The South African Muslim dilemma: ANC and Palestine or DA
and Israel?
Remarks by Affan Sosibo on behalf of the ANCYL to the Muslim
anti-apartheid veterans.
Scottburgh town hall 23/07/2014
Chairperson and your
patriots
I am highly pleased to be here.
The ANC is a “broad Church” led
by South Africans of all tribes, races and religions. No party in this country
can claim to have so many Muslims, Jews and Hindus in every level of leadership
from the branches to the National Executive committee. You, the South African
Muslims were the first to call for an organised black rebellion against
colonialism. It was Dr Abdullah Abdurrahman who founded the
African Political Action in 1902 long before the founding of the African
national Congress (ANC) in 1912. Throughout our struggle against apartheid the
South African Muslims were leading everywhere, in exile, inside the country and
in the jungle. The Muslim countries also played a big role in the
struggle against apartheid.
In the early sixties the
British foreign secretary received a message from the emissary of the Emir of
Qatar Sheikh Ahmed bin Ali Al thani. The Emir politely informed the British, in
no uncertain terms, that the apartheid regime in South Africa and the Zionist
Regime in Palestine were an affront to humanity and had to be defeated. The
British authorities later found out that the Emir was speaking due to heavy
pressure exerted on him by the Muslim countries of Egypt, Indonesia and
Pakistan. Ironically, while these Muslim countries were mobilising
against apartheid, Israel was busy sending arms to South Africa to kill the
blacks and helped to start a nuclear weapons program geared towards ensuring
White minority rule all over Southern Africa. Pakistan hosted Dr Yusuf
Dadoo who briefed them about the struggle against apartheid and the condition
of Indian people in apartheid South Africa. Indonesia and Egypt together
with Ghana and India formed a strong anti-apartheid bloc at the United Nations
(UN).
In 1965, Algeria hosted many
fighters from the African National Congress, who received military training
before returning to South Africa to execute military operations. Nelson Mandela
received his initial military training by the revolutionaries of the National
Liberation Front in Algeria in the early 1960s, when he decided to establish a
military arm to the African National Congress. Upon release from prison 1990
Nelson Mandela travelled to the USA where the Jews tried to force him to
distance himself from Chairman Yasser Arafat and Colonel Muamar Gaddafi.
Mandela lucidly told the Americans that Arafat and Gadhafi were staunch
supporters of the liberation struggle in South Africa not only in rhetoric but
they also put resources at the disposal of the ANC to free South Africa.
This global Muslim struggle
against apartheid was beautifully complemented by the role played by the South
African Muslims in the struggle against apartheid. In every sphere and in every
phase of the revolution the South African Muslims were active and
leading. The Jewish community also joined in the struggle, mainly
communists like Joe Slovo, Ronnie kasrils, Albie Sachs, George Bizos and Denis
Goldberg, A significant part of this community contributed and benefited from
the exploitation and oppression of the black masses. Opposition to apartheid
was carried out in the form of protests, strikes, military operations and total
DE legitimisation of the apartheid regime. Jews who opposed Botha within an
apartheid parliament are not revolutionaries they are just disagreeing on
policies and legislations but otherwise accept the apartheid framework.
Many Muslim South Africans,
both individuals and organizations, fought bravely against the apartheid regime.
In addition to the well-known
high profile Muslim anti-apartheid personalities, there were very many ordinary
Muslims who fought and died or fought and triumphed against apartheid. From the
late 1930s, Muslims began playing a role in the struggle against apartheid in
excess to what their numbers might suggest. Many of these Muslims joined the
various liberation movements that were active: the African National Congress,
the Pan Africanist Congress, the Black Consciousness Movement, the South
African Communist Party, and other socialist or nationalist organisations.
