[News] The Africa-Palestine Conference: Why South Africa Must Lead the Way

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2019/10/1/The-Africa-Palestine-Conference-Why-South-Africa-Must-Lead-the-Way 



  The Africa-Palestine Conference: Why South Africa Must Lead the Way

By Ramzy Baroud - October 1, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------
On September 16, I visited South Africa, a country where many 
Palestinians have always felt welcomed, if not overwhelmed by the degree 
of genuine and meaningful solidarity.

While having the honor to address many audiences in six, major cities, I 
have also learned a great deal. An important and sobering lesson is that 
while apartheid laws can be dismissed in a day, economic apartheid and 
massive inequality can linger on for many years. Thanks to my 
interactions with many South African intellectuals, activists and 
ordinary folk, I learned not to romanticize the South African struggle, 
a crucial lesson for those of us fighting to end Israeli apartheid in 
Palestine.

My hosts at the Afro-Middle East Center ensured that I met with diverse 
audiences, including top members of the African National Congress, the 
leadership of the country’s two, major union groups, anti-apartheid 
scholars and activists, and a large number of students and other people 
throughout the country.

The main, obvious conclusion from all of these meetings and interactions 
is that South Africans are serious about their solidarity with Palestine 
and that they see themselves as partners in the Palestinian struggle for 
justice and peace.

While South Africans are always ready to take their solidarity with 
Palestine to a whole new level, however, there is a general feeling that 
decisive political moves can prove costly for South Africa.

True, the South African government has taken several steps in the right 
direction. On May 14, 2018, Pretoria recalled its ambassador to Israel, 
Sisa Ngombane, to protest the killing of hundreds of unarmed protesters 
taking part in the Great March of Return in besieged Gaza. On April 5, 
2019, it began to actively downgrade its ties with Israel, in response 
to a call made by the ANC leadership itself.

While these steps are significant, South Africa is yet to take the kind 
of action that, when combined with others measures of international 
solidarity, could finally force Israel to dismantle its system of 
Apartheid in Palestine.

The problem is not the lack of willingness nor that of diplomatic 
doublespeak. There is a growing and justifiable, sense that Arab 
governments no longer see the liberation of Palestine as a common 
objective. While the Arab peoples remain committed in their support of 
Palestinians, Arab governments have fallen into warring camps and 
political divisions.

Yet, a top ANC leader told me that South Africa’s policy regarding 
Palestine is guided by the agendas of the Arab League and the Palestine 
Liberation Organization (PLO). Sadly, neither the Arab League nor the 
PLO are serving the roles they were entrusted with decades ago. The 
former is marred in divisions, and the latter has been effectively 
replaced by the provisional, factional Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

Using ineffectual organizations as a legal and moral frame of reference 
is hurting South Africa’s chances of converting its solidarity with 
Palestine into tangible political assets.

The other dilemma is that the African continent itself is no longer 
united regarding Palestine. Israel has successively driven a wedge 
between African countries, which, at one point, were united in their 
unconditional support of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli 
military occupation and Apartheid.

Israel’s successes in Africa, especially through the penetration of the 
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), have made Tel Aviv a 
political player on the African continent. Boosted by the welcome he 
received from various African leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu 
had hoped to hold the Israel-Africa Summit in October 2017. Thanks to 
the efforts of African countries like South Africa and Algeria, the 
conference was postponed.

If Israel continues to score political victories while facing little 
resistance, however, it will eventually dominate the African continent. 
The absurdity of this matter goes beyond the struggle in Palestine. A 
continent that was ravaged by colonialism, racism, and apartheid should 
not embrace the likes of Israel, the exemplification of the very ills 
that have cost Africa so dearly for hundreds of years.

In fact, the issue of solidarity with Palestine, and the pressing need 
to block Israel’s scourges in Africa are intrinsically linked. In this 
very link, South Africa can find a way to reclaim its natural role as a 
vanguard against racism and apartheid everywhere.

My suggestion to the ANC is that South Africa should update its frame of 
reference, moving away from tired clichés of a defunct, two-state 
solution and such, to a whole new way of thinking. And it should not go 
about doing it alone; all of Africa and all Palestinians should be part 
of this effort.

I strongly believe that South Africa is ready to counter Israel’s 
efforts on the continent by initiating an Africa-Palestine Conference, a 
major gathering that aims to harness all the solidarity for the 
Palestinian people throughout all African countries.

Whether the conference is held under the auspices of the African Union 
(AU) or independently, the gathering of like-minded African and 
Palestinian leaders, parliamentarians, scholars and civil society 
leaders can develop a new frame of reference, which South Africa, the 
African continent, and, in fact, the rest of the world can use as a 
guiding principle of new thinking on Palestine. Based on the call made 
by Palestinian civil society in 2005 to boycott Israel, the Palestinian 
people have been demanding and expecting this new thinking for at least 
15 years.

Those who might find the idea that Africa can lead the way on forming a 
new, global understanding on Palestine far-fetched, need to remember 
that it was the Organization of African Unity’s resolution 77 (XII) of 
August 1975 that recognized and condemned the “organic link” between 
“the racist regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regime in 
Zimbabwe and South Africa”. That very resolution served as a major frame 
of reference used in UN Resolution 3379 of November 1975 that determined 
that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”.

Africa must reclaim its position as a global leader in the fight against 
racism and apartheid, and South Africa is very qualified to spearhead 
these efforts, because, after all, as iconic South African leader Nelson 
Mandela once said, “We all know too well that our freedom is incomplete 
without the freedom of the Palestinians”.

/- Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and editor of Palestine 
Chronicle. He has authored a number of books on the Palestinian struggle 
including ‘The Last Earth: A Palestinian Story’. Baroud has a Ph.D. in 
Palestine Studies from the University of Exeter and is a Non-Resident 
Scholar at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, 
University of California Santa Barbara./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20191002/98d74bdd/attachment.htm>