S.Africa not visiting Israel In solidarity with Palestinians

South Africa's Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Friday that senior politicians are not visiting Israel at this time out of solidarity with the Palestinians.

"Ministers of South Africa do not visit Israel currently. Even the Jewish Board of Deputies that we engage with here, they know why our ministers are not going to Israel," South Africa's The Times quoted the Minister saying.

Nkoana-Mashabne was speaking at a congress of South African trade unions international relations meeting, which was also addressed by a group campaigning for the release of all Palestinian captives, The Times reported.

"The struggle of the people of Palestine is our struggle," she said.

"The last time I saw a map of Palestine I couldn't sleep," the Minister said, adding that the map "is just dots, smaller than those of the homelands, and that broke my heart."

She stressed that the Palestinians had never asked South Africa to "close down" diplomatic relations with Israel but that they had asked "not to engage with the regime."

The minister said that South Africa had "agreed to slow down and curtail senior leadership contact with that regime until things begin to look better," The Times reported.