For Palestinians living under occupation, the daily realities described by Local Government Minister Sami Hajjawi are not abstractions but lived experience: forced displacement, starvation, torture and, in his words, a crime of apartheid. Hajjawi brought that testimony to Pretoria this week, briefing Arab diplomats stationed in South Africa on what he described as attempts to erase Palestinian identity.
Hajjawi, who is leading an official Palestinian delegation to South Africa, addressed the Arab Ambassadors’ Council at the League of Arab States Mission in Pretoria on Wednesday. Alongside the hardships facing Palestinians, he chose to highlight their resilience under occupation, a point that framed his appeal to the gathered envoys.
The diplomats responded by reaffirming their support for the Palestinian people and their right to freedom and an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The meeting was chaired by Algerian ambassador Ali Achoui and opened by United Arab Emirates ambassador Mahash Saeed Al-Hameli, dean of the Arab diplomatic corps in South Africa. Palestinian ambassador Hanan Jarrar and Reyad Al-Akbari, head of the League of Arab States Mission in Pretoria, also attended.
Hajjawi’s visit comes at a moment when South Africa has positioned itself as one of Palestine’s most prominent diplomatic and legal allies. In December 2023, South Africa instituted proceedings against Israel under the Genocide Convention over its military campaign in Gaza, and it has since sought additional provisional measures from the International Court of Justice.
Beyond the briefing itself, the council used the occasion to look ahead. The ambassadors discussed strengthening Arab-South African relations and agreed to visit the African Union Development Agency, AUDA-NEPAD, in Centurion on Monday. There they are expected to meet the agency’s chief executive, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, and senior officials for talks aimed at strengthening Arab-African economic relations.
For the Palestinian delegation, the Pretoria meeting offered both a platform for testimony and a sign of continued regional solidarity, as diplomats pledged support for a people whose daily lives, in Hajjawi’s telling, remain shaped by displacement and resistance.