There has at all times been a particular bond between the liberation struggles in South Africa and Palestine, rooted of their shared expertise of brutal settler colonial oppression.
The horrors of the Israeli assault on Gaza and its persons are past phrases. But, as we watch a whole lot of 1000’s of Palestinians make their means throughout the ruins of Gaza to return to the place their houses as soon as stood, we can not assist however admire their resilience and their refusal to be displaced from their land and nation.
Israel failed in its said goal to place an finish to armed resistance in Gaza. It didn’t terrorise the folks of Gaza into exile. However the killing and the theft of land continues within the West Financial institution and Israel can’t be trusted to carry the ceasefire in Gaza in good religion.
The circumstances below which the Palestinian persons are topic to cruel oppression stay. The world order by which Israel and the West, and its numerous proxy states, are granted impunity for legal and even genocidal conduct endures.
Issues may get even worse. With Donald Trump within the White Home, and Elon Musk and different tech barons at his aspect, lots of them fanatical Zionists, the risks dealing with Palestine have intensified to unprecedented ranges. A brutal convergence of authoritarianism, company profiteering and unbridled imperial vanity is below means.
Trump’s latest remark, echoing a earlier assertion by his son-in-law, that he desires to “simply clear out” Gaza with the assistance of Jordan and Egypt is a transparent indication that, like essentially the most right-wing parts in Israel, he aspires to the whole destruction of Gaza as a Palestinian territory. His presentation of the land of an oppressed folks, within the language of the true property huckster, as a “phenomenal location on the ocean” is completely chilling.
Resistance inside Palestine is making ready to carry agency. Palestinians are starting the work of remaking houses from rubble. However below these circumstances it’s also important that worldwide solidarity with Palestine is intensified. Solidarity is required within the type of mixed motion by odd folks, standard organisations and states.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions marketing campaign stays a vital tactic, as do actions like pupil occupations, dock employees refusing to dump ships carrying weapons, coal or gasoline to Israel, and actions by states to power Israel to carry to worldwide legislation.
A number of states have already taken principled actions. South Africa charged Israel with genocide on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice (ICJ) in January final 12 months. In August final 12 months, Namibia refused to permit a ship carrying army cargo to Israel to dock at its Walvis Bay port. Colombia stopped coal exports to Israel in June final 12 months and expelled the Israeli ambassador in October. Together with Colombia, Bolivia, and Chile have additionally recalled their ambassadors from Israel.
However as we lately witnessed with Trump’s open and boorish intimidation of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, following Petro’s determination to disclaim touchdown rights to 2 US army plane carrying deported Colombian residents, any nation that stands as much as the US alone stays weak.
Trump’s thuggish response to Petro is a part of a broader try by the US, with the backing of right-wing forces and governments elsewhere, to crush any assertion of political independence from the West, together with the spirit of principled multilateralism.
After South Africa charged Israel with genocide final 12 months, the hysterically pro-Western a part of the media at house went into howling assault mode. Naledi Pandor, on the time South Africa’s extremely principled overseas minister, was vilified by these forces at house and attacked overseas.
The ANC was repeatedly accused, with no proof being supplied, of getting been bribed by Iran to take Israel to the ICJ. With barely veiled racism a principled place was misrepresented as a transactional, corruption-driven deal.
In February 2024, the South Africa Bilateral Relations Assessment Act was launched into the US Congress. It proposed to implement a evaluation of the connection between the US and South Africa citing, amongst different claims, South Africa submitting a “politically motivated and unfounded case” towards Israel on the ICJ.
On 9 January this 12 months, the US Home of Representatives handed the “Illegitimate Courtroom Counteraction Act” which goals to impose sanctions on people related to the Worldwide Legal Courtroom who pursue investigations or prosecutions towards US residents or these of allied nations, reminiscent of Israel.
However there’s additionally a countervailing transfer in the direction of higher solidarity with Palestine and towards imperialism. After its method to the ICJ South Africa was much less remoted and weak after international locations reminiscent of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Eire, Mexico, Namibia and Spain joined its case. Tentative prospects for a renewal of the spirit of internationalism started to emerge.
When the ICJ issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant on 21 November 2024 a transparent worldwide cut up was evident. International locations like Argentina, Austria, Hungary, Poland and the UK rushed to sentence the courtroom. However a major variety of international locations welcomed the actions of the courtroom. There was an growing sense {that a} essential mass of nations, largely within the International South, wouldn’t be intimidated into complicity with genocide.
On this context, the announcement on 31 January that 9 international locations had shaped The Hague Group and dedicated to “coordinated authorized, financial and diplomatic measures” towards Israel is a major advance in constructing international solidarity with Palestine.
The 9 international locations — Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa — have collectively agreed on a set of shared commitments. These are to uphold the arrest warrants issued towards Israeli officers by the Worldwide Legal Courtroom; stop the availability or switch of arms, munitions and associated gear to Israel the place there’s a clear threat that they is likely to be used to violate worldwide legislation and stop the docking of vessels at any of their ports the place there’s a threat of the vessel getting used to hold army gasoline and weaponry to Israel.
Ronald Lamola, South Africa’s minister of worldwide relations and cooperation, has, like his predecessor Pandor, courageously taken a principled place on the query of Palestine. As he remarked: “The Hague Group’s formation marks a turning level within the international response to exceptionalism and the broader erosion of worldwide legislation. It sends a transparent message — no nation is above the legislation and no crime will go unanswered.”
Yvonne Dausab, Namibia’s minister of justice, has additionally been exemplary in her dedication to solidarity with Palestine. “The world can not stand by and watch,” she stated, “once we made a dedication greater than 75 years in the past, that by no means once more shall the world undergo atrocities. We can’t be, and should not be, selective about defending lives, no matter who the victims are — all lives matter, Palestinian lives matter.”
There has at all times been a particular bond between the liberation struggles in South Africa and Palestine, rooted of their shared expertise of brutal settler colonial oppression. The defeat of Israel would require the same triangulation of forces to those who defeated apartheid: the resistance of the Palestinian folks, solidarity from odd folks world wide and unified motion by states keen to face as much as the West.
The rising bloc of African and Latin American international locations, together with Malaysia, which have shaped the Hague Group, have to be expanded.
As Amilcar Cabral famously stated: “We’re not going to remove imperialism by shouting insults towards it.” Imperialism can solely be defeated by constructing strong types of counter energy and that requires solidarity between folks, organisations and international locations. The formation of the Hague Group is a second to have fun and to construct on.
Ronnie Kasrils is a liberation battle veteran and South Africa’s former minister of intelligence providers. That is an edited model of the article first revealed in The Tribune (UK) and The Jacobin (US).