Israel and South Africa’s relationship over the last 60 years is complicated. In the 1950s and 1960s Israel was critical of South African Apartheid as it made alliances with post-colonial African States. Indeed, in 1963 Israel announced that it was instituting a military boycott against South Africa and that it was recalling its ambassador. However, after many African countries broke ties with Israel after the Yom Kippur war, Israel became one of South Africa’s most staunch defenders.
At times the relationship was terrifyingly ironic: in 1973 John Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa, was invited to Israel. Vorster had been incarcerated during WWII for supporting Hitler’s Nazi Party and for his role in the Ossewabrandwag, a fascist nationalist organization modeled after the Nazi SA. As he toured the holocaust memorial in Jerusalem no one made reference to his anti-Semitic past and, that evening, at a state dinner, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin toasted “the ideals shared by Israel and South Africa: the hopes for justice and peaceful coexistence.” Later that year, the South African Government’s Yearbook would say “Israel and South Africa have one thing above all else in common: they are both situated in a predominantly hostile world inhabited by dark peoples.”
The militaries of each nation increased their collaboration throughout the 1970s, which, according to many, helped transform South Africa and Israel into a leading arms development, manufacturing and trade axis (many today allege that Israel was instrumental in the development of the South African Atomic Bomb). Israel began to train hundreds of South African military officers, as an Israeli journalist said in 1976, “It is a clear and open secret, that in army camps, one can find Israeli officers, in not insignificant numbers, who are busy teaching white soldiers to fight black terrorists, with methods imported from Israel.”
By the late 1980s the rest of the world had abandoned South Africa, boycotting its products and isolating it diplomatically. In 1987 Israel was the last to distance itself from the Apartheid regime but not without a fight. Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador, remembers “When we came to the crossroads in ‘86-’87, in which the foreign ministry said we have to switch from white to black, the security establishment said, ‘You’re crazy, it’s suicidal.’ They were saying we wouldn’t have military and aviation industries unless we had had South Africa as our main client from the mid-1970s. They saved Israel.”
Post-Apartheid South Africa has had a mixed relationship with Israel. Nelson Mandela has acknowledged that Israel “co-operated with apartheid, but it did not get involved in the atrocities of the [South African] apartheid regime.” He has since taken a harder stand on Israel, stating, “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” Other prominent South Africans, such as Desmond Tutu, have noted parallels between the oppression of the African Population in South Africa and the situation of the Palestinians.
When asked about the morality of supporting Apartheid South Africa Shimon Peres, who was Israel Defense Minister during Vorster’s visit, Prime Minister twice during the 1980s and, today, Israel’s President, has said, “I never think back. Since I cannot change the past, why should I deal with it?”
This past week has seen new developments in the Israeli-South African relationship. Last week the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) joined the growing boycott divestment and sanctions campaign. Started in 2005, this campaign uses similar actions taken against South Africa in the 1980s to fight the Israeli governments policies in the occupied territories. Arthur got on the phones over the weekend to talk to the Palestine Solidarity Committee, located in South Africa, and COSATU to discuss a recent decision by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) to refuse to unload an Israeli ship.
Arthur: Could you speak to the decision made by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU)?
Melissa Hoole: The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is really pleased to announce that its members, the dockworkers, belonging to SATAWU had a major victory this week. First of all, they made a momentous decision to refuse to offload any Israeli goods off of ships in the Port of Durban. The second victory was that they stood firm by their decision by not offloading the ship called the Johanna Russ, which was transporting Israeli produce to South Africa. This is a momentous week for us because it marked the launching of COSATU’s boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Arthur: What is the relationship between the South African Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) and the labour movement?
Hoole: PSC is in partnership with COSATU at the moment. We jointly launched the BDS campaign this week starting with a press conference to highlight, to the public, that COSATU had made this decision not to offload Israeli goods. This [partnership] is really just the first step in the BDS campaign.
Arthur: How important is organized labour in relation to BDS?
Hoole: Organized labour is absolutely vital. Obviously labour is just one dimension of it, but it’s such a powerful dimension. The Congress of South African Trade Unions have a multitude of affiliates, there are over 1.9 million members. Unions are in discussions with all of their affiliates from various other unions, including the National Union of Mineworkers, the Commerical Catering and Allied Workers union (which is basically all the supermarket workers in South Africa). This isn’t just a matter of refusing to offload goods off of Israeli ships, it’s also the mineworkers, it’s also the supermarket workers refusing to handle any Israeli products. It’s just going to go on, this is really an excellent beginning, it’s been a momentous week. We’ve had messages of support coming in from other unions all around the world.
To give some background on the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, most of the work that is being done is out of Johannesburg but we’ve been helping with forming similar groups all around the country. We’ve been propogating the idea of BDS and the idea of an international isolation campaign of the Israeli state. At the moment we’re on the verge of a merger, so all of these smaller solidarity groups in South Africa are in the process of becoming one strong national movement.
Arthur: To what extent does it seem like the BDS movement is about to make a breakthrough in South Africa?
Hoole: This week in itself was a major breakthrough. We had such a strong decision made by the dock workers. I should add that they were under a lot of pressure. There were many attempts made to thwart their decision and also to deceive the workers. SATAWU’s members stood firm in the face of all this, this week. That they’ve been so staunch in their decision is, for us, a major coup, a major breakthrough in itself. Having said that, this is only the tip of the iceberg, this is only the beginning of our campaign. There’s an energy in the air in South Africa that we’re on the cusp of something really big. We can only hope that we can go from strength to strength.
Arthur: What kind of response has their been from South Africa’s government, particularly local governments?
