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The “Diplomatic Implications” of Renaming Sandton Drive After Palestinian Activist, Leila Khaled: 
If this name change were to go through, the US consulate in Sandton would be located on a street named after a person the current US government refers to as a terrorist.
The motion to rename Sandton Drive to Leila Khaled is supported by a majority of parties in the Johannesburg municipality council.
Members from the ANC, EFF and Al Jama-ah have all publicly stated renaming the street to a Palestinian activist would be to antoginise the USA.
However, presidential spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said government did not want to do anything that would further complicate its relationship with Washington. President Ramaphosa has advised the Johannesburg Council to rethink their intended renaming which would force the United States Consulate to place the name of a US named terrorist on their letterheads and public contact documents.
Emma Louise Powell MP, DA Spokesperson on International Relations & Cooperation says that the DA welcomes the announcement that the Presidency will be intervening on the issue of Sandton Drive.
Powell said; “The Presidency is correct in indicating that this issue is harmful to SA – US relations and is an unnecessary provocation at this time. The USA is one of our largest trade and investment partners, and the renaming issue does not help our country’s efforts to stabilise relations.”
Who is Leila Khaled?
Leila Khaled – born April 9, 1944 – is a Palestinian former militant and activist who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She is famous as being the first woman to hijack an airplane.
Khaled gained her prominence for her role in the TWA Flight 840 hijacking in 1969 and one of the four simultaneous Dawson’s Field hijackings the following year as part of the campaign of Black September in Jordan. After being imprisoned, she was released in a prisoner exchange for civilian hostages kidnapped by other PFLP members.
TWA Flight 840 was a Trans World Airlines flight from Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome, Italy, to Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, that was hijacked on 29 August 1969. There were no fatalities although at least two passengers were lightly wounded and the aircraft was significantly damaged. Two hostages were held for two months.
According to some media sources, the PFLP leadership thought that Yitzhak Rabin, then Israeli ambassador to the United States, would be on board; he was not. Khaled claims she ordered the pilot to fly over Haifa, so she could see her birthplace. No one was injured, but after the passengers disembarked, the hijackers blew up the nose section of the aircraft. After this hijacking, and a photograph of her (taken by Eddie Adams) holding an AK-47 rifle and wearing a kaffiyeh was reproduced in many publications, she underwent six plastic surgery operations on her nose and chin to conceal her identity and allow her to take part in a future hijacking, and because she did not want to wear the face of an icon.
Khaled visited South Africa during February 2015 at the behest of the BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement).
The BDS released the following press statement on 15 January 2015 prior to the visit:
Statement by BDS South Africa on the Forthcoming Visit of Palestine Liberation Struggle Icon, Comrade Leila Khaled:
A significant number of South African anti-Apartheid activists, church leaders, government officials, trade unions, political parties as well as civil society organisations have expressed their support for the Palestine freedom fighter and icon Leila Khaled’s forthcoming visit to South Africa (6-16 February 2015). Leila Khaled has been to South Africa on multiple visits in the past, this visit is hosted by the South African Palestine solidarity and human rights organization BDS South Africa.
The Israeli lobby in South Africa, including the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), have – not unexpectedly – been trying to discredit Leila Khaled’s forthcoming tour. We do not expect pro-Israeli supporters to understand the reason for hosting someone like Nelson Mandela, the South African struggle icon and former Commander in Chief of the MK, or Leila Khaled, the Palestinian struggle icon.
Back in the 1980s the SAJBD and Israel were proud supporters of the Apartheid regime that killed our people and today they are proud supporters of the Israeli regime that is killing innocent Palestinians (of which the most recent example was the Israeli killing of over 500 children in Gaza between July and August 2014).
We remind them that Nelson Mandela and South Africa’s ruling party, the ANC, both remained on the USA terrorism watch list until as recently as 2008. While the South African Jewish community produced many distinguished anti-apartheid struggle heroes such as Cde. Joe Slovo, they were disowned by the leadership of that community, including the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, which preferred to be in bed with the Apartheid regime.
Mandela, it is worth mentioning, went to prison for being a member of the armed wing of the ANC, the MK, and for being part of a movement (the ANC) wanting to defeat Apartheid.