Among many prominent revolutionaries I must mention Rahima Moosa, Fatima Meer,
Amina Chachalia ,Naledi Pandor, Dr Abdullah Yusuf, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Ahmed
Kathrada, Prof Kader Asmal, Yunus Chachalia, Mo and Yunus Shaik, Mohammad
Vally Moosa, Dr Abdullah Omar, the martyr Ahmed Timol, Cissie Gool, The Martyr
Imam Haron,The martyr Mohseen Jeenah, Amina Desai, Ebrahim Rasool, Ebrahim
Ebrahim, Suleiman Desai, Moosa Moola, Aziz and Essop Pahad, Yunus Carrim,
Rehan Surve, Ismail Moola, Farid Essack, Imam Rashid Omar, Ebrahim moosa,
Shaiyk Matura, Nur al Iman , Ebrahim Patel , Ismail Mahomed , Zak
Yakub, mohammed Enver Surty , Fatima Hajaig , I. C Meer, Yusuf Cachalia ,
Abdullah Abdurrahman , Umar haji Ahmed Jhaveri , Shamima Shaik and many
many others.
At the dawn of democracy in
1994 many Muslims retreated from political life and took academic posts,
business endeavours and spiritual pursuits. In fact if you look into our
academic sphere, business sector, research and scientific institutions you will
find Muslims there working hard to make South Africa a better place. President
Nelson still managed to field many Muslims in in his cabinet and in President
Thabo Mbeki’s first term Muslims were placed in rather very strategic centers
of power. By 2004 South African Muslims were nowhere to be seen in the South
African public space save a few names. Today the number of active Muslims in
the ANC is rapidly declining at an alarming speed.
Today the South African Muslim
fraternity is perceived as being pro-Democratic alliance (DA).
Well the councillor in my
ward is from the DA.
It is true that the ANC is
unable to effectively defeat corruption and it is still struggling to meet the
acceptable levels of competency that are needed to run a successful economy.
But running a country is not only about that, it is also about principles and
the value system that we seek to entrench in our society.
The DA appears attractive to
most pious Muslims because of its liberal façade compared to the radical ANC
but what about values and principles. The ANC is guided by the grievances and
aspirations of all South Africans regardless of their religious background. We
meet regularly with Hindu and Jewish leaders just as we meet the Muslims and
Christian leaders.
But my audience here today is
Muslim so I will focus on ANC -Muslim relations.
The differences between the ANC
and the DA with regards to Muslim interests are easy to detect.
1. The ANC says the
slaughter of Palestinians by Israel is barbaric and inhuman while the DA issued
a strong statement condemning ANC activists such as Comrade Rene Smit for
showing solidarity with Palestine.
2. The ANC condemns Nazism but
also draw parallels between the Jews under Hitler and Palestinians under Jewish
occupation but the DA condemn Nazism and then say nothing about Palestinian
suffering
3. The ANC organises Palestine
solidarity rallies across the country while the DA councillor in Pennington
refused to let the pro-Palestinian activists use the only town hall
available.
4. The DA condemns Zimbabwe’s
expropriation of land by Zimbabweans from foreign settlers but support stealing
of Palestinians land by foreign settlers.
5. The ANC says South Africa
belongs to all who live in it black and white, united in diversity and bound by
matters of common concern and sharing a common dream. The DA says South
Africans who wishes to settle in the Western Cape are “refugees” and
therefore an unwanted burden but it encourages the establishment of Mini
kibbutz throughout the province as its vote banks.
6. DA members proudly posted
photos of their family members who are serving in the Israel occupation forces
while the ANC leadership here had to chastise ANCYL members who declared their
readiness to go and fight for the Palestinians.
7. In the ANC, Muslims are
serving in all structures from a branch to the National executive committee,
from Municipality councils right up to the cabinet, elected directly by the
black members of the ANC but the DA SELECT Muslims for window dressing purposes
because members of the DA would never ELECT a Muslims.
8. The DA calls for
constructive engagement with Israel but want all ties with Zimbabwe to be cut.
Is it about white and black?
9. While the DA criticised the
ANC for allegedly accepting funds from Gaddafi, the DA received R6.3m from
Natie Kirsh through Glynis Breytenbach. Natie Kirsh made his fortune in the
Palestinian occupied territories and is a well-known Zionist.