Hoole: On the provincial level we’re seeing a lot of buy-in from members of government. Bare in mind that this is a national election year for South Africa with elections only a few months away. You can imagine that there are a lot of politicians out there who are campaigning. Having said that, the watershed moment was when the Gaza massacres began. South Africans were just absolutely horrified, from the ordinary people all the way up to the top of government. Some very firm statements were made, for instance, by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs: she called in the Israeli ambassador and, to quote him, the meeting was “extremely difficult” and it was very clear that he was given a dressing down.
South Africa’s stance has been very firm since the beginning of the Gaza massacres and on a provincial level I can say the PSC has been doing a lot of work in terms of going around to smaller towns and provinces, having public meetings and rallies. We’re getting a lot of encouragement, not just from members of civil society, but also from members of government both at the provincial level and as far up as the President’s office.
Arthur: What is the relationship between South Africa and Israel like?
Hoole: The link between Israel and South Africa is a deep and well-established one. From the time of South African apartheid, Israel was basically the Apartheid regime’s last friend. This is a time when the rest of the world had launched boycotting and sanction campaigns against South Africa. Trade relations continue to exist and they are very well organized and it’s sad to note that in the financial year of 2007-2008 imports from Israel increased by 24%.
We really don’t have an easy job ahead of us, we have a lot of work to do in terms of lobbying governments and trying to initiate trade sanctions and severing diplomatic ties. We’re hearing a lot of encouraging things from government but at this stage there’s just lots of talk.
Arthur: Given South Africa’s history with the Apartheid regime what kind of special significance does this Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign have?
Hoole: We’ve been really surprised by the reaction and the emotion amongst ordinary South Africans in response to the massacres as part of Israel’s operation Cast Lead. We are really heartened by the responses that we are receiving: applauding COSATU for their strong stance, applauding other civil society groups from all walks of life in South Africa. People are standing up and saying “Listen, this is not acceptable. We know what this is like, we’ve lived through this. We’ve fought the battle against apartheid and we’ve won. We may not know who these people are in Palestine, we may have never met them before, but we have a deep relationship with them and we understand their pain.”
I think it’s also interesting that a lot of previous anti Apartheid activists, political activists and high profile South Africans who have experience in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa are standing up and saying “We want to go see what’s happening in Palestine.” There was a huge delegation [that went] last year and there was a lot of comment in the media by high profile South Africans saying “What is happening in Palestine is worse than anything we ever experienced under apartheid here in South Africa”
To sum, I would say there is a strong sense of solidarity between South Africans and Palestinians. On the flip side, we maintained contact with our comrades and friends in Palestine during the course of the invasion into Gaza updating them on the work that we were doing here in South Africa. I can’t tell you how much it meant to them, we were getting a lot of communication from individuals and organizations, as well as some political parties within Israel, saying “We’re seeing you on our televisions, we see you sloganing, we see you holding the placards, we see the thousands of South Africans that have come out to voice their opposition to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine. It makes us feel better to know South Africans and South Africa haven’t forgotten about us.”
Arthur: We only happened across this story about the dockworkers, and much of the mainstream press in Canada have not seemed willing to cover stories like yours, what kind of media attention have you received internationally?
Hoole: We have received a lot of interest and, I think, this is early days yet. We have received inquires from as far as Iran, other Middle-Eastern news media, from Australia, you guys in Canada, and from the UK. It’s heartening to know there are so many people around the world who are interested in the issue because it is so profoundly symbolic. The thing that seems to be commented on the most in the media is the symbolism of COATSU taking this decision [to not handle Israeli goods] and really continuing the legacy of the anti-apartheid struggle and the workers role in that fight. We’re really excited by what’s happening so far.
Arthur: Could you tell us what the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is and your role in the BDS campaign?
Patrick Craven: COSATU is the biggest trade union federation in South Africa with some 2 million members in 21 different trade unions. We have, for some time now, supporting the campaign in support of the Palestinian people and against the Israeli state’s attack against them and, in particular, the recent attack on Gaza. We support the BDS campaign: boycott, divestment and sanctions.
As part of the one of our affiliates decided that their members would not unload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa. A ship arrived last Wednesday and they remained true to that. Unfortunately other workers who are not member of that union, or not members of any COSATU union did unload the ship, or so we understand, and it has left. But our union maintained its principles and we will continue to do so. We are also calling for a boycott is Israeli goods by shopworkers or any other workers who come into contact with goods form Israel. We hope this campaign will spread internationally.
Arthur: Even though the ship was unloaded do you think the point of the protest has been heard?
Craven: The point of principle was made. We are going to approach these other workers and explain to them why we are waging this campaign and, hopefully, bring them on board so next time they won’t be able to unload the ship.
This is a form of political protest. We will certainly, together with our allies in the Palestinian Solidarity Committee, be checking on the arrival of more ships to South African ports and we will continue with this campaign. And given the international publicity this has received we hope that other workers will join in the protest. We’re not the first, by the way, to take industrial action: workers in Norway have already staged token stoppages to highlight the issue of the crisis in Palestine.
Arthur: What kind of response have you had from the government of South Africa?
Craven: Well they are broadly sympathetic to our aims but we haven’t yet convinced them to go a step further and break diplomatic relations, following the example of Venezuela and Bolivia. But we will continue arguing the case and I am hopeful we will one day convince them. Because of South Africa’s history we think it will have a bigger [international] impact than those countries that have already broken off relations.
One of the main slogans of the campaign is: “Boycott Apartheid Israel.” Many of the policies they are adopting there towards the Palestinian people are very similar to those of the Apartheid regime imposed on the African majority in South Africa.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 September 2009 10:46
