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30 November 2007

Today we remember the anniversary of 60 years of the Palestinian catastrophe, yes Nakba - which resulted from the Zionist project of Jewish colonial settlement, dispossessing and supplanting Palestinians through the use of the Partition concept. This stemmed from the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which served British interests, as reflected in the words of Churchill who argued that a Jewish state would be 'good for Jewish people and good for Britain'. It was similar to Herzl's 'European Wall' to keep out, in his words, 'Asian barbarism'.

This clear imperialist interest was adopted by the United States after World
War II and informed its leading role in pressing for the adoption of the unfortunate United Nations Partition Plan of 1947.

This was a signal for Ben Gurion and his fellow Zionists to implement an operational plan which had been in place since 1942, where in a nutshell, a reign of terror would be unleashed against the Palestinian indigenous inhabitants, by the well-prepared, well-resourced overwhelming Zionist force, which included deliberate massacres, the sowing of panic and engendering mass flight. By the Armistice of February 1949, 56 percent of the land recommended for the Jewish state in the Partition Plan became 78 percent, with over 60 percent of the Palestinian people being ethnically cleansed from the home of their birth, forcing them to seek refuge in neighbouring Arab states.

Whilst all eyes are on Annapolis, hoping for progress from the talks, Israeli Foreign Minister, Tippi Livni has astonishingly declared: "for us the establishment of the Palestinian state is not our Nakba or disaster provided that upon its establishment the word Nakba be deleted from Arabic lexicon in referring to Israel".

Livni, much like Lady Macbeth, may seek to wash her hands of blood, but these stains can never be erased. Talk of an arrogant, racist, colonial mindset. This is unblushing Nakba denial from the representative of a people always ready to shout holocaust denial when it comes to the tragic and wretched case of the Nazi extermination of the Jews. Those such as Livni should be utterly ashamed of seeking to wipe out any hideous crime of history. As we in South Africa have shown, there can only be meaningful change and reconciliation when crimes of the past are unmasked. Only then can people move forward.

This Nakba continues today, where we are all familiar with the plight of the Palestinians. They are under perpetual siege, cruelly imprisoned within 12 percent of the fragmented territory that is left to them. The 1,2 million Palestinians living within Israel are virtually confined, as black South Africans under apartheid once were in a ghetto-type existence, without equal rights and under constant threat of eviction, with talk that they would have to leave and become citizens of a future Palestinian state; whether they like it or not.

There is a real danger with Israel's territorial objectives, in terms of its Zionist agenda, being supported by President Bush, as reflected in his April 2004 speech. Here he showed that the US was contemplating shifting its position from the 1967 Green Line border demarcation and the numerous United Nations resolutions to accepting the so-called new "facts" on the ground, including the settlement block and the notion of "a Greater Israel". If this remains the approach at Annapolis, then we are still very far from a genuine, lasting and just settlement.

As such we must persevere with our efforts. There can be no balanced even-handed approach by the South African government between the power of the Israeli state, supported by the United States, and the Palestinians who are under siege and fire, with no state, where it is amazing that they survive at all, where they are reliant on nothing more than their "samud"; their perseverance and courage.

The statement of Gideon Levy of Haaretz makes this plain: "a thief cannot present demands, neither preconditions nor any other terms to the owner of the property he has robbed".

Indeed, in a conflict between the greater and the weaker power, our President, Thabo Mbeki, in commenting on the Mecca Agreement, has similarly made it clear, where he argues that: "The balance of power in this regard decisively favours Israel. To end the destructive conflict that has gone on for far too long, will require the courage and wisdom of the more powerful. The positive results that both the Israeli and Palestinian people pray for will not come about of their own accord".

Mobilising international solidarity to pressurise the Israeli state is key here. We know this from our own struggle, where the international component was critical to our overall efforts to bring the apartheid government to its knees.

And in organising this support, we need to clearly reject any claim that there should be even-handedness in dealing with the Israeli perpetrator and the Palestinian victim. We need to clearly reject the argument that Israel's brutality and use of force is simply motivated by security concerns, for as with apartheid repression, we see this related to a colonial and racist mentality and agenda. In so doing, we must expose Israel's entrenched system of colonialism, racism and denial of Palestinian human rights, which is akin to that of apartheid
South Africa. This is after all the fundamental source of the conflict.

It is through the weapon of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, in conjunction with the internal struggles of the Palestinian people, that we can ensure that those who have thus far refused to acknowledge this truth, are eventually forced into accepting that they have no option but to do so. Our government recognises our people's democratic right to engage in peaceful means - such as the BDS campaign in registering their support with the Palestinian cause.

As South Africans, we therefore pledge our unqualified support for this campaign and the cause of the Palestinians, not only because we are obligated to do so as former beneficiaries of generous international solidarity but also, as our former President, Nelson Mandela has stated: "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians".

I thank you.

Issued by: Ministry of Intelligence
30 November 2007
Source: SAPA