South Africa learnt to forgive, but not forget
I DON’T know who is the receiver of “fake news” between the South African government or Rodney Mazinter (Daily News, August 25).
Let’s look at the facts and let the reader decide.
In disaster situations it’s immaterial whose plane landed first; it’s the quality and consistency of service to humanity that’s of paramount importance.
Respectfully, the prize for unabated services in terms of skills and rapid response in disaster management goes to a South African team under the banner of the Gift of the Givers.
Proud South Africans will identify with organisations of this calibre whose services cut across all racial, national and religious barriers. However, Israel’s late entry into the club is most welcome.
In the words of Nelson Mandela, “South Africa will never be free until Palestine is free”.
Despite the close relationship Israel shared with the apartheid regime, more especially in the military field, which prolonged our struggle for liberation, we learnt to forgive – but not forget.
Palestine was our staunchest ally and the ANC will not sacrifice old friends for the sake of expediency.
The unconscionable atrocities committed by the Israeli military against unarmed people is beyond comprehension.
The blockade of Gaza, resulting in asphyxiation by depriving them of food, medicine, water and much more, is cruelty the likes of which the world has never seen.
Women giving birth at checkpoints, children and mothers dying in the process, soldiers barging into hospitals to accomplish their nefarious objectives, houses being destroyed as collective punishment – the list goes on.
The Declaration of Conscience document drawn up by Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky denounced the treatment meted out to Palestinians and likened Israel to an apartheid state.
The document had the support of 200 Jewish academia.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem also states that Israel has clear similarities with the racist apartheid regime.
In contrast, Percy Yutar, who led a “successful” prosecution resulting in the conviction of Mandela, was honoured by the Jewish state.
Helen Suzman, who received awards from international Zionist organisations claiming that it was her Judaic roots that had driven her, replied: “When I said I didn’t have a Jewish upbringing and that I went to a convent, which didn’t influence me either, they said it was not actively but instinctively.”
In summing up, in the words of Krausz, a Holocaust survivor living in Johannesburg, “Those blokes who say in the Bible that this land is ours – God gave it to us; it’s fascism.” AL GAFOOR Retreat