On Tuesday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an immediate cessation to Israel’s “atrocious and genocidal” assault on the people of Gaza. He also is the head of the African National Congress (ANC), the party that brought Nelson Madela from prison to lead the South African government in 1994.

“We  are deeply concerned about the atrocities that are unfolding in the Middle East and we have passed  our condolences to the people of Israel as we are passing our condolences to the people of Palestine,” Ramaphosa said.  

“We have a full understanding of how the people of Palestine have been under occupation for almost 75 years and have been waging a struggle against an oppressive government that has in  recent times been dubbed an apartheid State.” Ramaphosa explained: “We have pledged our solidarity with them and we’ve always insisted that the only solution for the problems… between Israel and Palestine is a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders as approved by the world community and the United Nations.

South Africans suffered from the racist and exploitative form of government that granted 85 percent of the land and resources to a 15 percent white minority population. The white minority created and enforced a brutal system of segregation, separating native South Africans from the white invaders from Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, and India.

 Ramaphosa is calling for an end of the siege being staged at Gaza.

“The state of Israel should immediately end the siege on Gaza so that water, food, energy, medical supplies, and fuel can reach the civilians in the Gaza strip,” he said.

“The ANC will ensure that the government will work with the international community to establish a viable Palestinian state, existing in peace alongside the state of Israel, based on the 1967 borders.”