If for example, the Swedes, invited Nelson Mandela, the First Commander in Chief of the armed wing of the ANC (the Umkonto we Sizwe, (MK)), or Joe Slovo, its subsequent leader and a major Jewish anti-Apartheid icon, to a fundraising event would that have meant that the Swedes were promoting violence? This is what the Israeli lobby is suggesting BDS South Africa has done by inviting the Palestinian struggle icon Leila Khaled to our country.
Oliver Tambo (the longest serving President of the ANC), Ronnie Kasrils, Mac Maharaj (the current spokesperson for the South African President), Thabo Mbeki (the former South African President), Govan Mbeki, South African President Jacob Zuma and many of our senior leaders were all members of MK even as they travelled the world – at the invitation of churches, human rights organizations and governments – mobilizing for a non-violent boycott of Apartheid South Africa. Does the inviting of any of these South African leaders back then or today to an event or country mean that one is promoting violence because these leaders were once part of the armed wing of the ANC which carried out sabotage missions that included bombings?
Numerous organizations across the globe, including those deeply committed to non-violence, invited Nelson Mandela when he was released in 1990 (and still advocating armed resistance to apartheid) to fundraising and other events. Mandela, we daresay, like Khaled was a controversial person but still remained (and remains) a South African struggle icon – worthy while he was alive to being invited to fundraising events. BDS South Africa is inviting a Palestinian struggle icon and freedom fighter to South Africa – someone whom Nelson Mandela rejoiced in meeting and hosted in his home.
Leila Khaled’s forthcoming tour to South Africa is being organised solely by BDS South Africa and our local partners and not by the larger BDS Movement. BDS is a human rights movement that is by definition non-violent. The BDS movement adheres to international law, which gives people under foreign occupation the right to resist it by all legitimate means, including armed resistance (targeting combatants and military targets).
BDS South Africa is part of the international non-violent BDS boycott campaign against Israel. We are opposed to all forms of racism including Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The Jewish Board of Deputies then national chairman, Mary Kluk, slammed the proposed visit saying:
“With the world still reeling from the horrific terrorist attacks carried out in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has announced that it will be bringing notorious plane hijacker Leila Khaled to South Africa as its guest next month.”
“With the world still reeling from the horrific terrorist attacks carried out in Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia, the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has announced that it will be bringing notorious plane hijacker Leila Khaled to South Africa as its guest next month,” said the SA Jewish Board of Deputies’ national chairman, Mary Kluk today.
In its pre-publicity campaign, says Kluk, BDS-SA, the local affiliate of a US-based NGO, “depicts Khaled holding an AK-47 and represents her past hijacking of a US airliner from Rome to Athens, and an attempted hijacking of an Israeli airliner, as something to be admired.
“Terrorism, whether carried out for political, religious or any other reasons, is both a crime against humanity and a deadly threat to world peace,” said Kluk.
Kluk went on to say that the Board is therefore “appalled that any organisation, especially one purporting to be a human rights movement, intends bringing a known perpetrator of these acts to this country.”
By depicting Leila Khaled as a heroic figure whom South Africans should look up to and identify with, BDS is sending out the worst possible message at a time when South Africa needs to stand with the global community in confronting the scourge of terrorism.
Notorious for fostering hatred & division in SA
“BDS-SA is notorious for activities that foster hatred and division between South Africans so as to further its vendetta against anyone and anything associated with the State of Israel,” said Kluk in a media statement.
“Among other things, its supporters have sung ‘Shoot the Jew’ at anti-Israel rallies, threatened and intimidated Woolworths employees and deposited a pig’s head in a Woolworths store as a way of ‘sending a message’ to South African Jewry.”
By inviting Khaled to this country, said Kluk, BDS-SA had “conclusively demonstrated yet again that it has no interest in promoting peace, dialogue, reconciliation or understanding”.
On the contrary, she added, “it is a movement quite prepared to market even a known terrorist in order to further its extremist, hate-filled agenda.
South Africans, particularly in these fraught and dangerous times, should make it clear that they want nothing whatever to do with such offensive tactics.
“The SAJBD is committed to any constructive initiative in bringing about peace to the Middle East,” said Kluk.
– MyZA
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