{"id":116449,"date":"2021-03-06T17:33:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T09:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116449"},"modified":"2021-03-06T17:33:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T09:33:20","slug":"south-africas-chief-justice-ordered-to-apologise-over-pro-israel-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=116449","title":{"rendered":"South Africa&#8217;s Chief Justice ordered to apologise over pro-Israel comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanaweb.com\/GhanaHomePage\/africa\/South-Africa-s-Chief-Justice-ordered-to-apologise-over-pro-Israel-comments-1197478?gallery=1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ghanaweb.com\/imagelib\/pics\/191\/19145563.295.jpg\" alt=\"South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><strong><em>South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PRETORIA, March 6 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; South Africa&#8217;s Constitutional Court called on its president to apologise and withdraw pro-Israeli statements made in June, which had caused an outcry in a country strongly committed to the Palestinian cause.<br><br>Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng, a devout Christian, again caused a stir in December by calling the coronavirus vaccines &#8220;satanic&#8221;.<br><br>In a video exchange organised in June 2020 by the Israeli daily, Jerusalem Post, the judge, speaking alongside the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein, deplored his country&#8217;s unwavering support for the Palestinians since the end of South Africa&#8217;s apartheid regime in 1994.<br><br>&#8220;We are (thus) denying ourselves a wonderful opportunity to make a difference in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict&#8221;, he had argued.<br><br>The Judicial Council, which had been seized by the NGO #Africa4Palestine, considered the remarks as &#8220;offensive&#8221; and &#8220;particularly provocative&#8221;.<br><br>It called on the judge to &#8220;withdraw them without reservation and to restore the image of justice,&#8221; publishing the apology text that it wants to hear within 10 days.<br><br>In June, the African National Congress (ANC), which has been in power in South Africa since 1994, denounced Mogoeng Mogoeng&#8217;s support for &#8220;the Israeli apartheid state&#8221;.<br><br>The Radical Left Party (EFF) demanded that he immediately withdraw his remarks, accusing Israel of pursuing a policy of &#8220;illegal, criminal and genocidal&#8221; occupation in the Palestinian Territories.<br><br>Israel has long been accused of having privileged links with the &#8216;racist&#8217; white South African regime prior to 1994, in particular by supplying it with arms despite an international embargo.<br><br>In 2013, Israeli leaders did not attend the funeral of Nelson Mandela, which was attended by officials from around the world, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. &#8212; NNN-AFRICANEWS<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng PRETORIA, March 6 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) &#8212; South Africa&#8217;s Constitutional Court called on its president to apologise and withdraw pro-Israeli statements made in June, which had caused an outcry in a country strongly committed to the Palestinian cause. Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng, a devout Christian, again caused a stir in December by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":116450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116449"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}