Anti-apartheid activists deliver BDS call at ANC conference

28 october 2012, Alternative Information Center http://www.alternativenews.org (Israel)

A letter delivered to African National Congress members on 25 October, the first day of the ANC’s 3^rd International Solidarity Conference in South Africa, called for solidarity with Palestinians by adopting the 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel (BDS).

At the opening plenary former Dutch anti-apartheid activist, Adri Nieuwhof, presented a statement signed by over 150 former international anti-apartheid activists from 19 countries. The statement cites tactics employed against Apartheid South Africa: “We campaigned for a weapons embargo, an oil embargo, a Krugerrand boycott, a sports, academic and cultural boycott.” Reiterating the basic conditions of the 2005 Palestinian BDS statement, the signatories called on the ANC, South Africa’s ruling party, to press for recognition of Palestinian rights, specifically to:

“End [Israel’s] occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantle its Apartheid Wall;Recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and, Respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

The 3^rd International Solidarity Conference from 25 to 28 October is part of the centenary celebrations of the ANC and its aims to recognize the contribution of the international community to South Africa’s liberation. The key objective stated on the conference’s website, is “strengthening international solidarity in the continued pursuit of the Freedom Charter goals.” The Freedom Charter was adopted in 1955 and calls for a democratic and just South Africa for its entire population. Many compare anti-apartheid South Africa’s Freedom Charter to Palestinians’ 2005 BDS call as a rights-based means for mobilizing support.

Approximately 1000 international and South African delegates are attending the ANC Conference this week. One of the primary purposes of the Conference is to, “discuss solidarity with those still struggling for their right to self determination and against oppression and imperialism.” The ANC BDS Call presented at the conference lists prominent names including United Nations Centre Against Apartheid director, E.S. Reddy, Prexy Nesbitt of the World Council of Churches Program to Combat Racism; the acclaimed author and US civil rights activist, Alice Walker; Mireile Fanon, the daughter of Frantz Fanon and the current President of the Fanon Foundation, and Kate Glifford of the Mozambique Angola Guinea Bissau Information Committee.

The similarities between Apartheid South Africa and Israel have been heavily debated. The Russell Tribunal, NGOS such as Badil and influential individuals such as Akiva Eldar have concluded that Israel is practicing the crime of apartheid defined by the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statue as,“inhumane acts…committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”In 2009 the South African Human Sciences Research Council, in an investigation commissioned by the South African government, found that Israel, through its policies and practices, meets the legal criteria for the crime of apartheid. This week, a survey publicized by Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy shows that a significant percentage of Jewish-Israelis also consider their state to be practicing apartheid.

Levy broke the story and provided the example that, “a large majority of 69% [Jewish-Israelis] objects to giving 2.5 million Palestinians the right to vote if Israel annexes the West Bank.” Furthermore, 58% already consider Israel to practice apartheid against Palestinians. In an op-ed following release of the survey results, Levy writes: “[T]he Israelis are saying, we practice apartheid and we even want to live in an apartheid state. Yes, this is Israel.” Palestinians and international allies had been citing Israeli policies as proof of a gruesomely discriminatory and violent system of apartheid for decades, but this survey claims a significant portion of Jewish Israelis also perceive an apartheid reality.

The case being made by South Africa’s BDS coalition at the ANC Conference is that Israel’s policies contradict the Conference’s goal of promoting, “a world free of human rights abuses” and the ANC’s heritage of struggle.

State-issued sanctions of Israel have yet to be issued by any country. Very clearly, however, South Africa has been at the forefront of international BDS work. Prominent South African University of Johannesburg was the first to cut ties with an Israeli institution. Earlier this month, 12 billboards graphically explaining the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and the dispossession of Palestinians were displayed across South Africa.In May, Rob Davies, South Africa’s Minister of Trade and Industry,banned labeling productsoriginating from the occupied Palestinian territories as “Made in Israel.”

At the opening plenary Nieuwhof commented after presenting the statement that, “We once galvanized world opinion against Apartheid South Africa, the time is to now galvanize world opinion against Apartheid Israel. I am confident that the ANC will heed our call.”On Friday October 26^th, the BDS South Africa campaign reported President Jacob Zumasaying that, “except for Palestine and Western Sahara, other parts of the world have been decolonized,” a foreboding statement of congratulation to the ANC crowd.