Durban residents take to the streets in support of Palestine

Hundreds of Durban residents took to the city’s streets on Wednesday in a show of support for Palestine.

In the midst of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the large group of residents from Durban gathered to express their support for Palestine and call for the international condemnation of Israel.

The protest took place during the evening rush hour from 4pm to 7pm, with demonstrators targeting various highways, including the N3, which connects Durban to Gauteng.

Under the banner of the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, and Sanctions) movement, the protesters tried to drive home their views on the war. The group was diverse, with participants from different racial backgrounds and age groups. Similar solidarity protests occurred in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and donned Palestinian scarves, symbols of resistance that have gained international recognition. Motorists passing by showed support by waving and raising their fists, with some even slowing down near the Tollgate area to display Palestinian flags and scarves.

The protest featured prominent banners reading “Israel is an apartheid state“ “Hands off Jerusalem.“ Jerusalem, claimed as the “eternal capital“ by both Palestinians and Israelis, remains a point of contention. The city is also home to the al-Aqsa Mosque, a source of conflict between Hamas and Israel, which escalated with the Hamas operation code-named Al-Aqsa Flood on Saturday.

By Wednesday evening, international news channel Al Jazeera reported that the conflict had claimed the lives of approximately 1 200 Israelis and over 5 000 Palestinians. Israel had also imposed a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip, the epicenter of the war.

Nadia Meer from BDS said South African residents would be showing their solidarity for Palestine in the weeks to come.

“People in South Africa are out in their numbers today in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and many other towns and cities in the following weeks to show our solidarity for the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice, equality, the right to resist and achieve liberation from Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, and the right of all Palestinians to return to their land. We will not be silent as we watch the devastating scenes of death and destruction reigning down on the open-air prison of Gaza by the Zionist, apartheid, settler-colonial state of Israel,” said Ms Meer.

Ms Meer said she had been in contact with South African-Palestinian, Professor Haidar Eid who now lives in Gaza and he painted a grim picture of what they were going through.

“He told us yesterday he, his wife and two small children had to flee their flat which is now uninhabitable following Israeli bombing. His residential building is in the neighbourhood of the university, home to many families – but what is now being considered a target along with UN buildings, schools, hospitals and infrastructure. His family is now crammed into a narrow room with at least 20 others, likely to be bombed again without access to food, water or electricity – there is no safe space in the Gaza prison,” said Ms Meer.