Ambassador Sisa Ngombane expressed the keen desire to improve ties with Israel, but defended his government’s mostly pro-Palestinian stance, calling for talks with Hamas and comparing the situation in the West Bank with that of apartheid-era South Africa, with Israeli soldiers “ready to shoot” anyone who makes a wrong move.

During a frank and far-reaching interview, the envoy also criticized the South African Zionist Federation for ostensibly suggesting, before the elections, that local Jews shouldn’t vote for the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress. He also slammed Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman for having called on the country’s 70,000 Jews to move to Israel in order to escape a looming “pogrom” incited by their government.

Available: http://www.timesofisrael.com/south-africa-looks-to-new-era-in-relations-with-israel-envoy-says/