South Africa

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Middle East Eye reports that the South African parliament has voted to downgrade the Israeli embassy in Pretoria to liaison status. The resolution was introduced by the tiny center-left National Freedom Party, which has only two seats in parliament. Its passage was assured, however, when the African National Congress […]

Coal

In Victory against Coal, South African Court rules that clean Air is a Constitutional Right

The Conversation

By Rebecca Garland, University of Pretoria | – A court in South Africa has confirmed the constitutional right of the country’s citizens to an environment that isn’t harmful to their health. This includes the right to clean air, as exposure to air pollution affects human health. Air pollution also affects land and water systems, and […]

Israel/ Palestine

How Tutu, de Klerk, and Mandela would end Israeli Apartheid

Jeff Warner

( Mondoweiss) – What does the end of South African apartheid tell us about how Israeli apartheid can end? That sanctions on Israel are required, and that a civil society mass movement is the only way to get there. By Jeff Warner | – With the December 26, 2021, death of Bishop Desmond Tutu, six […]

Christianity

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: father of South Africa’s ‘Rainbow Nation’

The Conversation

By P. Pratap Kumar | – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu has died at the age of 90. Archbishop Tutu earned the respect and love of millions of South Africans and the world. He carved out a permanent place in their hearts and minds, becoming known affectionately as “The Arch”. When South Africans woke up […]

Featured

Desmond Tutu, the Nonviolent Foe of Two Apartheids – South Africa and Israel-Palestine

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ofeiba Quist-Arcton reports at NPR that Desmond Tutu has died in Cape Town, South Africa. He was 90. Tutu was an amazingly courageous voice against the white nationalist Apartheid system in South Africa, which segregated Blacks and deprived them of a good education and economic opportunities, and which attempted to […]

Authoritarianism

South Africa ‘Ungovernable’ after a former President was Jailed; Do Trump and Trumpism pose a similar danger to U.S.?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – After former South African President Jacob Zuma went to jail over corruption and contempt of court charges last week, his followers began a concerted attempt to disrupt the country. His lieutenants had threatened to make the country ungovernable if he was sent to jail, according to the BBC. Zuma refused […]

Apartheid

Stop comparing Israel to Apartheid South Africa; it is worse

Thembisa Fakude

( Middle East Monitor ) – It is common these days to compare the institutional racism in Israel, and its occupation of Palestine, to Apartheid South Africa. Up to a point, it’s a reasonable comparison. Up to a point. For all its horrors and brutality, the apartheid regime in South Africa never used fighter jets […]

Jewish History

On Jewish Revolutionary Internationalism

Alan M. Wald

I. The Prisoner in the Dock ( Against the Current) – THE JEWISH REVOLUTIONARY Internationalist commitment to the indivisibility of justice was on full display in palpable if muted form on April 26, 1964. That day, in Pretoria, South Africa, a tall, handsome man stood boldly in the prisoner’s dock of the Supreme Court. Well […]

BDS

Nelson Mandela’s Church Joins Boycott, Divestment from Israel to Continue anti-Apartheid Struggle

Middle East Monitor

By Asa Winstanley | @AsaWinstanley | – Nelson Mandela’s church, the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, this month endorsed Palestine’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). At a recent conference in Cape Town, the church denounced “Israel’s ongoing ill-treatment and oppression of Palestinian people, and the historic prophetic role played by the church and international […]