urged the global cultural activists’ movement to coalesce with existing political movements against Israel genocide to give impetus to the ceasefire, peace and the self-determination Palestinians and to end the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel. He also called on sports bodies to isolate Israel, especially FIFA due to its global reach. “We need to engage FIFA to explain to it why it’s important for it to be part of this struggle rather than being a bystander.”
Abel Mputing
29 October 2025
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