{"id":31794,"date":"2023-12-05T14:30:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T14:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/a-decade-after-mandelas-death-his-pro-palestinian-legacy-lives-on\/"},"modified":"2023-12-05T14:30:38","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T14:30:38","slug":"a-decade-after-mandelas-death-his-pro-palestinian-legacy-lives-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/a-decade-after-mandelas-death-his-pro-palestinian-legacy-lives-on\/","title":{"rendered":"A decade after Mandela\u2019s death, his pro-Palestinian legacy lives on"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their (Palestinian) land has been annexed more and more, something that we also faced in South Africa,\u201d said the ANC\u2019s deputy chair of international relations, Obed Bapela.<\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>Days after his release from 27 years in prison in February 1990, anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a bear hug, symbolising his embrace of a cause his country\u2019s governing African National Congress (ANC) party continues to champion.<\/p>\n<p>It was a gesture as controversial then as South Africa\u2019s support for the Palestinian cause is today, but Mandela brushed off criticism.<\/p>\n<p>Arafat\u2019s Palestine Liberation Organisation had been an unwavering supporter of Mandela\u2019s struggle against white minority rule and many South Africans saw parallels between it and the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were fortunate that with their support, we were able to achieve our freedom [\u2026] My grandfather [\u2026] said our freedom is incomplete without the Palestinian struggle,\u201d his grandson Mandla Mandela recalled in an interview ahead of the 10th commemoration of Mandela\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  w-full  w-full  media--stretch  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1785003\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>From December 3 to 5 Mandla Mandela, who is also an ANC lawmaker, hosted a solidarity conference in Johannesburg for the Palestinians.<\/p>\n<p>It was attended by members of Hamas, a Palestinian fighter group Israel has vowed to annihilate in retaliation for its October 7 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1779824\">attack<\/a> on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw around 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli bombing of Gaza since then has killed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1795167\/israel-palestinians-accuse-each-other-of-genocide-at-un\">more than<\/a> 15,500 people, according to Gaza\u2019s government, and displaced more than three-quarters of the Strip\u2019s 2.3 million population.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"media  sm:w-full  w-full  media--stretch  \"><figcaption class=\"media__caption  \">A Palestinian boy collects wood near a cemetery damaged following Israeli air strikes in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip early on December 4, 2023.\u2014 AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Last month, the ruling ANC backed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1785003\">motion<\/a> in South Africa\u2019s parliament to suspend diplomatic ties with Israel until it agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"land-annexed\" href=\"#land-annexed\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>\u2018Land annexed\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cPalestinians still do not enjoy fully their freedom on their land. And instead their land has been annexed more and more, something that we also faced in South Africa,\u201d said the ANC\u2019s deputy chair of international relations, Obed Bapela.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has disputed the comparison with apartheid as a lie motivated by antisemitism, but many South Africans follow Mandela\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s something that he (Mandela) never compromised on and nor should we,\u201d poet and author Lebogang Mashile told <em>Reuters<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Some in South Africa\u2019s Jewish community criticise the ANC\u2019s stance, pointing out that Mandela himself eventually tried to build bridges with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Historian and author of \u201cJewish Memories of Mandela\u201d, David Saks, noted that Mandela was the only South African president to have visited Israel since 1994 \u2014 albeit only after he left office \u2014 and that \u201che received a rapturous welcome from the Israeli public,\u201d addressing then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak and then-President Ezer Weisman as \u201cmy friends\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"media  sm:w-full  w-full  media--stretch  \"><figcaption class=\"media__caption  \">Then-prime minister Ehud Barak, left, with Nelson Mandela at the Prime Minister\u2019s Office in Jerusalem, October 19, 1999.\u2014Photo courtesy: Times of Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe pointed the way which things should have gone (diplomatically with Israel), but (they) didn\u2019t go that way,\u201d Saks said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Their (Palestinian) land has been annexed more and more, something that we also faced in South Africa,\u201d said the ANC\u2019s deputy chair of international relations, Obed Bapela. Days after his release from 27 years in prison in February 1990, anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a bear hug, symbolising his embrace of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/12\/051649392136bfd.jpg?r=165102","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}