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<h1 id="reader-title">The Spirit of Nelson Mandela in Palestine:
Is His Real Legacy Being Upheld?</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">by <span
class="post_author" itemprop="author"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/author/ramzy-baroud/"
rel="nofollow">Ramzy Baroud</a>, May 6, 2016<br>
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<p>I had mixed feelings when I learned that Palestine has
erected a statue of Nelson Mandela, the iconic South
African anti-Apartheid leader. On the one hand, I was
quite pleased that the unmistakable connection between
the struggles of Palestinians and South Africans is
cemented more than ever before. On the other hand, I
dreaded that rich, corrupt Palestinians in Ramallah are
utilizing the image of Mandela to acquire badly-needed
political capital.</p>
<p>The six-meter bronze statue now stands in its own
Nelson Mandela Square in Al-Tireh neighborhood in
Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority headquarters
are based. The PA is known for its endemic political and
financial corruption. In some ways, its survival is both
essential for the richest Palestinian class and also for
the Israeli military Occupation.</p>
<p>Thus, it was quite disheartening to witness the
travesty of political theater where the likes of PA
President, Mahmoud Abbas, who rules with a long-expired
mandate, unveiling the statue in a ceremony attended by
his ministers and foreign diplomats.</p>
<p>The statue was a gift from the City of Johannesburg,
and its costs of R6 million was paid for by the people
of that city, whose solidarity with Palestine is rooted
in a long history, that of blood and tears, and the
haunting cries of pain and freedom. At that, the gift is
most appreciated.</p>
<p>But the Mandela that now stands erect in Ramallah has
been incorporated into the zeitgeist of this city,
particularly the rich and beaming neighborhood of
massive white-stone villas and luxury cars.</p>
<p>It would have meant much more if it had stood in the
center of Gaza, a city that is withstanding an ongoing
genocide; in the heart of Jenin, a town known for its
bravery and hardship; in Al-Khalil, in Nablus or in Khan
Younis. Seeing rich Palestinian officials and
businessmen rubbing shoulders with unmistakable
giddiness while fighting for space before the many
cameras, made the occasion vastly less special.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, the main location of the Nelson Mandela
Square and statue in Sandton City in Johannesburg is
equally unsettling. I visited the place more than once,
and despite my immense admiration for Mandela, it failed
to move me.</p>
<p>The commercial atmosphere there felt as if it was an
attempt at redefining who Mandela was: from a populist
leader and a former prisoner with proud ties to the
Communist Party to an emasculated icon, a warm, fuzzy
figure with no radical roots.</p>
<p>Worse, he is being promoted as if a merchandise within
a precarious neoliberal marketplace, where revolutionary
values are shunned and everything is on sale. This is
how the Sandton City website describes the square:</p>
<p>“Home to some of South Africa’s finest restaurants,
exclusive couture and designer labels and a European
styled piazza, Nelson Mandela Square offers chic
sophistication, culture and glamour, all under the
African sun.”</p>
<p>Yet, the Mandela that is promoted by some in South
Africa and their counterparts in Palestine is
fundamentally different from the Mandela many of us knew
about. The man passed away on December 5, 2013, but he
clearly left behind two legacies, one celebrated in
Palestinian refugee camps and South Africa’s slums,
while another is sold to the culturally ‘sophisticated’
tourists and Ramallah’s corrupt class.</p>
<p>The name ‘Nelson Mandela’ was a staple in my family,
living in a dilapidated refugee camp in Gaza under
military Occupation and the constant threat of violence.
We rushed to the television to watch whenever his name
was mentioned in the news. The finest young men in camp
were chased down, beaten, arrested and shot while trying
to write his name on the decaying walls of our humble
dwellings.</p>
<p>That was the Mandela I knew, and most Palestinians
remember with adoration and respect. The one standing in
Ramallah, unveiled by those Palestinians who speak
proudly of conducting ‘security coordination’ with
Israel – as in jointly cracking down on Palestinian
Resistance – is a whole different Mandela.</p>
<p>He is a different Mandela because Abbas and his
Authority do not, in the least, embody the spirit of
Mandela the freedom fighter, the defiant prisoner, the
unifying leader, the champion of a boycott movement.</p>
<p>In fact, the Palestinian leadership as represented in
the unelected government of Abbas in Ramallah, is yet to
endorse the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), itself modeled after the
South Africa boycott movement.</p>
<p>Instead, Abbas’ PA has wasted over 20 years of
nonsensical and futile negotiations, collaborated with
Israel, divided the ranks of Palestinians and is
actively involved in suppressing Palestinian Resistance
in the West Bank.</p>
<p>With his popularity falling to an all-time low among
Palestinians, Abbas is desperate to concoct hollow
victories, and insist on presenting himself as a
national liberation leader, despite all evidence to the
contrary.</p>
<p>But the bond between South Africa and Palestine is much
greater than a photo-op in Ramallah, involving
well-dressed men repeating insincere clichés about peace
and freedom. I dare say it is bigger than Mandela
himself, regardless of which legacy we insist on
remembering him by. It is a link that has been baptized
in the blood of the poor and the innocent and the
tenacious struggle of millions of black and brown
Africans and Palestinian Arabs.</p>
<p>I was fortunate enough to experience this for myself.</p>
<p>In my last South African speaking tour a few years ago,
I was approached by two South African men. They seemed
particularly grateful for reasons that initially eluded
me. “We want to thank you so much for your support of
our struggle against apartheid,” one said with so much
sincerity and palpable emotions.</p>
<p>It made sense. Palestinians saw the struggle of their
black brethren as their own struggle. But the two men
were not referring to sentimentalities. While the
Israeli government, military and intelligence supported
the apartheid government in many ways, the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) had actually trained and
equipped ANC fighters. Cuba and others did too, but to
think that the then Palestinian leadership had the kind
of political consciousness to extend a hand of
solidarity to a nation fighting for its freedom, while
the Palestinian people were themselves still enduring
that same fight, filled me with pride.</p>
<p>Those men told me that they still hold onto their
PLO-supplied military uniforms, even after all these
years. We embraced and parted ways but, with time, I
came to realize that the present struggle against
apartheid in Palestine is not merely similar to that of
South Africa. Both struggles are extensions of the same
movement, the same fight for freedom and, in fact,
against the same enemy.</p>
<p>When Nelson Mandela said, “We know all too well that
our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the
Palestinians,” he was not trying to be cordial or
diplomatic. He meant every word.</p>
<p>Someday, we hope that a statue of Mandela, one that
represents the spirit of Resistance in Palestine, will
stand tall amid the people who championed his cause and
loved him most.</p>
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<p class="author_description"> <em><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong>
has been writing about the Middle East for over 20
years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a
media consultant, an author of several books and the
founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My
Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto
Press, London). His website is: ramzybaroud.net</em> </p>
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