South African humanitarian in pro-Israeli crosshairs over Palestine support

In Johannesburg, South Africa, when Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman stepped onto the stage wearing his signature deep green T-shirt emblazoned with the South African flag and the name of his organization, Gift of the Givers, the crowd erupted in thunderous applause. The humanitarian had been invited to speak at a pro-Palestine rally at the Cape Town Foreshore in October, introducing his aid organization’s work in the war-torn region to protesters angered by Israel’s actions in Gaza.

He quickly became emotional, recounting how his team in Gaza had lost family members in Israeli attacks and how the fight for Palestinian justice had been ongoing for 75 years. “Every time we protest, the Zionists are too clever; they are arrogant, and they act with impunity. They intimidate corporations, universities… governments,” he said, adding that they respond to any criticism of Israel with accusations of antisemitism. “Well, I have a new message for them: find a new narrative. That is so stale, boring, and stupid,” he added. The crowd erupted in more cheers and applause.

Sooliman, a trained doctor who chose not to practice medicine, has a natural ability to energize large crowds, and his passion for justice and humanitarianism is evident. In private, the 62-year-old is focused and meticulous – rising early each day to be involved in every step of his organization’s work, even drafting social media posts for his team. Thirty years ago, he was inspired to found Gift of the Givers after a spiritual trip to Turkey, aiming to give back to society. Since then, the foundation has grown into South Africa’s most prominent aid organization, responding to crises both at home and abroad.

Despite the organization’s wide reach and numerous accolades, Sooliman has found himself under attack by Zionists for criticizing Israel’s actions in Gaza since the war broke out in October 2023. But for Sooliman, his philosophy is simple: human need transcends political positions. “I will not mince my words. Because I don’t look at the conflict from a political point of view. I look at it from a humanitarian point of view,” the outspoken doctor told Al Jazeera from his home in Pietermaritzburg, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province.

Gift of the Givers, founded in Pietermaritzburg in 1992, soon expanded its work across the country, the continent, and beyond. The organization currently employs 600 people and has offices in nine countries, including Somalia, Yemen, and Palestine. Over 32 years, Gift of the Givers has distributed 6 billion South African rand ($319m) in aid to 47 countries, according to records. The organization says its funding comes mainly from large South African corporations and small private donors. The NGO not only responds to catastrophic events like tsunamis, earthquakes, and wars, but also addresses the countless smaller crises plaguing local communities at home, often stepping in when the government is unable to.

Recently, in South Africa’s arid Karoo region, Sooliman and his team were busy preparing for the launch of a container kitchen in the town of Touwsrivier, a railway town where most of its 8,000 residents live below the poverty line. Sooliman spoke to Al Jazeera while dealing with logistics and drafting a press release for the event, for the much-needed community feeding center that was about to be launched. Most Touwsrivier residents rely on meager government grants to survive, with eight out of ten people unemployed. Each day, hundreds of children line up to receive what is often their only hot meal.

Meanwhile, fires have also been raging in the Western Cape province, prompting Gift of the Givers to once again urgently intervene. At the same time, on the South Africa-Mozambique border, hot meals are being prepared and distributed to those stranded by ongoing post-election violence. Simultaneously, in Syria, teams are preparing to open a shelter for women and children, while others are distributing food to the poor in the days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Sooliman’s life is full of crises, with practical work taking center stage. But he does not shy away from condemning what he sees as injustice. His organization has been helping people in the occupied Palestinian territories for decades. But when Israel bombed the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza early in the war, he openly condemned the Israeli government’s actions in a series of South African media interviews. “I was absolutely furious,” he told Al Jazeera. He also called the situation in Gaza during the first weeks of the war “extremely dangerous” and “the worst situation in the world because there is no way out”.

He was prepared for the backlash that followed. He soon faced a barrage of attacks from local pro-Israel groups, who accused him – without any evidence – of funding “terrorist organizations” and harboring an “Islamist agenda”. Sooliman has refuted these claims. His critics have tried to get banks to crack down on Gift of the Givers and investigate its funding sources, while launching a blatant campaign to defame him on social media. A former member of the local Zionist lobby group, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Laurence Novosel, petitioned the NGO, the Helen Suzman Foundation, which has Jewish patrons, to stop Sooliman from delivering his annual lecture last year.

“The likelihood of donor funding in Gaza being used exclusively for humanitarian relief to innocent civilians is small,” Novosel wrote, claiming without evidence that it is “likely” that some of Gift of the Givers’ resources were being used to support Hamas. An opinion piece in The Times of Israel accused Sooliman of having illicit ties to Iran, which he denies. A prominent right-wing South African musician, David “Kiffness” Scott, claimed on X that Sooliman was “a radical Islamist masquerading as a humanitarian” – also without any evidence. The allegations did not stick and instead backfired, prompting a groundswell of support for Sooliman, with government ministers, religious leaders, activists, and business leaders all voicing support for the work Gift of the Givers does. The Helen Suzman Foundation stood by its decision to have Sooliman deliver his annual memorial lecture, which he completed in November.

