
Israel is an “evil state which must be destroyed as a matter of urgency,” South Africa’s radical left-wing communist party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) said in a statement released after the violent clashes during the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last week.
The EFF, the third-largest party in the South African parliament, is a pan-Africanist faction that “draws inspiration from the broad Marxist–Leninist tradition,” according to its constitution. The party and its leader, Julius Malema, have been criticized for encouraging racist sentiments against whites and Indians and Malema himself was twice convicted of hate speech.