South Africa has put its name at the front of a coordinated diplomatic rebuke. Foreign ministers echoing South Africa's position, alongside its Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), 'strongly condemn and express their unequivocal rejection' of Colombia's inauguration of an embassy in Jerusalem, in a statement released on Friday, October 16.
The signatories span the Arab world, Africa, Asia and beyond: Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Djibouti, Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Qatar, Jordan, Somalia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Algeria, Oman, Syria, Sudan and Pakistan, among others.
The ministers reaffirmed that any action aimed at altering the legal or historical status of occupied Jerusalem, or recognizing it as Israel's capital, 'is null and void and holds no legal weight,' citing UN Security Council Resolutions 476 (1980) and 478 (1980), which reject efforts to change the city's character or status and urge states to withdraw diplomatic missions from it.
They urged the Colombian government to reconsider and retract the decision, uphold its international legal obligations, and avoid actions they said undermine the Palestinian people's right to an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
For South Africa, the statement continues a foreign-policy line that has made the Palestinian question a signature issue — from its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice to repeated joint statements with like-minded governments.