Ordinary people also pushed back against Sooliman’s critics on social media. “Those guys have been helping people. When the farmers had drought, white Afrikaans Christian farmers… these Gift of the Givers guys were sorting out water for them,” said a white Afrikaner man who calls himself TheUprightMan on TikTok, defending Gift of the Givers in a series of racially charged comments. “When there were hurricanes in KwaZulu-Natal, it was them. Every time somebody needs help, these Gift of the Givers guys pitch up, and they serve anybody. Not just Muslims,” he told his 18,000 followers on TikTok. KwaZulu-Natal is the second most populous province in South Africa, abbreviated as KZN.

The campaign against Sooliman has since subsided. But veteran South African journalist Ferial Haffajee, commenting on the campaign, said she has observed a disturbing trend since South Africa took a stance against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ): many prominent South Africans have been facing vicious attacks. “Many people who have done so have experienced hardship, disinformation campaigns, and even lost their jobs. In that context, there has been an attempt to discredit Dr Imtiaz Sooliman,” she said, adding that “they have picked the wrong guy. He is a complete local hero and a global icon.” Sooliman says he believes the campaign to discredit him was designed to send a chilling message to anyone who opposes the Israeli government and its supporters. “If they can take on the biggest, most respected organization in South Africa and destroy you, it sends a message to other people, don’t cross them. It’s to send a message to other people. It’s to stop my funding,” he said.

He is hardly bothered by the noise, confidently stating that he knows “they will fail”. Sooliman also pointed out that, ironically, despite the campaign against him attempting to make false links between him and Hamas, he has also clashed with organizations in Gaza during his years of work in Palestine. During his first visit to Palestine in 2002, Sooliman said he likely offended the Hamas leadership when he called for Palestinian unity so that they could achieve liberation like South Africa did from apartheid. “I don’t think they were too happy with me,” he told Al Jazeera. At the time, he was on an aid mission delivering medical supplies to the occupied West Bank and met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. It took his organization 12 weeks to circumvent the Israeli government’s obstruction to get the aid to its destination.

He also recalls offending other regional organizations. On one occasion, he called the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah “Hebushaitain” (the organization of Satan) for attacking a Gift of the Givers hospital in northern Syria, while also fighting against the Free Syrian Army during the country’s civil war. During an aid trip to Somalia in the early 2000s, Sooliman told the armed group al-Shabab, who were curious about his activities in the region, that he was not there to take sides but to help the victims of the conflict. “They allowed us to do our work,” he said. The armed group allowed Gift of the Givers to continue working on the condition that “we are not here to take sides,” he said, calling his neutral and impartial approach his “secret of success” in his work.

Meanwhile, on a personal level, Sooliman rarely takes a break and remains closely involved in every aspect of his organization’s work, no matter how small. “Whatever we do, we oversee everything. I’m involved in it. Most of my time is taken up looking after projects. I don’t know another life. I’ve been doing it for 32 years,” he said. Sooliman has more than 200 public engagements scheduled for 2024 – switching between projects, public events, protest rallies, corporate events, fundraising, and official government functions. “My daughter says I live on an airplane,” he joked. He recalled having to rush away from his daughter’s wedding celebrations in December 2010 to respond to a flood in Soweto, south of Johannesburg. “My house was full of guests, and I had to go back to work.” It seems that every time his family urges him to take a break, a national disaster breaks out, ruining his plans. “The disaster business is 365 days a year,” he joked.

His efforts have won him support from different religious and cultural groups, as well as civil society, journalists, and the public. “There is a lot of sincerity behind his actions. That sincerity touches people’s hearts. It attracts support and cultivates love,” said Azhar Vadi, the head of the Johannesburg-based non-profit Salaam Foundation, which is also a player in the local aid sector, speaking about Sooliman. For journalist Haffajee, Gift of the Givers’ solidarity “transcends the north, south, east, and west”. The organization “is my measure of what is good in the world and in this country,” she said. Since Sooliman first provided aid to Palestine in 2002, his organization has steadily increased its outreach there. In 2009, after Israel’s three-week assault on the besieged Gaza, Gift of the Givers responded to a call for medical assistance. Sooliman led an aid mission at the time and again when the Gaza war broke out in 2014.

Since the start of the 2023 genocide, he has provided aid, including $250,000 worth of medical equipment for Gaza, sponsored by South Africa’s Aspen, and committed to upgrading the al-Shifa hospital; establishing bakeries, and helping to set up desalination plants. The foundation also helps Palestinian refugee families currently in Egypt and supports medical students completing their studies in South Africa. Meanwhile, Sooliman has also been vocal for justice for Palestine, including redoubling calls to end the war and urging Israel to release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital. Despite concerns that his outspoken stance on Palestine could impact the organization’s other work, Sooliman is determined not to back down – and says the approach may even have helped them. “People were calling and saying ‘What about the corporate funding?’ I said, ‘What about corporate? God provides for corporate; he can take it away anytime.’ ‘Then, the opposite happened: more corporates came with more funding,” the passionate humanitarian said.