The Palestine Solidarity Campaign is calling for the Mayor to light up the City of Cape Town City Hall with the Palestinian flag on 15 May.
Image: Supplied
Opposition parties in the Western Cape have thrown their weight behind a growing civil society campaign urging the City of Cape Town to light up City Hall in the colours of the Palestinian flag on Thursday.
Nakba Day, 15 May, is the day to commemorate the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.
The call, led by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), is directed at Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Premier Alan Winde, and follows multiple requests by the organisation to the City.
In a letter, PSC spokesperson Prof Usuf Chikte questioned why the City responded swiftly to the Ukrainian crisis in 2022 by lighting up City Hall, yet has remained silent in the face of what many now describe as genocide in Gaza.
“On March 3rd 2022, Cape Town’s public funds were used to light up City Hall in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Some 1,000 Ukrainian lives had just been lost to the war, and in response to the nation’s plea for international solidarity, Cape Town’s Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis declared ‘I am more than happy to do that',” wrote Chikte.
“More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed since 2023, including over 1,000 healthcare workers and over 15,000 children, according to UNICEF. This genocide reaches new heights in its extermination agenda with every passing day, and we believe another round of forced removals is imminent.”
Chikte further urged the City to act consistently in showing solidarity with civilians under siege, regardless of nationality or race.
“When we compare the faces of these dear children postmortem, they’re all blue. Some just have more melanin in their skin than others.”
The ANC in the Western Cape Legislature has endorsed the call, with Leader of the Opposition Khalid Sayed saying: “We unequivocally support the call made by civil society organisations and concerned residents to show public solidarity with the people of Palestine.
"We thank Prof Usuf Chikte of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign for reminding us of our shared responsibility to defend the dignity and rights of all people, no matter where they are born or what flag they fall under.”
Sayed said Cape Town’s 2022 decision to illuminate City Hall in blue and yellow was a powerful gesture of empathy, but one that should not be applied selectively.
“If it was right to mourn the deaths of Ukrainian civilians, then it is certainly right to mourn the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including more than 15,000 children according to UNICEF, who have died.”
He called on Premier Winde and Mayor Hill-Lewis to show that Palestinian lives are equally valued.
“The statue of Madiba that stands at City Hall is not a decoration but a call to action. As Nelson Mandela himself said, ‘We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians'.’”
Sayed urged the City and the Province to light both the Legislature and City Hall in the colours of the Palestinian flag on Nakba Day, and to demand an immediate ceasefire and resumption of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
GOOD party Secretary-General and Member of the Western Cape Parliament, Brett Herron, also voiced his support for the initiative.
“The Mayor of Cape Town should jump at the opportunity for a multicultural City to express solidarity with the suffering and killing of Palestinians, as it did for Ukrainian victims of the Russian war – and as it should do to draw attention to the horrors of war in Sudan.”
Herron said cities have a responsibility to publicly demonstrate their values through symbolic acts that stand for equal human rights.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za