ANC supporters
ANC supportersReuters

The African National Congress said on Tuesday that its International Solidarity Conference resolved to support the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete told reporters that the conference had pledged solidarity with the “people of Palestine”, North and South Sudan, Western Sahara, and Cuba.

"As the international relations sub-committee of the ANC... [we are aware] that there are also other countries and struggles that we can give solidarity to," she said.

The conference's draft declaration states that it, "Condemned the continued occupation of Palestine territories by the Israeli government and [reiterated] the call for a free Palestine along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem.”

"The conference agreed to support any means to force Israel to free the people of Palestine, which includes the imposition of economic sanctions against Israel," it continued.

"The ANC chairperson, Baleka Mbete, strongly responded, saying that she has been to Palestine herself and that the Israeli regime is not only comparable but 'far worse than apartheid South Africa'," BDS said in a statement.