Dear friends, 

 

Below is a reminder of four upcoming Israeli Apartheid Week events:

 

Public Seminar: "Understanding the need for Israeli Apartheid Week"

Wednesday, 07 March @ 13h30 (Politics Department, Rhodes University) 

Speakers: Professor John Rose (Author of "The Myths of Zionism") and Professor Robert van Niekerk (Director and Professor of Social Policy)

 

Public discussion: "100 Years of the ANC - Lessons for our solidarity with Palestinians resisting Israeli Apartheid" 

Thursday, 05 March @ 18h30 (Council Chambers, Madibeng Building, University of Johannesburg)

Speakers: Rivonia Trialist, Denis Goldberg; UJ Political Commentator, Steven Friedman; and, with an opening message from struggle stalwart, Ahmed "Kathy" Kathrada

 

Public Discussion: "The Israel Apartheid Analogy" 

Thursday, 08 March 18h00 (LS2D, Leslie Social Science Building, University of Cape Town)

Speakers: Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro, Professor Allan Boesak, Ronnie Kasrils (former Minister of Intelligence), Terry Crawford-Brown (Author: "Eye On The Money")

 

 

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events (including rallies, lectures, cultural performances, films and workshops) held in cities and campuses across the globe - including 9 South African universities and 15 SA cities. IAW seeks to raise awareness about Israel's apartheid policies toward the Palestinians and to mobilize support for the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel movement. Click here for the full schedule of Israeli Apartheid Week events and actions taking place across South Africa.

Finally, we were recently informed that the Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ebrahim Ebrahim, will be speaking this week at a Cape Town event on the topic: "Palestine and South Africa: Partners in a struggle for a better world".

 

The South African liberation movement has consistently supported the Palestinian struggle, however, the South African Apartheid government relied on the Israeli regime for weapons and other resources when the rest of the world had imposed boycotts and sanctions. It was, after all, the architect of apartheid in South Africa, Hendrik Verwoed, who said in 1963: "Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state." This South Africa-Israel relationship has changed since 1994. South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) has in recent years called on the Israeli government “to cease their activities that are reminiscent of apartheid forced removals…” and has also, in an act of diplomatic protest against Israel's killing of humanitarian aid workers to Gaza, recalled the South African ambassador to Israel.

CAPE TOWN: South African Deputy Minister of International Relations speaks on Palestine

Public rally: "Palestine and South Africa: Partners in a struggle for a better world" 

Wednesday, 7 March 2012 @ 19h45 (Academia Centre, 409 Lansdowne Rd, Lansdowne)

Speakers: Ebrahim Ebrahim, Deputy Minister of International Relations and ANC NEC member

 

Strength to all those that are organizing Israeli Apartheid Week events!

"Do not tell us to wait for reforms. Do not tell us to wait for the apartheid cancer in our society to prescribe its own cure…Do not tell us to be non-violent. Tell the apartheid regime to stop its violence against our people. Do not tell us that sanctions will harm the oppressed people of South Africa. In the darkness of the suffering caused by the system of apartheid in the daily lives of the people and the suffering caused by the State terrorism employed to maintain the system, it is an impertinence to say: We will not impose sanctions so that you will not suffer."