Africa: Peres praised as peacemaker, branded war-monger

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG

The death of senior Israeli statesman Shimon Peres drew mixed reactions in Africa Wednesday, with some leaders eulogizing him as a peacemaker, while activists in South Africa branded him a war criminal.

Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba wrote on Twitter in French that he remembers Peres as a great statesman and a tireless ambassador of peace.

“My condolences with Israelis over the passing of one of their founding fathers. President Shimon Peres was a great advocate for peace and justice,’’ former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan also wrote on Twitter.

But pro-Palestinian activists in South Africa disagreed. “[Peres] was an absolute war-monger. It is unfortunate that he died before facing justice for crimes he committed in Palestine and Lebanon,” Mohammed Desai, coordinator of the Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) group, told Anadolu Agency.

Peres died early Wednesday at the age of 93 after suffering a stroke two weeks ago.

Ibrahim Vawdwa, a researcher at the Johannesburg-based Media Review Network (MRN), claimed that Peres was a good friend of South Africa’s repressive apartheid regime.

“He supplied arms to the apartheid South African regime, which prolonged the oppression of black masses in South Africa,’’ he said in an interview.

Vawdwa also said Peres committed numerous crimes in the Middle East such as his alleged involvement in Israel’s shelling of the southern Lebanese village of Qana in 1996.

Amid clashes with Hezbollah, Israeli forces fired artillery shells at a UN compound in Qana, killing 106 people. At the time, Peres was Israel’s prime minister.

“I wonder how he can be a peacemaker or ambassador of justice when his role in the occupation of Palestine is well known and documented,” he said.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and several other Jewish organizations in the country hailed Peres as a visionary world statesman, peace activist, and inspirational founding father of the state of Israel.

“In a political career spanning more than seven decades, Peres combined selfless service to his own country and people with striving for peaceful co-existence between Israel and its neighbors’’ the SAJBD said in a statement.

At the time of writing, the South African government has yet to issue a statement of condolences to Israel.

Many South Africans, including the ruling African National Congress (ANC), have publicly expressed their unwavering support to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Regardless of this support, the South African government still maintains diplomatic and other relations with Israel.