At the invitation of the South African Council of Churches, a delegation from Kairos Palestine participated in a visit to South Africa, which included several cathedrals, churches, universities, community and cultural institutions in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria, where the delegation met with political, community and religious leaders, emphasizing the bonds of solidarity and interdependence with the South African people The Kairos delegation also praised South Africa’s moral commitment to the Palestinian cause and its full and unconditional support for the Palestinian cause, and its trip to the International Court of Justice to prosecute Israel for the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The visit included multiple meetings, beginning with a meeting with the Archbishop of Cape Town, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, followed by fruitful meetings with both Muslim and Jewish groups that encouraged interfaith dialogue, as well as a unique visit to the Gottesville Mosque, which was draped with Palestinian flags welcoming Rev. Dr. Munther Ishaq and the accompanying Kairos delegation.

The meetings expressed the need to redouble efforts to combat hate speech, violence, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism, warning of the importance of confronting Christian Zionism, which uses biblical texts in a colonialist manner to serve the Zionist project. The visit also included seminars at the Desmond Tutu Center and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, as well as lectures at Stellenbosch University, Nelson Mandela University, Pretoria, South Africa, and sharing the testimonies of the Kairos delegation about the injustice of Palestine and what daily life is like under the occupation and Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians.
On the sidelines of its visit, the Kairos Palestine delegation participated in the first International Conference Against Apartheid, which was held in Johannesburg, which aimed to strengthen the global solidarity movement for Palestine and intensify action to dismantle the policies of apartheid, settler colonialism and genocide practiced by Israel against the Palestinian people, and emphasized international support for the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, as well as the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

The Kairos Palestine delegation also expressed its gratitude and appreciation to the South African people for their commitment to fight the injustice and oppression of the Palestinian people, stressing that they will continue their work for a just peace based on inalienable rights, calling on other civil society organizations that attended and people of good conscience to exert pressure on your governments to impose boycotts and sanctions on Israel, and the need to continue peaceful punitive measures until the latter fulfills its obligations to recognize the right of the Palestinian people, end the occupation and the apartheid system in the occupied territory of Palestine, and recognize fundamental rights and full equality.