- Palestinians who flew to South Africa paid $1500-$5000 to be evacuated, pastor and social justice activist Nigel Branken tells Anadolu
- ‘It does seem like the (Palestinian refugees) were being flushed out. We will get the details later, but from a humanitarian point of view, we could not return them,’ President Ramaphosa tells reporters
JOHANNESBURG
Civil society groups in South Africa are accusing Israel of being behind the forced migration of Palestinians from Gaza after recent “mysterious” flights transporting hundreds of Palestinians landed at OR Tambo International Airport near Johannesburg.
Humanitarian group Gift of the Givers Foundation said the first flight that landed late last month carried 176 Palestinians.
A second chartered plane, which made a stopover in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, brought in 153 Palestinian refugees, but South Africa’s Border Management Authority (BMA) denied them entry.
The BMA said the Palestinians had failed immigration questions after failing to indicate their intended duration of stay in the country or provide accommodation addresses.
They also did not have the customary departure stamps in their passports, which were supposed to be granted by Israel as they exited.
The Palestinians were kept waiting on the tarmac for nearly 12 hours, leading to outrage from civil society groups in the country.
It took the intervention of President Cyril Ramaphosa for the Palestinians to be granted entry.
“I said we cannot turn them back. Even though they do not have the necessary documents and papers. These are people from a war-torn country, and out of compassion, out of empathy, we must receive them,’’ he told reporters on Friday.
Ramaphosa also expressed concern: "It does seem like they (Palestinians) were being flushed out. We will get the details later,’’ he said.
He said the government is investigating the "mysterious" chartered flights that brought the Palestinians into the country without the required documents.
About 23 out of the 153 (Palestinians) who landed on Thursday transited from South Africa to their ultimate destinations, leaving 130 in the country, plus the 176 who arrived earlier.
- How did they board flights from Israel?
Nigel Branken, a South African pastor and social justice activist who helped the Palestinians on Thursday while their flight waited for clearance, told Anadolu in a telephone interview that the passengers had told him they were lured by a website advertising how to travel out of Gaza.
‘‘In June, they were told to pay in advance for them to be evacuated from the country. People were so desperate because of the genocide, they didn’t know if it was a genuine company or not,’’ he said.
Branken said the Palestinian refugees he spoke to said they had paid $1500-$5000 for them to be evacuated from Gaza.
Several South African groups have accused Al-majd Europe of being the company behind the evacuations, a claim Anadolu could not independently verify.
Branken said Palestinian refugees leaving Gaza with the help of the company did not know exactly where they were heading to.
"Despite rumors they would be taken to Indonesia or Malaysia, they instead ended up in South Africa."
Refugees said the travel company would telephone them to be ready for their scheduled flights. They were required to be ready by 2.00 am local time and travel to the ICRC offices in the city, from where they would be picked up.
They would be asked to leave their bags there and carry rucksacks.
When they arrive at the Shalom border crossing, soldiers would ask them to leave behind their rucksacks as they head into the Ramon airbase.
‘‘When the first plane came to South Africa on Oct. 28, people left medicines, children left their toys, every possession, and they didn’t get exit stamps or even electronic documents from Israel,’’ Branken said.
He said all passengers who arrived on the first flight in South Africa were admitted into the country without trouble, unlike those who arrived on Thursday.
The Palestinian embassy in Pretoria posted a short message on US social media company X, urging people in Gaza to be vigilant in engaging in any way with unofficial organizations or intermediaries.
It advised them to engage with only official and legitimate representatives of Palestine.
- Ethnic cleansing
"We are convinced that the displacement of Palestinians that resulted in the traumatic drama they were subjected to at OR Tambo Airport, occurred with the direct collusion of the Israeli regime," Iqbal Jassat, executive member of the Johannesburg-based advocacy group Media Review Network, told Anadolu.
He said no Palestinian in the besieged Gaza can approach the imaginary yellow line without being shot at.
"They had to be bused through the yellow line, across the militarized 53% of Gaza that the Israeli army still controls and is operating in out of Gaza, through Israel to the Ramon airport; it points to a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing."
Jassat said they are also aware that the military base of Eilat, where the airport is located at the southern tip of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, has been identified as a point for Palestinians to be displaced.
Imtiaz Sooliman, founder of humanitarian group the Gift of the Givers, said Israel is displacing Palestinians from their country by putting them on vehicles and planes.
“This is part of ethnic cleansing. Israel has been using this policy. They bombed people with 2,000-pound bombs, tried everything and couldn’t kill everybody,” he told local broadcaster eNCA late Saturday.
Sooliman said Israel killed 13,000 healthcare workers and doctors by bombing dozens of hospitals and clinics and using phosphorus and other chemicals.
“They tried starvation (starving people). They killed 300 journalists, more than in all wars put together, to hide the truth – eventually, when this is not working, the best thing now is to put people in cars and planes and send them away,’’ he said.
Na'eem Jeenah, a South African academic and member of the civil society helping the Palestinian refugees, blamed Israel for putting the Palestinians on the flight without giving them exit documents or telling them where they were heading to.
He accused Al-Majid Europe, the "humanitarian group" that claims to help Palestinians, of being a project of Israel.
Jeenah said people on the plane did not know where they were going to exactly, giving an example of one person who had a hotel booking for Mumbai in India and another who had a hotel booking for Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.