10. Not one Muslims serves in
the Western Cape government. The Muslim community accounts for 25% of the Cape
Town population – the province’s single-largest municipality – yet only one
Muslim made it on the DA provincial list of 42 candidates submitted to the
Independent Electoral Commission while since 1994 till date Muslims
have been serving in the most strategic departments in the ANC government from
education, foreign ministry, Home affairs, Intelligence, Justice, transport to
even the presidency itself.
11. The ANC accepted the call
from the Ulama to pass the Muslim marriages act and granted permission to
construct mosque and madrassas; the Democratic Alliance objected and blocked
the Muslim trustee’s efforts to build madrassas in their former white areas.
The South African Muslim Network (Samnet) has spent years fighting the DA’s
opposition to the building of Masjids and other facilities in “white areas”.
Post-1994, with the Group Areas
Act behind us, religious groups have equal rights. That includes the right to
build places of worship. But the DA discriminates Islam.
12. The ANC youth league issued
a strong condemnation of the film that attacked the prestige and honour of
prophet Mohamed (May Allah grant him peace and blessings)
13. The oldest liberation
movement in South Africa, the African Political Action founded by Abdullah
Abdurrahman 1902 called for the rights of blacks to vote whereas the DA founder
Helen Suzman attended the human rights conference in London in June 1947
as the representative of the South African institute of race relations and
there she vehemently opposed the right of black people to vote and scolded the
delegates for not understanding “The South African … native primitiveness,
both in his mentality and his living condition and the difficulty of allowing
him to vote…without previously subjecting him to some kind of literacy
test to determine his ability to vote”. Oliver Tambo described Suzman as
“a sweet bird from the south that flew north and sung a beautiful song “I am in
favour of change but I am also ready to prevent change”.
14. The DA and its Zionist
allies in the ACDP and IFP receive funding from the Israeli embassy and
companies that operate in occupied Palestinian territories. If Muslims keep
voting for the DA then you are strengthening the Zionist bloc and that will
result to the Zionist lobby gaining power to influence legislations or push the
ANC into desperation for Jewish votes.
15. When Benjamin Netanyahu’s
emissary Hussein Solomon claimed that the South African Muslims were
plotting with Al Qaeda to bomb world cup stadiums, the ANC defended Muslims.
My ANCYL branch is immensely
pained and angered that the defenceless Palestinian people are and have been
subjected to the fury of war by a foreign power acting in clear violation
of international law and in furtherance of a racist colonial agenda which the
people of this country are still recovering from.
We have joined the ANC and its
allies in condemning the genocide against the Palestinian people. Our action to
issue that call is inspired by our desire, not to take sides, but to join the
global community in the struggle for the freedom of the Palestinian people, the
restoration of their dignity and their right to statehood.
We are pleased to note that
most countries that fought on our side during our struggle for freedom are now
engaged in the struggle for the freedom of the Palestinian people. Regrettably
the South African government is not on the side of its erstwhile comrades.
We note that the premier
organisations for the liberation of our people such as the African National
Congress (ANC), The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL), the South
African communists Party (SACP), the Congress of South African Trade Unions,
(COSATU) are still on the trenches fighting for the Palestinian freedom
consistent with the call from President Nelson Mandela that “We know too well
that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”
We are aware
THAT The South African
apartheid Prime Minister, Hendrik Verwoerd said “the Jews took Israel from the
Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for 1,000 years. Israel, like South
Africa, is an apartheid state”.
THAT the UN Human Rights
Rapporteur John Dugard, a South African legal professor and apartheid expert,
said that “Israel’s laws and practices” in the Occupied Territories “certainly
resemble apartheid”.
THAT the former South African
ambassador to Israel Ismail Coovadia rejected a gift of 18 trees planted in his
name by the Jewish National Fund, a body that has played an important role in
the displacement of Palestinians. Ismail Coovadia made striking criticism of
Israeli policies, calling them a “replication of apartheid”.
THAT our beloved Archbishop
Desmond Tutu said “I know first-hand that Israel has created an apartheid
reality within its borders and through its occupation. The parallels to my own
beloved South Africa are painfully stark indeed.”
THAT the colonial immigration
to Palestine of a European people has resulted to more than 12-000 Palestinians
homes destroyed and more than 250-000 colonial settlements built on Palestinian
land.
