South Africans were invited to an evening of commemoration and solidarity for Palestinian rights

‘Free Free Palestine’ reverberated as a crowd gathered in the Nelson Mandela Foundation gardens on February 16.
This was for an evening of commemoration and solidarity as the foundation and South African Jews for a Free Palestine renewed their commitment to realising the rights of Palestinians.

A Shabbat service followed with prayer, the lighting of candles and singing.
This was in light of the interim ruling made by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last month against Israel, which has sparked global conversation, reflection, and mobilisation.
The service was attended by people from different religions, races, faiths and backgrounds who also wore the Palestinian keffiyeh as a sign of their solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“We are all here because we have heard the call for justice…any fight for justice is connected to all struggles for justice” said the foundations’ CEO,Verne Harris.

A South African representative at the ICJ, Advocate Adila Hassim kickstarted off the poignant remarks session and said, “When we speak the name of our former leader Nelson Mandela, we assume the posture of a just peace. It is important that my few words this evening are understood as being rooted in a quest for a just and sustainable peace.”

Hassim recalled that the words of Madiba in a speech that he made at the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian people in 1997 had resonated with her when he said: ‘We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians, without the resolution of conflicts in Sudan and other parts of the world.’

“How distressing it would be for Madiba as it is for us, to witness the nightmare of the latest war in Gaza. There appears to be no hope for an end to the hostilities between Israel and Palestine. We could find our way through this without hope, for a realistic hope we need to begin with an honest conversation where several truths are acknowledged with the aim of accountability and meaningful justice.”

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola noted that the ‘umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ (a person is a person through other persons) phrase was one of the values that not only permeated through the spirit and the text of our Constitution, but it was also in the DNA of SA.

“We took an important step inspired by the Holocaust, the ‘never again’ principle, both our oppressors and our former president Mandela echoed the sentiment that our country will never again be the subject of indignity, and we believe that this should never happen to any race anywhere in the world. It will not happen to the Palestinian people and will not happen to the Israeli people.”

"We are all here because we have heard the call for justice." – Verne Harris, CEO of the #NelsonMandelaFoundation#NelsonMandela#Peace#CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/iAYHvDqrNn

— NelsonMandela (@NelsonMandela) February 16, 2024

Lamola added that our predecessors, including anti-apartheid activist Dullah Omar, had endorsed international agreements such as the Genocide Convention, reaffirming our commitment to a more passionate society and a world free of injustice.

The minister highlighted that it was in this regard that the government continued to call for the ICJ and the International Criminal Court to hold the individuals responsible for atrocities in Gaza accountable.

Associate professor of postcolonial and postmodern literature at Gaza’s al-Aqsa University, Haidar Eid said, “After completing my tertiary studies in SA, I decided to go back to Gaza to join my people and fight against Zionism and try to set Palestine free. I have learned lessons and met anti-apartheid activists and decided to tell the people of Palestine about the struggle of Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Desmond Tutu and other activists.”

Eid said in 2006, legislative elections were held in the Palestinian territories.
“We [Palestinians of the Gaza Strip and West Bank] were asked to head to the polling stations and vote for our representatives. Refugees who lived in the diaspora were not asked to vote, as well as Palestinians of the state of Israel.”

The professor noted that people in the Westbank and Gaza Strip voted against the façade of the two-state solution because people believed the USA and Israel would not allow Palestinians to have a sovereign independent state. Due to people voting against the two-state solution, the USA and Israel decided to impose a deadly siege on Gaza.

“We were not allowed to buy milk, fuel for cars and medicine which has been going on since 2006.”

Hassim concluded by emphasising the importance of engaging in honest conversations for several truths to be acknowledged, with the aim of accountability and meaningful justice.

They are:

• The first truth: What we witnessed in Israel on October 7 and in Gaza, the profound inhumanity did not emerge from nowhere. We cannot speak in hushed tones about the Nakba which was marked by the first displacement, dispersal and dispossession of hundreds and thousands of Palestinians from their homelands. This enduring trauma has left a gaping wound in the collective consciousness of the Palestinian people who still carry the burden of that displacement to this day.
• Second truth: We cannot and must not extinguish the memory of the Holocaust. It is estimated that there are approximately 24 500survivors and soon will be no longer, but the memory of the Holocaust will not end with the demise of the survivors and antisemitism did not end after the Holocaust and should not pretend otherwise. We Jews and non-Jews must remain vigilant, both antisemitism and islamophobia are forms of racism that we all need to counter.
• Third truth: Unrestrained violence on either side is not a path to peace. At least 28 340 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza including 12 300 children. The scale of death is staggering. Israel of course has a right to self-defence but does not have a right that says no Palestinian life has no value, that all Palestinian children are killable on the spot. This is not defensible in international law and not morally defensible.