Franchising "Apartheid": Why South Africans Push the Analogy Part II

2^nd part of 3

A Shifting Foreign Policy

The advent of the Israel-apartheid analogy coincides with a shift in South Africa's foreign policy towards the Middle East. Since 1994, South Africa had backed a two-state solution and supported the Oslo peace process-an even-handed approach, despite occasional demonstrations of solidarity with old ANC allies like Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

After the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, South Africa crept away from this policy toward one of open hostility to Israel. While still advocating a two-state solution, South Africa began issuing one-sided condemnations of Israel, often attacking Israeli responses to terror without mentioning Palestinian terror itself. It openly backed Kasrils and other ANC leaders who participated in anti-Israel campaigns.[27]

In May 2007, the government appeared to extend an invitation to Hamas [28] (though it backed away on the grounds that the invitation had been conditional on Hamas forming a national unity government with Fatah, which quickly became moot as Hamas seized control of Gaza).[29] At its 52^nd national conference in December 2007, the ANC endorsed the Israel-apartheid analogy, declaring that the "Naqba" - the Arabic word for catastrophe widely used in the Arab world to describe the events of 1948 - led to "a systematic policy of colonial expansion, ethnic cleansing and military occupation of the most brutal kind, which as South Africans we readily recognize from our own experience of apartheid."[30]

A document circulated prior to the conference suggested re-examining the ANC's support for a two-state solution, and advocated "forging strategic links with Iran and Syria, and others towards developing common approach on the matter, for just solutions." [31] Indeed, recent evidence suggests that Hezbollah used night-vision goggles provided by South Africa during the 2006 Lebanon War. [32] And over the past few years South Africa has emerged as the chief defender of Iran's nuclear ambitions at the UN Security Council.

In 2004, South Africa signed a trade deal with Iran that was rumored to allow uranium sales.[33] South Africa also tried to prevent the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from referring Iran to the UN Security Council, where as a non-permanent member South Africa continues to oppose sanctions on Iran. In 2007, Kasrils visited Iran, where state news reported that he praised its nuclear program (he later denied doing so).[34]

South Africa's growing hostility towards Israel reflects a return to the anti-Western fulminations of the Cold War era. South Africa has, after all, protected the tyranny of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, and opposed Security Council resolutions on Darfur and Myanmar. These positions appeal to a nostalgic ANC elite, though not to most black South Africans, only 14 percent of whom approve of Mugabe, for example.[35]

The real reason for South Africa's shift, however, may simply be material. When Saddam Hussein was in power in Iraq, ANC leaders allegedly sought illicit oil deals for the party, in violation of the UN's oil-for-food program.[36] The ANC has admitted its involvement in one such deal, and the government refuses to release the findings of an official investigation.[37] Some have speculated that similar deals may be at stake in the relationship with Iran and Syria.[38] Thus, despite the diminishing political relevance of Kasrils and other champions of the Israel-apartheid analogy, the ANC is finding independent, self-serving reasons to support it.

South Africa's growing hostility towards Israel reflects a return to the anti-Western fulminations of the Cold War era

The government still wishes to play both sides of the divide: President Mbeki has been known to attend local Israel Independence Day celebrations, for instance. And the ANC is wary of taking actions that will result in economic retaliation by Israel. In 2004, Israel closed its trade office in Pretoria, citing budgetary restrictions, though acting Israeli ambassador Daniel Pinhasi was quoted as saying that South Africa's position on Israel was "more hardline than some members of the Arab League."[39] The South African government responded to this rebuke obsequiously, inviting Israel's Likud Party and then-Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to visit. Indeed, South African critics of Israel were taken aback by the government's sudden return to even-handedness.[40] In 2007, the ANC advertised and supported an "End the Occupation" campaign, but specifically declined to join its call for an economy boycott of Israel.[41] South Africa's policy on Israel does not reflect the fulminations of Kasrils and those like him, but is based upon the ANC's own political and economic interests-including the desire to be taken seriously by the democratic world while profiting from its enemies.

Muslim Antisemitism

Another important reason for South Africa's pro-Middle East foreign policy and stance on Israel is its 800,000-strong, vocal, and well-organized Muslim community, which is radically anti-Israel. Muslim organizations, such as the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), Islamic Unity Convention (IUC), and the militant group Qibla openly back Hamas and Hezbollah, frequently broadcast antisemitic diatribes over the radio, and organize numerous protests and boycotts against Israel each year. [42]

Other influential organizations with heavy Muslim involvement include the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Pretoria-based Media Review Network (MRN), which promote the Israel-apartheid analogy and call for the boycott of Israeli products and the ultimate dissolution of the State.[43] The MRN also propagates Holocaust denial.[44]

Muslim organizations have considerable access to the ANC leadership and have found influence in many NGOs, including the Freedom of Expression Institute. They also have influence within the ANC Youth League and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), a large umbrella organization for trade unions and the ANC's leftist alliance partner.

