Anti-apartheid movement to rally global support for Palestinian plight
A group of activists has announced plans to hold an international conference next year focusing on the plight of Palestinians and their quest for self-determination.
Tuesday’s announcement came amid an ongoing bombing campaign by the Israel Defence Forces on Gaza.
The siege was sparked by Palestinian militants bursting through Israel's heavily fortified Gaza border, shooting, stabbing and burning to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.
Shell-shocked Israel has responded with withering air strikes that have killed more than 2,700 people, also mainly civilians. It has also imposed a crippling siege on Gaza and deployed tens of thousands of troops to the border in preparation for a full-scale ground offensive.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas while also seeking to rescue the at least 199 hostages taken into Gaza.
At a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, the South Africa Anti-Apartheid Steering Committee announced the launch of a Global Anti-Apartheid Movement against what it believes to be colonialism and 'apartheid' perpetrated by Israel.
Anti-apartheid activist Reverent Frank Chikane will lead the committee.
He said the decision to mobilise support for the Palestinian people was made long before the recent escalation in violence.
"The recognition of apartheid as a crime against humanity and the meaningful global solidarity with the people’s struggle on the ground – particularly expressed in cutting links of state, corporate and institutional complicity in apartheid – paved the way to freedom and democracy for the people in Southern Africa and their ongoing struggle to end economic inequalities.
“The international conference will be the first concrete step in this strategy towards the launch of a Global Anti-Apartheid Movement in support of the struggle of Palestinians against Israel’s Apartheid Regime”.
Chikane said the conference will plan the way for global action against Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
"It aims to develop political, legal, public diplomacy and media plans based on the Unified Anti-Apartheid Call to further isolate Israel’s regime of oppression and hold it accountable, including to support or otherwise help initiate policy-level campaigns and lobbying efforts aimed at pressuring the UN, regional bodies, and states to impose targeted, lawful sanctions, as was done against apartheid South Africa.
“The key objective of the conference is the mobilisation of the Global Anti-Apartheid Movement to hold Israel accountable for its crime of apartheid against the Palestinians and work to dismantle Israeli Apartheid from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”
Chikane says the committee will mobilise MPS, civil societies, representatives of political parties, trade unions and faith-based organisations ahead of the conference.
"The regional consultative meetings are being planned to cover Europe, the Arab region, Asia-Pacific region, North America, South America, and Africa.”
#PalestineIsraelwar Rev Chikane says failure to implement the solutions for the Palestinians and Israelis to live together has led to the war that could have been avoided.
— Jacaranda News (@JacaNews) October 17, 2023
“If the two state solution was implemented we wouldn’t have the war,” pic.twitter.com/WQDkn7fP6y
