The Palestinian struggle for liberation is one that resonates with South Africans who faced a similar regime, with recent developments in the region highlighting how some have not abandoned their past racist ideals.
The developments in Palestine stir up a range of emotions in South Africans, religious, humanitarian, historical, and personal.
As a young person when I participated in the struggle against apartheid, I could immediately identify with the Hamas fighters breaking out … It was a moment of excitement, a moment in which I would have wanted to step out of the ghettos in which we were living.
And I could fully understand and appreciate the frustration under which the people of Gaza have been living and the fighters of Hamas have been operating.
Cassiem Kha, Anti-Apartheid Activist
But for others the ongoing Israeli atrocities over successive campaigns of terror, against the Gaza Strip in particular, have shown them the true face of Zionism.
The subjugation of the Palestinian people is nothing but racism. And therefore, irrespective of from which perspective we come, if we are serious about it, and if we have a shred of humanity, we must be opposed to racism.
Protestor 01
I desire to stand for humanity and justice. What is going on in Palestine today has no equivalent with anything else we have seen in this world.
Protestor 02
The whole world has looked away. That’s what they have resorted to. And now for me, I’ve said we need to continue to stand with them to show that they are not alone.
And they don’t need to listen to other media outlets where they say that they are the bad ones; that other people believe in their struggle and their cause.
Protestor 03
In fact, it is quite disappointing. It’s distasteful. It’s embarrassing that we still have South Africans that have experienced about it, and still support Israel.
Protestor 04
But it is that cohort of South Africans that protesters came to deliver the message to.
The Zionist center in Cape Town has been quiet, but, South African Zionists are actively involved in the Israeli aggression and routinely send over South African citizens to fight in the Israeli occupation force.
Protesters have demanded that the South African government take action against them.
As Palestinians continue to face the brutally racist Zionist regime, those who had just the mere taste of Zionism’s twin sister in South Africa, have vowed to keep up protests.
