Dear Friends and Comrades,
 
The Thinker magazine, Real African Publishers and BDS South Africa invite you to the book launch of former Swedish diplomat, Mats Svensson's, new photobook: "Crimes, Victims & Witnesses - Apartheid in Palestine". The 295-page photobook is a collection of over 150 images (with accompanying narration) from Svensson's recent four-year stay in Palestine-Israel.
 
BOOK LAUNCH DETAILS
DAY: Monday, 08 April 2013
TIME: 18h30
VENUE: The Sanctury, Freedom Park (Corner Koch Road and 7th Avenue, Salvokop, Tshwane/Pretori)
FACEBOOK: http://tinyurl.com/cwpt2qp
RSVP: angela@ste.co.za / 083 297 7679
BOOK: "Crimes, Victims and Witnesses - Apartheid in Palestine" by Mats Svensson
GUESTS: Mats Svensson (author), Dr Essop Pahad (former SA Minister in the Presidency), Tamer Almassri (Embassy of Palestinian Authority in South Africa)
 
Svensson spent four years in Palestine-Israel during which he would take walks along Israel's 800 kilometer long Separation Wall (ruled illegal in 2004 by the International Court of Justice). Svensson's book, "Crimes, Victims and Witnesses — Apartheid in Palestine", is a photographic recollection of conversations, interactions and encounters during those walks along Israel's Separation Wall (otherwise and more commonly referred to as, Israel's "Apartheid Wall").
 
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Mats Svensson, is a former Swedish diplomat, development worker for SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and a professional photographer. In the preface of his book, "Crimes, Victims and Witnesses — Apartheid in Palestine", he writes: "I went to Congo fourteen years after France had left; I went to Bangladesh six years after Pakistan had been beaten; I went to Eritrea six years after its independence, and I came to South Africa six years after the apartheid regime had given up. But sadly, I was not late in Palestine. In Palestine the [Israeli] occupation has been deepened, the colonialism is a fact on the ground and Palestinians are living under the most effective apartheid rule..."
 
Here is an extract from the foreword written by former South African Government Minister, Dr Essop Pahad: "'Crimes, Victims and Witnesses - Apartheid in Palestine' is not a tirade against the occupying power [Israel]. Rather it is a collection of impressions gathered by a man taking long walks along a very long and ugly wall [Israel's Separation Wall]...a man who watched and listened and documented exactly what he saw. So you and I can see, and hopefully feel, the sensations of lives so blighted..."
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Finally, here is an interesting video of an open letter from South Africa to the Palestinian people that was recently spray-painted on Israel's Apartheid Wall: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1skU_nVaMl8
 
 
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