“Situation is worse than in African apartheid”, says Conference organizer

Between the 10th and 12th of May, Johannesburg, South Africa, will host the first Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine. Organized by South African Anti-Apartheid Steering Committee (SAAASC), the event expects more than 250 activists from dozens of countries, including Brazil and other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Conference’s purpose is to bring together social movements, interreligious leaders and communicators from across the planet to define strategies for mobilizing and confronting the apartheid promoted by Israel against the Palestinian people.

“To articulate the global anti-apartheid mobilization and to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people” are some of the objectives expressed in the call for the event, as well as “to intensify organization and coordination aiming for a unified global action plan” to respond to the escalation of the catastrophe carried out by Zionism.

Read too: Israel censors Aljazira to control information about the genocide

Several authorities, political leaders and intellectuals from various parts of the world, including Palestine, are confirmed at the Conference, whose schedule is available at https://antiapartheid.net/.

With the task of bringing the discussions and results of this international meeting to Brazil and the continent, the Center for Alternative Media Studies Barão de Itararé and the collective The communication participate in debates in Johannesburg. Both are part of the Communication Forum for the Integration of Our Americao FCINAa network of alternative Latin American and Caribbean media that work together on issues such as the democratization of communication and regional integration.

As a warm-up for the Conference, the journalist from Baron of Itararé It’s from The communicationFelipe Bianchi, interviewed the reverend Moss Point, co-organizer of the event on the African continent. In addition to having worked in the fight against apartheid in his homeland, Ntlha directs the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa and is president of Defend Our Democracya social movement arising from the civil war in the country.

Read the full chat translated into Portuguese.

Felipe Bianchi – Can you comment on the purpose of the Conference and how this idea became reality? What is your assessment of South Africa’s growing role in actions of solidarity with Palestine and denouncing the genocide and apartheid promoted by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people?

Moss Point – In 2022, I visited Palestine in the company of Reverend Dr. Frank Chikane and Reverend Mzwandile Molo. Something we have in common, besides being clergy, is the fact that we carry in our baggage the fight against apartheid in South Africa.

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During our visit, Palestinian activists expressed the urgent need for international solidarity and an anti-apartheid movement driven by citizens around the world against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. They asked us if we could help with the proposal that a conference for this purpose be held in our country.

We readily accepted, because in our view, what we witnessed in Palestine and Israel was worse than what we experienced in apartheid South Africa. Many of us who suffered apartheid in our homeland feel an immediate connection to Palestinian suffering. President Nelson Mandela himself once expressed that we will not be free until the Palestinians are free.

On the way home, we spoke to other South African Palestine solidarity initiatives, which had also received similar requests. We felt it was the right time to promote this conference, with the aim of mobilizing citizens fighting for justice around the world to work together in the task of defeating the Israeli occupation and enabling Palestinians and Jews to live in peace and equality.

Felipe Bianchi – What is the connection between the historic struggle against apartheid in Africa and the struggle for a free Palestine? Is there an intention to recreate the global climate of mobilization and awareness as we saw in the African case?

Moss Point – During the several years of struggle against apartheid in South Africa, there were several calls and demonstrations of solidarity between South African freedom fighters and leaders of organizations for the liberation of Palestinians – all exiled from their own home. We share the same search for justice, peace and equality between people and their homelands.

In fact, our expectation is that a global movement of solidarity can be articulated and move forward from the Conference that will take place between May 10th and 12th in our country. A movement made up of conscious people, old and young, of all races and creeds, who are willing to act united for justice and peace between Israel and Palestine, even if this goes against the lines taken by the governments – often reactionary – from which these people and movements come.

Felipe Bianchi – How important is the interreligious nature of the Conference?

Moss Point – In our experience of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, we learned that it is necessary to bring together people of all faiths and people of no faith at all. The power of the united people was

triggered by a common purpose. We defeated apartheid and learned lessons that are fundamental to face the challenges posed today.

It is necessary to sow peace and justice. It is incredible and necessary that Jews, Christians, Muslims and adherents of other religions or no religion are united in the battle trenches for justice for Palestine.

Felipe Bianchi – How do you see the ‘mantra’ that accuses anyone who expresses anti-Zionist positions of anti-Semitism? This seems to be a kind of quite dated strategic global narrative, but it is what continues to underpin the persecution and harassment against journalists in Brazil and the rest of the world who dare to confront the dominant discourse aligned with the State of Israel.

Moss Point – The most horrifying thing about this mantra is that it denies the Judaism of the Jewish people themselves who oppose the Zionist ideology of the State of Israel. In this way, he himself becomes anti-Semitic.

It is for this reason that a multi-religious global community opposing the occupation is the hope for lasting peace between Palestine and Israel.

Felipe Bianchi – What is your view of Latin American leaders such as the presidents of Brazil and Colombia, Lula and Gustavo Petro, respectively, when raising the anti-apartheid flag, against genocide and in solidarity with Palestine?

Moss Point – The courage of people like President Lula and President Petro are important moral signs in a world that has lost its moral compass. We look in vain to the Global North for moral leadership. It is the so-called third world countries that dare to stand up against the world’s rich superpowers, even under frightening threats of punishment and economic strangulation for themselves. The fight for justice in Palestine is the fight, paradoxically, of David and Goliath. Of civilized values ​​of justice against the barbarity of Zionism’s genocidal inclinations against Gaza. Positions like Lula and Petro inspire us to continue believing in humanity.