Further to this end;
WE understand the Palestinians
reason in rejecting a partition plan in 1947 which gave the Jews, who only owned
7 percent of the land, an astonishing half of Palestine.
WE support the Arab’s refusal
to succumb to such partition, where 86 percent of the land designated for the
proposed Jewish state was Palestinian-inhabited and owned land.
WE register our awareness that
Israel grabbed 78 percent of Palestine through war and forced the flight of the
population through deliberate massacres and then shamelessly called it a war of
independence.
WE condemn the evilness of
Nazism but also the use of the plight of Jews in Hitler’s Germany as
justification for the murder, expulsion, and occupation of another guiltless
people.
WE regard as classical
colonialism the decision by Israel to legislate that any resident of France,
Romania, New York, India, Australia, Iceland, or even China has a right to
“return” and settle in Palestine to someone who has been expelled from his very
own land, confined to a squalid refugee camp, and still holds the keys to his
house.
WE are painfully aware that
Israel incarcerate the Palestinian people inside squalid ghettos, destroying
their livelihoods, confiscating their lands, stealing their water and uprooting
their trees, and then disingenuously condemn their legitimate resistance as
terrorism.
WE have not forgotten that
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 and indiscriminately bombarded its civilians for
a relentless three months, murdering thousands of innocent people.
WE know that Israel continue to
humiliate the Palestinians at gun point by forcing them queue for hours to move
between their villages, forcing mothers to give birth at check-points through a
441 miles apartheid wall which disconnects farmers from their farms and
children from their schools, while stealing even more territory as the wall
freely zigzags and encroaches on Palestinian land.
In light of the above, our
demands, as articulated by the broader Palestine Solidarity network, are:
1. The immediate withdrawal of
our ambassador from Tel Aviv;
2. Expulsion of the Israeli
ambassador from Tshwane;
3. To terminate and
prohibit all trade relations with the Israeli government and citizens.
4. A strategic, effective
commitment to the call for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in the form
of the following directives;
* Implementation of the
decisions of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) conference in Durban in 2006 to ban
all products of Israeli companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian
Territory, and prevent the entry of Israeli settlers into South Africa;
* Prosecute South Africans who
enlist in the Israeli Occupation Forces in accordance with the Regulation of
Foreign Military Assistance Act;
*Issue guidelines to South
African citizens and businesses, in line with guidelines issued by 17 European
governments to discourage support for Israel`s occupation and illegal colonies;
and
* Adopt ethical and
international legal guidelines to exclude international corporations such as
Caterpillar, G4S, Veolia, from public contracts and South African companies
such as Cape Gate because of their complicity with violations of international
law by Israel.
* South African government and
Non-Aligned Movement support for SWIFT sanctions against Israeli banks until
the Israeli government:
- Agrees to relinquish its
nuclear weapons, and to accede to the Non-Proliferation Treaty,
- Agrees to release immediately
all Palestinian political prisoners,
- Agrees to end its occupation
of the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and that it will dismantle the
Apartheid Wall,
- Recognizes the fundamental
rights of Arab-Palestinians to full equality in Israel-Palestine,
- Acknowledges the right of
return of Palestinian refugees, and
-maintain no contact with
Israel until a peaceful solution is found and Palestine is free.
South African Muslims must
understand that it is difficult for a political party to follow principles when
it is losing support on the ground. The ANC will not be able to remain
committed to the Palestinian struggle if that is costing us votes.
By voting for the DA you are weakening the ANC and strengthening the Zionist
alliance. Remember that the IFP and ACDP support Israel because of biblical
injunctions and when they get to power, only Jews and Christians will be
welcomed and anybody who is not mentioned in the bible will be ostracised. I
call upon all South African Muslims to come back home in the ANC. If the party
is veering out of the correct path come and correct it from within.
The ANC wants all South
Africans including the whites and blacks, Jews and Muslims, Hindus and atheists
to live in communal harmony and peace in a united, safe and prosperous South
Africa. Come and help us to achieve that. Together we can do more. AMANDLA!!!
