Middle East conflict | Demoted DA MP vows to continue speaking truth to power

November 3, 2023 152

Former DA shadow Public Enterprises Minister, Ghaleb Cachalia, says he won’t only continue to keep a watchful eye on human rights abuses, but will carry on speaking truth to power.

Cachalia was removed from the party’s coveted shadow cabinet last night after sharing a series of tweets, where he accused Israel of committing genocide.

I will not be silenced.
Israel is committing Genocide.
Full 🩸 BLOODY 🩸 stop.

— ghaleb cachalia. MP (@GhalebCachalia) October 31, 2023

DA Leader, John Steenhuisen, slammed Cachalia’s conduct as a violation of a caucus decision, saying it undermined his leadership.

The former shadow minister says while he disagrees with the Steenhuisen’s version of facts, he will not be drawn into a public back and forth engagement with the party leader.

My statement on my dismissal from the DA shadow cabinet pic.twitter.com/AFi9Vf4StJ

— ghaleb cachalia. MP (@GhalebCachalia) November 3, 2023

Honorary Professor of International Relations at Wits, John Stremlau, has hailed Cachalia for acting out of conscious by speaking out against the conflict in Middle East.

Stremlau says he noticed that Cachalia had been circulating the resignation letter of a former top UN High Commissioner, in which he publicly accused the UN of failing to address what he called a “text-book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza.

A New York-based United Nations human rights official has resigned over the organization’s response to the situation in Gaza which he described as a “text-book case of genocide.”

Craig Mokhiber, the director in the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,… pic.twitter.com/0oyezGUYHG

— Colm Downes (@ColminIndonesia) November 1, 2023

Despite this, Prof Stremlau says Steenhuisen is certainly within his rights to remove Cachalia.

However, the scholar adds that the DA leader’s move doesn’t diminish the power of Cachalia’s actions.

Political analyst, Levy Ndou, shares the same sentiments.

Ndou says there is nothing alarming in the DA’s decision to demote Cachalia for not toeing the party line.

In the letter directed to Cachalia, Steenhuisen says any member of his cabinet who behaves like members of the ANC cabinet will be met by appropriate action.

Ndou says observing protocol is part and parcel of any political organisation.