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President Cyril Ramaphosa’s meeting with the family of IDF officer Daniel Perez has drawn criticism from activists, who say South Africa must keep its focus on Palestinian genocide victims and families seeking the return of withheld bodies.
By HASSEN LORGAT
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s meeting with the family of a South African-born Israel Defence Forces (IDF) officer has prompted controversy, as the family asked Ramaphosa to assist them in retrieving the remains of their soldier.
They point out that the young soldier, Daniel Perez, was a platoon commander in the 7th Armoured Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Yad Binyamin. Many believe that the President, in this action, was outplayed. Whether this is the case or not, I believe Ramaphosa must keep his eye on the Palestinian genocide. This would be in keeping with the historic International Court of Justice (ICJ) case that South Africa lodged on behalf of communities of conscience in December 2023.
Civil society activists have cried foul because they believe that this meeting violates South Africa’s position on supporting the right of Palestinians to resist oppression. Daniel Perez’s father is also the head of the World Zionist Organization—thus making this case not just an act of compassion, but also one of propaganda.
The South African Jewish Report (SAJR) always lays claim to hasbara victories and they did not fail. Their article, dated August 13 and written by Nicola Miltz, is revealing.
The story was headlined thus: “Father to father – Ramaphosa helps World Zionist president.”
The content speaks of President Ramaphosa’s personal involvement in bringing the body of Captain Daniel Perez from Gaza.
It was, she writes, “an extraordinary intervention that cut through the bitter divide between South Africa and Israel.”
The article tells us that Rabbi Perez, also born in South Africa, is president of the World Zionist Organization and executive chairperson of the World Mizrachi movement.
Anti-racist activists demand that South Africa back up its historic case before the ICJ—where it accused Israel of genocide—with concrete short- and intermediate-term actions while we wait for the ICJ ruling.
The genocide in Gaza has resulted in the slaughter of over 73 000 Palestinians and the injury of over 174 000 in a genocidal war since October 2023. Hundreds of thousands lie buried, and there is no machinery to recover the bodies because of the ongoing—albeit slow-motion—Israeli blockade and embargo on Gaza.
This war on the Gaza Strip has already destroyed 90% of the Strip’s infrastructure. Nothing has been spared: places of worship, learning, and healing—all part of the destructive plan.
At face value, it seems that the meeting also ignores South Africa’s hard-won policies and laws on foreign mercenaries. The Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act (RFMAA) governs mercenary activities and demands that no citizen or permanent resident join any foreign army in foreign conflicts. If they desire to do so, they must seek prior approval from the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) before joining any foreign military force.
Civil society groups—particularly those belonging to the BDS movement, such as the Palestine Solidarity Alliance—wonder if Ramaphosa has the stomach to stand with the Palestinians—not just any Palestinians, but those who are deceased: those who were annihilated in the genocide and now lie under rubble.
A few days ago, Haaretz reminded the world that Israel still holds about 1 700 Palestinians in its morgues and has refused to give the Palestinian families a dignified funeral or closure, as the Perez family will now enjoy. The newspaper reported that Israel retains these Palestinian bodies while no Israeli captives are held by Hamas. International law suggests that this violation of the rights of Palestinians has followed them into their graves.
Haaretz reports that Shin Bet chief David Zini apparently supports retaining the bodies in case Israelis are taken captive or go missing in the future. This is the dominant position of Israel’s army, which has been accused of perpetrating a genocide. While the report says that most of the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel or subsequent wars on Gaza were involved—my research into the topic shows that this practice has a longer history.
These actions are illegal, and I cannot help but believe that the strategy of meeting Ramaphosa—wittingly or not—serves to dampen the campaigning of Palestinian groups for justice for the children’s bodies.
A few hours ago, on August 13, 2026, two Palestinian organisations—the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club and the National Campaign for the Retrieval of Martyrs’ Bodies—said in a joint statement, following the media report by Haaretz, that Israel is holding the bodies of 1 700 Palestinians, including bodies held in so-called “cemeteries of numbers” and morgues.
