{"id":34762,"date":"2024-05-12T16:52:57","date_gmt":"2024-05-12T14:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=34762"},"modified":"2024-05-12T17:09:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T15:09:49","slug":"watershed-moment-anti-apartheid-conference-on-palestine-kicks-off-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=34762","title":{"rendered":"‘Watershed Moment’: Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine Kicks Off in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .<\/p>\n

An article by Brett Wilkins in Common Dreams<\/a> (\u00a0licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)<\/p>\n

As Israeli forces continued their devastating assault on the Gaza<\/a> Strip and deadly occupation of the West Bank, human rights defenders from around the world gathered Friday in South Africa\u2014which is leading a genocide case against Israel<\/a> at the World Court\u2014for the inaugural Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine. <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPalestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti and South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor hold hands and talk at the Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine in Sandton, South Africa on May 10, 2024. (Photo: Katlholo Maifadi\/DIRCO)<\/center><\/p>\n

\tThe conference began with a moment of silence for the nearly 35,000 Palestinians\u2014most of them women and children\u2014killed by Israeli troops during the 217-day war and "complete siege<\/a>," which has also wounded more than 78,000 people, displaced around 90% of the strip's population, and starved at least hundreds of thousands of others\u2014dozens of whom have died<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Israel's illegal occupation and settler colonization have intensified in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where soldiers and settlers have killed at least 467 Palestinians and wounded or arrested thousands of others\u2014some of whom were tortured<\/a>\u2014over the past seven months.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"This conference must make sure that we mobilize the world… and free the people of Palestine," Rev. Frank Chikane of the African National Congress (ANC) and World Council of Churches said at the start of the symposium.<\/p>\n

\tThanking Chikane for "spearheading" conference organizing efforts, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor hailed<\/a> the "watershed moment" of "anti-apartheid movements on Palestine from around the globe coming together and joining forces in the struggle for justice for the Palestinian people."\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"It has never been so urgent for the progressive forces around the globe to come together in a collective effort to exert maximum pressure to end the genocidal campaign underway in Gaza, and to end the apartheid system in Israel and the occupied territories, which is worse than what we experienced in our own country," she asserted, echoing past remarks<\/a> by other South Africans and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pandor highlighted South Africa's December filing<\/a> of a genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a move supported by over 30 countries and regional blocs and hundreds<\/a> of advocacy groups. In January, the ICJ found<\/a> that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza and ordered its government to prevent future genocidal acts\u2014an order human rights monitors say<\/a> Israel has ignored, largely by blocking<\/a> humanitarian aid. In March, the ICJ ordered<\/a> Israel to allow more aid into Gaza. <\/p>\n

(continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question related to this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\n

Israel\/Palestine, is the situation like South Africa?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(continued from left column)<\/p>\n

\t"We will continue to do everything within our power to preserve the existence of the Palestinian people as a group, to end all acts of apartheid and genocide against the Palestinian people, and to walk with them towards the realization of their collective right to self-determination," Pandor said. "We continue to do so following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and will not rest until the freedom of the peoples of Palestine is realized."
\n\t<\/p>\n

\n\t Ronnie Kasrils\u2014a communist who went from being a guerrilla fighter in the ANC's armed wing during the apartheid era to a government minister in a free South Africa\u2014warned against compromising in the fight for freedom. He also reaffirmed Palestinians' legal right<\/a> to "armed struggle, an international right of resistance against tyranny, against military occupation."<\/p>\n

\t"There is no need to pussyfoot around the fact when we have our discussions about the rights of the Palestinians to resist with arms," Kasrils stressed.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tPalestinian lawmaker, physician, and activist Mustafa Barghouti said that "we've woken the people of the world against genocide and injustice… and hypocrisy of international governments."\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"Israel initiated this war but Israel will not be the one who decides how it ends," he added. <\/p>\n

\n\tLamis Deek, a New York-based attorney specializing in international human rights, called for "liberation of all the land from institutions of Zionist violence and supremacy, return, reparations, justice and accountability for every Zionist crime, and restitution."<\/p>\n

\tDeclan Kearney, a member of Northern Ireland's Legislative Assembly and national chairman of the Irish republican and democratic socialist party Sinn F\u00e9in, noted<\/a> that "Palestinian and Irish freedom fighters share a special bond. Our commitment is absolute and unbreakable."\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Republic of Ireland said<\/a> in March that it would intervene in the South African ICJ case and the country\u2014along with fellow European Union members Spain, Slovenia, and Malta\u2014is set later this month to join<\/a> the nearly 140 nations that recognize Palestinian statehood.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe United Nations General Assembly voted<\/a> 143-9 on Friday to approve Palestine's bid for full U.N. membership. The United States\u2014Israel's leading international backer\u2014and Israel voted against the proposal, which will head to the U.N. Security Council and an almost certain U.S. veto.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKearney echoed other speakers who stressed the importance of international solidarity, applauding the "unprecedented" global outpouring of support for Palestine.\n<\/p>\n

\n\t"We are with the Palestinian people on their long walk to freedom and will never abandon them," he vowed.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile many Israelis and their backers bristle at the apartheid label, Palestinians and individuals ranging from Carter to the late South African bishop and human rights campaigner Desmond Tutu<\/a> to United Nations special rapporteurs<\/a> have for decades called Israel's policies and actions in Palestine apartheid.\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMajor human rights organizations\u2014including Human Rights Watch<\/a>, Amnesty International<\/a>, and the Israeli groups B'Tselem<\/a> and Yesh Din\u2014have also done so. So have prominent Israelis<\/a> including a former Mossad chief<\/a>, multiple former attorneys general and ambassadors, and a growing number of journalists, artists, veterans, and others.<\/p>\n

– – – – – –<\/p>\n

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY . An article by Brett Wilkins in Common Dreams (\u00a0licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) As Israeli forces continued their devastating assault on the Gaza Strip and deadly occupation of the West Bank, human rights defenders from around the world gathered Friday in South Africa\u2014which is leading a genocide case … Continue reading ‘Watershed Moment’: Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine Kicks Off in South Africa<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,13,74,14],"tags":[9,8],"class_list":["post-34762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-human-rights","category-mideast","category-tolerance","tag-africa","tag-mideast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}