A necessary history lesson for anybody who wants to forget the reasons South Africa and Israel were once good friends: In October 1985, as it happens, the editor of [Israel’s biggest newspaper] Yediot Ahronoth’s weekend magazine, Aharon Shamir, came to South Africa to meet with a mid-level Foreign Ministry functionary. When the bureaucrat complained that…
Showing all posts tagged South Africa
South Africa gives Israel a few handy tips about race
A country with a dark past reminds the Jewish state that its behaviour is worthy of a dictatorship: Israel’s Prevention of Infiltration Order 1650 caused the South African government to have “taken note, with the greatest concern,” over a policy a statement called a “violation of an individual’s human rights.” Moreover, the statement said, the…
Don’t think that Washington was all that keen to dismantle apartheid South Africa
Ali Abunimah digs up a document from 1988 that reminds us how the US government was as reluctant to impose serious sanctions on South Africa as they are today against apartheid Israel. Here’s a comment by John C. Whitehead, then Deputy Secretary of State: Sanctions are the wrong tool because South Africa has the resources…
Attacking the infrastructure of terror and occupation
I reported yesterday on moves in the US to hold Western multinationals accountable that behaved badly during the apartheid era in South Africa. Marjorie Jobson, the national director of the South African Khulumani Support Group that filed the lawsuit, tells Democracy Now! what the focus is (and why many of us are thinking about similar…
Companies will be remembered for backing Israeli apartheid
The complicity of Western multinationals in the maintenance of apartheid South Africa continues to haunt the world (I wrote last year about the role of Britain’s Tory leader David Cameron in this sordid history). Who can read this latest news from the US and not wonder when Western firms will be hauled before courts to…
South Africa led the way during Gaza Freedom March
The role of South African delegates during the recent Gaza Freedom March was essential to finding inspiration and leading the assembled masses to use the model of the anti-apartheid movement against Israel. Here’s why.
On World AIDS Day, we must fight this disease every day
The news that South Africa is finally acknowledging the profound issue of HIV/AIDS is a welcome development after a decade of neglect: The United States is giving South Africa $120 million for AIDS treatment drugs in response to a plea from President Jacob Zuma that underlines his new approach to fighting the epidemic in the…
South Africa seemingly infested by friendly Israeli agents
Sometimes, certain stories need no introduction: South Africa deported an Israeli airline official last week following allegations that Israel’s secret police, the Shin Bet, had infiltrated Johannesburg international airport in an effort to gather information on South African citizens, particularly black and Muslim travellers. The move by the South African government followed an investigation by…
Treat them mean
Haaretz reminds us of the intimate connection between apartheid South Africa and Israel: South Africa began developing its nuclear program in 1949. To do so, it used know-how, equipment, technology and reactors used for research and for power that it bought from the United States, Britain, France and Germany. However, in 1976, the Western countries…
How to talk to “terrorists”
Once were terrorists: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked for “embarrassing” travel restrictions on Nelson Mandela and South African leaders to be lifted. A bill has been introduced in the US Congress to remove from databases any reference to South Africa’s governing party and its leaders as terrorists. The African National Congress (ANC)…