Johannesburg- Today, Friday, the activities of the World Conference against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine kicked off in South Africa, which will be hosted by the city of Johannesburg during the period from 10 to 12 May this year.
This conference is the first in the world to call for launching a global movement to dismantle the system of settler colonialism and Israeli apartheid, and a large number of political leaders, religious figures and party leaders from all over the world attended the opening session.
South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor delivered the opening speech, in which she said, “This conference represents a landmark moment for the global anti-apartheid movements around Palestine, which unite and combine their forces in the struggle to achieve justice for the Palestinian people.”
International pressure
Pandor added that now is “the most urgent time for progressive forces around the world to unite in a collective effort to exert maximum pressure to end the renewed campaign of genocide in Gaza, and to end the apartheid regime in Israel and the occupied territories that is worse than what we experienced in our country.”
In her speech, the Minister called for international solidarity and increased pressure to support the just cause of the Palestinian people and achieve their demands for an independent, viable state. She stressed that the only way to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East is through a comprehensive settlement, without preconditions, to end the Israeli occupation and the siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
This conference comes in light of the continued Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 of last year, which claimed the lives of about 35,000 Palestinians, most of whom were children and women, in addition to wounding about 79,000, according to data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
In his speech, conference president Frank Chikane said, “We in South Africa did not wake up in the morning and say we will hold a conference, but the Palestinians had previously asked us to host this conference, which is a strategic step to mobilize the world to end Israeli colonialism and settlement in Palestine.”
Shikane compared the apartheid regime that South Africa suffered from previously, and what the Palestinian people are currently going through, and said, “Despite what we went through, I have never seen a people killed at the rate that the Palestinian people are being killed in my life, and yet the world does not care about what is happening.”
Global mobilization
The World Conference against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine is seen as a mobilization of the global movement against apartheid and holding Israel accountable for the crimes it commits against the Palestinians, and working to dismantle this Israeli policy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, according to the statement issued by the conference’s steering committee.
Soon after, Zweliflele Mandela – the grandson of the late leader Nelson Mandela – said: We in South Africa want to remind the global community that one day you rose up and joined the anti-apartheid movement, forming voices and ambassadors for our struggle for liberation, and today we again appeal to the entire global community to Yes, he will rise up and join us in mobilizing civil society against the “usurping Zionist entity.”
He added – in an exclusive interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net on the sidelines of the conference – we hope that this will be done through the activities of this World Conference against Apartheid, and we are able to call for support directly from the global community in order to support the Palestinian cause.
Objectives
Regarding the importance of this conference, the head of the media department of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) abroad, Hisham Qassem, said that it stems from South Africa’s hosting of it, “with the value it represents in the human conscience and the resistance to racism and struggle for liberation it has gone through.”
Qassem also indicated – in statements to Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the timing of the conference represents great importance to the Palestinian people, because of the types of racial discrimination they are experiencing, whether in the West Bank, Jerusalem or Gaza, and that this sends a message to the world that there must be a real movement in order to The Palestinian people gain their rights and the injustice against them is lifted.
Regarding the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Qassem said, “Gaza today represents a milestone in what is happening in Palestinian history, and must constitute a point of liberation for the Palestinians to see soon through this international support and assistance that we saw at the conference.”
International coalition
Regarding the expected results of the apartheid conference in Palestine, the general coordinator of the Palestinian Christian Initiative, Rifaat Kassis, said that we look forward to the success of the conference in forming an international coalition that includes all the movements that oppose Israeli apartheid and support Palestine, and that there will be clear mechanisms for developing appropriate plans and strategies in order to support the cause. Palestinian.
Kassis added – in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net – that the time has come – in light of these difficult times that the Palestinian people are experiencing due to the war of genocide practiced by Israel in Gaza and on the rest of the Palestinian areas – to gather all these efforts, and to have their headquarters in South Africa, with what it represents. Of the value, struggle and honorable positions in order to consolidate the freedom of peoples to determine their fate.