They called this Zionist policy illegal, immoral, and against international human rights law. It is a systematic policy of collective punishment amid the ongoing low-intensity genocide that has now spread to the West Bank, they confirmed. The figure, originally reported by Haaretz, includes bodies kept in morgues and so-called “cemeteries of numbers”.
The campaign acknowledges that while some bodies have been returned (most recently in October 2025), the number of withheld bodies continues to rise due to ongoing killings and enforced disappearances, particularly in Gaza. The groups stated that this practice—which has spanned over five decades but has now reached unprecedented levels—continues. The killings of Palestinians have not stopped since the so-called ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, 2025, Israel has killed at least 1 258 Palestinians and injured 4 139 others, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The National Campaign documented 800 bodies held in morgues and cemeteries, including 99 prisoners, 83 children, and ten women. In Gaza, 930 bodies had been returned as of February 4, some of which had been taken from cemeteries and Al-Shifa Hospital, along with 66 boxes of human remains. The organisations are calling for urgent international action to secure the return of bodies and hold responsible parties accountable.
All they want is to bury their loved ones with dignity, as Perez has done. This is not a case of one powerful family seeking closure, but of thousands who grieve without end. Cometh the hour, cometh the people—South Africans must rise to the challenge.
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Hassen Lorgat is part of the Data Centres, Surveillance, Control Working Group, an activist collective associated with CSOs 4 Tailings Justice. He has worked in the trade union movement and anti-apartheid sports movement led by the South African Council on Sports (SACOS). He is active with the SA BDS Coalition. He is writing in his personal capacity.
POEM
Hassen Lorgat wrote six poems on these horrendous cases, during 2023/2024. This poem recalls the sacrifices and martyrdom of one Palestinian, Khaḍr ʿAdnān Muḥammad Mūsā (March 24, 1978 – May 2, 2023).
Poem 3: cemetery of the numbers – the wandering souls
After years
as part of the faithful
he followed the path of the good and righteous
Shaikh Adnan fell
in his final hurdle
“87 days hunger strike”
against the chains of detention without trial
His wife Randa Musa
a mother of nine
told the world of his final,
simple wish: to be buried in his home village of Arraba
next to his father
Once again
the bureaucrat
like all those who dutifully follow instructions
-the men of science and medicine
-the politicians,
-the grave diggers
-and the soldiers
denied this rite of passage
With the stroke of his beleaguered pen
the martyr was on his way meet his maker
and he had hoped for peace in death
something denied him when he was alive
the martyr hoped that with his passing
he had seen the end of the checkpoints,
facing the sun and the sons and daughters of the enforced of occupation
He was glad to see the back of Bet She’an-Bardala
in the Jordan Valley near his home (away from prison)
But the learned Shaikh was wrong,
For his tortured soul
continues to battle the enumerable checkpoints
where newly shaven gatekeepers are ordered to stop
his soul from entering paradise
In life as in death
the martyr’s stolen body is only one of many
as hundreds of souls are interned
Some, in deep freezers
at the National Centre of Forensic Medicine, where doctors
and their hypocrites oath sup with the devil
doing what they will with the incarcerated dead
Many lay uneasily,
deep underground
in unnamed, anonymous graves
known only to a designated IDF General
This is not even part of the rules of war
It’s beyond Victor and the vanquished
…it is vindictive to all humanity
“Let our people go”, the mourners in waiting cry
Palestinian bodies
Palestinian souls
used as bargaining chips
as the theft of land, water and self-grinds on
in the killing fields
of the “only democracy” in the Middle East
Meanwhile the freezers
and the “cemetery of the numbers”
runneth over
filled with unnamed humans and wandering souls
Palestinians
whilst others look away
The poets, the songwriters and the mourners sit it out
in the long wake
reading their tasbees /and rosaries
ready to write the epitaphs and dirges and zikrs
befitting those who fell in battle
they will wait, and wait
pregnant with hope
and only begin
their labours of painful love
when a just-peace flowers
and the souls are free and at ease
that love poems will flow to please
