In an interview with Lusa, after the South African Parliament approved a motion to suspend diplomatic relations with Israel, Jubrael Shomali again welcomed the position taken by Angola and considered South Africa's decision "very important" to make Israel aware of what is to do in Gaza.
"It's a catastrophe, not only for the Palestinians, but also for the Israelis who want peace", he said, regarding the conflict that resumed on October 7, admitting that other countries could follow South Africa, such as Namibia or Zimbabwe.
"But I think that the majority of African countries prefer to take a position through the African Union", said the diplomat, stating that the proximity between South Africa and Palestine goes back to the "icon" Nelson Mandela, "who said that there would be no freedom in the world while Palestine were not free."
Jubrael Shomali highlighted that the majority of African countries support Palestine, because it is "a just cause", but also because they have suffered the effects of colonization and see Israel as a colonizing state.
As for the countries that support the Israeli side, he considered that "Israel has worked on the economic and financial front" with many of these countries, which contributes to maintaining a good relationship.
As an example, he pointed to the cases of Israel and Angola: "they have a strong relationship from an economic point of view, but in political terms Angola supports Palestine", in other words, the economy is not the key for Israel to be able to gain support of African countries.
Furthermore, for the Palestinian Authority, Angola's position, already expressed on several occasions by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, "is sufficient".
The last one was on Wednesday, at the opening of the Luanda Biennial - "Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace", in which João Lourenço reaffirmed that the solution to the conflict is necessarily based on the creation of the Palestinian State, under the various United Nations Security Council resolutions on the matter.
"Angola's position is the same as Palestine's at an international level. We only want one thing, to implement United Nations resolutions in Palestine," the diplomat told Lusa.
Jubrael Shomali said he believes that Israel is losing international support, pointing to the demonstrations and marches that have taken place around the world, and was optimistic: "I think that now the world will want to be serious about solving the Palestine problem, implementing both states".
"We have already lost more than 12 thousand Palestinians, 6 thousand were children and 4 thousand were women", in just 45 days, lamented the ambassador.
"It is a tragedy and Israel must pay the bill by withdrawing from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem," he continued.
Regarding the temporary truce that was negotiated for the release of hostages, he maintained that an agreement was only reached because Israel had not yet managed to achieve any military objectives.
"After 45 days of fighting, killing, bombing, what they achieved in military terms is zero and that is why they agreed, otherwise they would not have continued in their mission", said the ambassador.
"They failed and will continue to fail. Hamas is in the tunnels, why are they killing civilians?", he asked, stressing that "the main objective" is to push the Palestinians south.
