Dear Friends and Comrades,
Join us this Monday, the 15th of April, at a protest against Yom Ha'azamaut/Israeli Independence Day:
Date: Monday 15th April
Time: 18h00
Venue: Gold Reef City Casino, Ormonde, Johannesburg
Contact: 0842119988 / 0715028674
Endorsed by: BDS South Africa, Cosatu, Kairos Southern Africa,
CFP, MRN, MSA, PSA, PSC, YCL, SACP, SA Artists Against
Apartheid, South African Students Congress, South African Council of
Churches Youth Forum, StopTheJNF and others
The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is directly linked to several massacres, deliberate expulsions, the destruction of over 400 Palestinian villages and the systematic dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian people. More than 700 000 Palestinians became refugees in neighboring countries due to Israel's violent establishment in 1948 in Palestine. Palestinian refugees and their descendants are the largest population of refugees in the world, who have for the last 65 years been denied the "right to return" to their homes by the State of Israel. While Israeli supporters "celebrate" Israeli Independence Day, Palestinians, progressive Israelis, supporters of justice and peace-loving peoples of the world mark the day as Al-Nakba (meaning the "catastrophe").
This year, supporters of Israel are to hold a music concert titled, "The Miracle of Israel: A Symphonic Celebration", at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg to "celebrate" Israeli Independence Day on Monday the 15th of April. We call on all peace-loving people to join us in protesting this Israeli "celebration" (which, essentially, is a celebration of death, expulsion and continued Israeli oppression against the indigenous Palestinian people). Furthermore, we call on all artists that are scheduled to perform at this year's Gold Reef City Israeli "celebration" to cancel their acts as the concert also violates the international boycott of Israel by having partnered with Israeli State entities including the notorious Israeli airline company, EL AL.
--------------------
In protesting against Israeli Independence Day we are in good company. Below is an extract from a widely distributed statement rejecting Israeli Independence Day, that was published in the Citizen Newspaper and signed by several senior South Africans:
"We, South Africans who faced the might of unjust and brutal apartheid machinery in South Africa and fought against it with all our strength, with the objective to live in a just, democratic society, refuse today to celebrate the existence of an Apartheid state in the Middle East. While Israel and its apologists around the world will, with pomp and ceremony, loudly proclaim ... the establishment of the state of Israel this month, we who have lived with and struggled against oppression and colonialism will, instead, remember 6 decades of catastrophe for the Palestinian people. We who fought all our lives for South Africa to be a state for its entire people, demand that millions of Palestinian refugees must be accorded the right to return to the homes from where they were expelled...Apartheid was a gross violation of human rights. It was so in South Africa and it is so with regard to Israel’s persecution of the Palestinians."
SIGNATORIES INCLUDE:
Zwelinzima Vavi (General Secretary of COSATU), Derek Hanekom (Minister of Science and Technology), Rob Davies (Minister of Trade and Industry), Blade Nzimande (Minister of Higher Education), Jeremy Cronin (Deputy Minister of Public Works), Enver Surty (Deputy Minister of Basic Education), the late Roy Padayache (Former Minister of Public Service), Dr Essop Pahad (Former Minister in the Presidency), Ronnie Kasrils (Former Minister of Intelligence), Mosibudi Mangena (Former Minister of Science and Technology), Sydney Mufamadi (Former Minister of Provincial and Local Government), Pallo Jordan (Former Minister of Arts and Culture), Frene Ginwala (Former Speaker of Parliament), Ben Turok (Member of Parliament), Max Ozinsky (African National Congress), Mosioua Terror Lekota (Leader of COPE), Costa Gazi (Pan Africanist Congress), Adam Habib (Vice-Chancellor Designate at Wits University), Professor Steven Friedman (University of Johannesburg), Sam Ramsamy (International Olympic Committee), Yasmin Sooka (Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights), Pregs Govender (South African Human Rights Commission), Andile Mngxitama (Foundation for Human Rights), Elinor Sisulu (Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition), Allan Horwitz (Jewish Voices), Jackie Dugard (Human Rights Lawyer), Shereen Mills (Centre for Applied Legal Studies), Bobby Peek (Environmental activist at Groundwork), Stiaan van der Merwe (Kairos Southern Africa), Eddie Makue (Former General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches), Reverend Basil Manning (United Congregational Church of Southern Africa), Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro (Satirist and Political Cartoonist), Ahmed Kathrada (Robben Island Prisoner) and Denis Goldberg (Rivonia Trialist).
Finally, if you would like to learn more about Israeli Independence Day and the Nakba, see this YouTube lecture by Israeli historian, Professor Ilan Pappe: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV9gv7w3pLY
BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT AND SANCTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA (BDS SOUTH AFRICA)
Office 915 | 9th Floor | Khotso House | 62 Marshall Street | Johannesburg
PO Box 2318 | Houghton | 2041 | Johannesburg
T: +27 (0) 11 492 2414 | F: +27 (0) 86 650 4836
W: www.bdssouthafrica.com | E: administrator@bdssouthafrica.com
www.facebook.com/bdssouthafrica | www.twitter.com/bdssouthafrica
BDS South Africa is a registered Non-Profit Organization. NPO NUMBER: 084 306 NPO
BDS South Africa is a registered Public Benefit Organisation with Section 18A status. PBO NUMBER: 930 037 446
