[News] South Africa ambassador rejects gift from Israel, condemns “replication of apartheid”

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  South Africa ambassador rejects gift from Israel, condemns
  “replication of apartheid”

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Wed, 06/19/2013
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/south-africa-ambassador-rejects-gift-israel-condemns-replication-apartheid

South Africa <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/south-africa>’s former 
ambassador in Tel Aviv has publicly rejected a gift from the Israeli 
government, of 18 trees planted in his name by the Jewish National Fund 
(JNF) <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jnf>, on land violently 
expropriated from its Palestinian owners.

Ismail Coovadia, a former anti-apartheid activist, and a member of the 
ruling African National Congress 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/african-national-congress-anc>, was 
presented with a JNF certificate, signed by Rafael Barak, director 
general of the Israeli foreign ministry, informing him that the trees 
had been planted in his “honor.”

Coovadia was appalled at the move and, in a letter 
<http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/2011/06/letter-from-south-african-ambassador-to.html> 
posted by BDS South Africa 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds-south-africa>, explained:

    I have recently completed serving my term as the fifth Ambassador of
    democratic, non-racial South Africa to the State of Israel.

    The racist actions of the Israeli parastatal, the Jewish National
    Fund, together with various other Israeli state institutions to
    forcibly remove the Palestinians and Bedouins from their legitimate
    homes is yet another repeat of the ongoing injustice meted out by
    the Israeli Defence Forces, etc…

    I have had the opportunity to visit both, the “South Africa Forest”
    and the “Ambassador’s Forest” in Israel where trees are reportedly
    planted in the name of South Africa. In regard to the latter case,
    my queries, to the Israeli Foreign Ministry officials, have gone
    unanswered for over a year.

    Regrettably, my permission was not sought to plant a tree/s in my or
    the name of a South African Ambassador on usurped land, the rightful
    land of the Palestinians and Bedouins. I reserve the right to the
    usage of my name with or without my permission.


    “Replication of apartheid”

The JNF has planted the so-called “Ambassador’s Forest,” on land 
violently seized 
<http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/03/11/erasing-links-land-negev> from the 
Bedouin <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bedouins> village of 
al-Araqib <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/al-araqib>.

This area in the southern Naqab region is at the heart of the Bedouin to 
struggle to stay on their land in the face of imminent plans for further 
mass expulsions by the Israeli government 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora/mass-demolition-israel-ethnically-cleanses-naqab-desert> 
to make way for even more Jewish colonization.

Coovadia wrote that the Israeli acts he had seen while in his post 
amounted to a “replication of apartheid,” the system of violent racial 
segregation that was abolished in South Africa in 1994.

The JNF certificate “is nothing less than an offence to my dignity and 
integrity,” Coovadia wrote. “I was not a party to, and never will be, to 
the planting of ‘18 trees’, in my ‘honor,’ on expropriated and stolen land.”

The ambassador added that he would be returning the certificate and 
requesting that the trees be removed.

Coovadia’s letter revealing the gift was addressed to Mark Kaplan and 
Heidi Grunebaum, makers of the recent documentary /Village Under the 
Forest/, which explores the role of the JNF in planting the so-called 
“South Africa Forest” over the Israeli-destroyed Palestinian village of 
Lubya.

The JNF, which has fundraising branches in many countries, has been the 
target of a growing campaign over its involvement in Israel’s land theft 
from Palestinians.

In response to a formal complaint from the advocacy group Stop the JNF 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/stop-jnf>, the UK’s Charity 
Commission recently began an inquiry into the JNF’s involvement in 
racist activities 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/jewish-national-fund-uk-faces-official-questions-over-racial-discrimination>.

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