THIS PAST WEEKEND was historic. Hundreds of protests across the globe saw millions of people taking to the streets. “Shut it down, shut it down!” cried the world as the Israeli genocide in Gaza continued for the 30th consecutive day.
While the world’s leaders may try to muddy the truth of a Palestinian Holocaust, people such as Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and the Arab leaders stick their heads in the sand. We can only imagine how history is going to judge their complicity in the 21st century’s biggest human rights catastrophe.
Space precludes us from contextualizing all the dynamics of the Palestinian question, which embraces the political elephant of colonialism and apartheid.
This is because the imposition of a so-called “Jewish state” inspired by a nationalist movement (Zionism) over an existing people in 1948 is nothing less than an enforced occupation. The United Nations Partition Decision of 1947, already guaranteeing Zionists 52 percent of a land UN members didn’t own, was already an exception of international law.
Yet the Zionists were not satisfied with this British-influenced “deal”. The Stern and Irgun gangs – regarded as terrorists by the New York Times – had already begun their ethnic cleansing pogrom. And so by 1948, almost half of the 750,000 Palestinians who would be displaced, had already been displaced.
And while the modern state of Israel is a political reality today, we have to note that the majority of the Palestinian resistance does not wish for an eradication of the state, but rather, of the toxic Zionism that drips into the veins of racist supremacists such as Benjamin Netanyahu.
And let it be said – as it has been said so many times before – most discerning people make the critical distinction that Zionism is a political expression, not a faith. Zionism is not Judaism. No one has a problem with Judaism.
What most of us want is peace, many mooting a unitary state in Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christians can live together. Jewish identity in the Middle East is constitutionally – as opposed to militarily – guaranteed with no more “security” issues.
Interestingly, this concept of a unitary state is exactly what Hamas spokespeople have mentioned to me in interviews for more than 20 years, this very same Hamas that the west is so busy trying to demonise as terrorists.
However, like all citizens of the world, Palestinians have the right to resist the illegal occupation and apartheid strictions they experience in places such as the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. These rights are embedded in Resolution 2625 of the UN.
But let’s get to the weekend, where on the Saturday, Cape Town experienced its biggest ever march in support of Palestine. As over 150,000 chanted in the streets, Cape Town became one of the many cities around the world raising its voice for justice.
On the Sunday, a group of pro-Israeli faith groups had applied for a permit to have a gathering (to pray for Netanyahu’s killers?) on the Sea Point promenade lawns near the icon of Madiba’s glasses. For several weekends before, the Palestine solidarity movement had been picketing on the promenade.
The organisers had predicted a turnout of about 2,500, not even a fraction of what the pro-Palestinian march had attracted the day before. Nonetheless, South Africa is a democracy. Every voice has a right to be heard. But here is exactly where the Sea Point picket became, by default, a battle of white privilege and Cape Flats inequality.
When I arrived at the picket at about 12.30, I did not have a good feeling. I have covered protest for nearly 40 years. As with all those anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s, I could immediately see that a large, high profile (metro) police presence was the worst possible scenario.
The police had been instructed to keep a blue line between about 1,000 placard holders and the venue for the prayer meeting, immediately creating hostility from an overwhelmingly peaceful and pleasant crowd. I could see that JP’s finest, like the SAPS of old, did not know the 101 of crowd control: if there are no threats – keep your distance.
I say this, because in the 1980s on the very rare occasions the police kept a distance and did not interfere, the marches or protests would be peaceful. Unfortunately, people like Major Dolf Odendaal could never understand this. As a result, protestors would get seriously hurt, some even losing their lives.
My other concern on Sunday was the presence of agents provocateurs, people planted in the crowd to stir things up, and to discredit the protest by causing chaos. Often, these agents infiltrate groups and pretend to be more radical than the radical. Our leaders need to understand that people do not need to attend protests in democratic South Africa with covered faces.
The other aspect of Sunday, more a subliminal one, was the implicit racism that pro-Palestinian protestors, predominantly Muslim, were an “other” – a boogeyman of sorts, not helped by the governing party’s inability to outrightly condemn the Gaza genocide, thus hurting the people who had voted for it.
WhatsApp messages I’d heard prior to the Sunday had been dismissively referring to us as “them” – a distinct Bush-type otherism – like our community did not belong on the Sea Point lawns. As one of the protestors told me, “we are also here to populate these spaces our grandparents were denied.”
The underlying tension, exacerbated by the heavy police presence, was increased when a group of about eight masked youths with a black banner appeared. About 30 metres from the blue line, and next to a van, three Israeli flags were fluttering in the breeze.
This group took the police by surprise, and approached the Star of David flag bearers, unfurling the banner. One person (unmasked) snatched the one flag and ran away with it. It was after this that the chaos ensued, in which stun grenades were fired. We all know what transpired after that. Police action. Water canons.
Watching this unfold, I had to ask myself, who was protecting who? And from whom? The prayer meeting – with its imminent promise of whiteness – from “them”, the Muslims? Of course, all life is sacred – but one life can’t be more sacred than the other.
Some of the protestors would have loved to have seen so many shiny Ratels and blue lines in Manenberg, Bishop Lavis or Bonteheuwel where gangsters shoot their children daily.
And finally, a word to the youths who approached the Zionist flag bearers. Yes, you are our beloved brothers, and yes, we do understand and appreciate your passion and commitment to the cause of Palestinian justice. But the Qur’an does say, be just…”but don’t let the enmity and hatred of others make you avoid justice (to others)”.
We need to understand that your actions, while sincere and well-intended, might just have had the opposite effect. Indeed, we have to remind ourselves that the Prophet Muhammad [pbuh] once said that we should try to help our brother, no matter what, lest he become the oppressed one, and us the oppressor.
However, we are not saying capitulation or deviation from the Qur’anic middle way of justice, peace and truth. It is the enthusiasm of the youth that should feed from the wisdom of the elderly.
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