Kasrils is a regular speaker at demonstrations orchestrated by pro-Palestinian groups. In 2002, he attended a Qibla march in Cape Town where demonstrators shouted "Death to Israel, death to Sharon" and "One American tourist, one bullet." Protesters burnt American and Israeli flags and carried two boys dressed up as suicide bombers.[45]

Members of COSATU, the ANC Youth League, and even the South African Council of Churches have frequently participated in marches organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and Qibla. Several have signed memoranda calling Israel an "illegitimate, terrorist state, racist, expansionist and chauvinistic, [with] no right to exist" and made progressively more anti-Israel statements over the past years.[46] COSATU's president, Willie Madisha, declared in 2006 that the "apartheid Israel state" was worse than apartheid South Africa.[47]

The most striking example was the wave of mass anti-Israel protests during the Durban World Conference Against Racism in 2001. Several months ahead of the conference, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson allowed the last of the preliminary meetings to be held in Tehran, Iran. This meant that no Israeli delegates could attend, due to Iran's discriminatory visa policies, allowing the Muslim states a free hand to rewrite the agenda for the event.

In the run-up to the conference, COSATU and the ANC held local "conferences against racism" which closely followed the anti-Israel agenda. At the start of the conference, anti-Israel groups organized a 15,000-person march through the streets of Durban. Radical Muslim groups handed protesters from the Durban Social Forum and local anti-privatization groups free flags, kaffiyehs, antisemitic literature, signs of Stars of David dripping with blood, and T-shirts with slogans such as "Free Palestine." In this way, they hijacked the South African left as well as the conference.

COSATU's president, Willie Madisha, declared in 2006 that the "apartheid Israel state" was worse than apartheid South Africa

Islamist radicalism is also a rallying cry for leftists and populists in the ANC. One faction of the ANC in the North-West province which supports Jacob Zuma, the current ANC President, calls itself the Taliban to present a more radical image. On several occasions, COSATU has marched against privatization and other ANC policies carrying "Viva Arafat" placards. Elements of the ANC have therefore been able to incorporate anti-Israel motifs into the context of domestic opposition towards, and protests against, government policies and its poor service delivery record.

Overall, pushing the Israel-apartheid analogy has, politically, served Muslim groups well. It has also suited the ANC because it is one of the only inroads to the elusive "colored" vote (a term which refers to those of mixed-race background and also includes Muslims of Malay descent). It has drawn them closer to the ruling ANC and offered them the chance to present their religious struggle as a just cause. Meanwhile the ANC stands to gain from antisemitism in closely contested local elections against the Democratic Alliance, a party which was until recently led by a Jew, Tony Leon.

It is perhaps no accident that recorded acts of antisemitism have risen dramatically as South Africa has shifted its policies toward Israel. As recently as 2005, Jewish community leader Zev Krengel could boast that South Africa had "significantly lower rates of antisemitism than exist in...other Diaspora countries."[48] Yet 2006 set a new record for antisemitic incidents in South Africa.[49]

Bullying Minority Groups

In contrast to the way the government treats the Muslim community, it tends to bully other minorities that vote for opposition parties in greater proportions. One example is the Portuguese community, which was excoriated by Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete for marching to the Union Buildings to protest against crime in 2000. Rather than promising to do more for victims of crime, the minister wrote the community an acrimonious letter, stating:
Some among the Portuguese community you claim to represent came to this country because they did not accept that the Mozambican and Angolan people should gain their freedom and independence from Portuguese colonialism...These came here because they knew that the colour of their skin would entitle them to join `the master race,' to participate in the oppression and exploitation of the black majority and to enjoy the benefits of white minority domination. It is perhaps because you have not outgrown these white supremacist ideas and practices that you wrote your memorandum.[50]

The letter crudely blamed Portuguese South Africans for complicity in apartheid and disloyalty to the new South Africa. The effect of the letter was to warn all organized minority groups that they did not belong and had no right to oppose ANC policy.

Later that year, white left-wing activists close to the ANC launched an initiative called the "Home for All" Campaign. The centerpiece of the Campaign was "The Declaration of Commitment by White South Africans." [51] Whites were asked to sign the declaration to admit collective "responsibility for apartheid" and "commit ourselves to redress these wrongs ... through individual and collective action.[52]

The ANC launched another similar initiative the following year. Ronnie Kasrils wrote up a declaration arguing for a two-state solution but rejecting Zionism and blaming Israel solely for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He encouraged Jews to sign it, pronouncing that most Jewish anti-apartheid activists "were in fact anti-Zionists and rejected Zionism because they believed in a common humanity and that there should not be an exclusive state...". [53] The subtext of the campaign was to offer Jews a deal: give up on Zionism and you can become part of the new South Africa.

The Tshwete letter to the Portuguese community, the "Home for All" campaign, and Kasrils' declaration all implied that minority groups were collectively responsible for apartheid and that they would have no place in the new South Africa until they made amends. The campaigns put pressure on minority groups to demonstrate their loyalty to the ANC by suppressing their complaints and stepping in line with ANC ideology and policy.

The subtext of the campaign was to offer Jews a deal: give up on Zionism and you can become part of the new South Africa

Although the vast majority of Jews still vote for the centrist opposition, the Democratic Alliance, the ANC's cooption of the organized Jewish community has been largely successful. The Board issues the occasional statement criticizing the ANC, but for the most part it has become the ANC's spokesperson on Jewish affairs and often defends the ANC's stance to the Jewish community.

Partly because of the supine position of the Board, the ANC feels it has a free hand to propagate the Israel-apartheid analogy ever more ardently. Most Jews reject the analogy and several individuals are outspoken critics of the government's stance on Israel, but there is little effective organized Jewish opposition.

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