As someone whose activism was shaped by student politics at Wits University – internationalism and solidarity with the Palestinian struggle being an important part thereof – I jumped at the opportunity. Despite my prior knowledge of the situation, hearing in person from Palestinians about their experiences and seeing the military checkpoints and the wall was an eye-opener.

I was asked to reflect on how the organisation I work for – the public interest law centre SECTION27 – makes use of the law to advance the right to basic education in South Africa, and hopefully offer insight to those at the conference, who were similarly activists in civil society and in academia, on how they can advocate and campaign for this critical right. 

This was, however, a difficult exercise. Not because our strategies are necessarily complex, but because the present-day South African and Palestinian contexts are vastly different. 

The cornerstone of our democracy is our Constitution, which is hailed by many across the world as one of the best in the world for its inclusion of legally enforceable socioeconomic rights such as the right to healthcare, food, water and social security, education and housing, among others. 

In its founding provisions lie the aspirational principles our democracy is founded on – these include human dignity, equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms, non-racialism, and non-sexism, among others. In contrast, Palestinians enjoy no such rights and freedom on their own land.

Palestinians face human rights violations at the hands of the Israeli government on a daily basis.

This is not to say our democracy is perfect. I know very well that our society continues to suffer from deep and persistent socio-economic inequality. However, even those who are the most cynical of our democracy will admit that we are leaps and bounds beyond where we were under apartheid, in that, on paper, each and every person is recognised as a bearer of rights – the state bearing the obligation to fulfil these rights.

As we celebrate 28 years of democracy in South Africa this year, Palestine marked 74 years of unlawful occupation and annexation of its land by Israel, which began in 1948. 

Israel’s 74-year occupation of Palestinian land and the denial of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination has been repeatedly decried by various United Nations bodies. 

Instead of relenting and remedying its flagrant transgressions, Israel has persisted with its occupation and violation of international human rights law, emboldened by support from its long-time ally, the United States. 

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Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territories have been classified by international human rights bodies and scholars as nothing less than apartheid. A violation of human rights law and international humanitarian law. 

The parallels between apartheid SA and Palestine are easy to draw. 

Like the South African apartheid government, the Israeli apartheid government has denied Palestinians living in the occupied territories the right to freedom of movement, this by way of Israeli-controlled checkpoints – the requirement being that Palestinians carry permits in order to be allowed to travel to different areas in the occupied Palestinian territories. These discriminatory practices harken back to our own dark days under apartheid pass laws. 

On 11 May 2022, the international community had another reminder of how brutal the Israeli regime is, when visuals emerged of veteran Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, being shot dead by Israeli snipers during a military operation. Abu Akleh was working for Al Jazeera at the time, covering the Israeli raids in Jenin on the occupied West Bank, and was wearing a vest that clearly identified her as media. This was apparently not enough to spare her from a bullet. 

Shireen Abu Akleh is not the first journalist to be killed by the Israeli military and she is unlikely to be the last. This again brings back memories of the South African apartheid regime and its assassination of civil rights activist and journalist, Ruth First, who was killed by way of a parcel bomb in Mozambique. Like First, justice and accountability for Shireen Abu Akleh’s assassination is likely to be hard to come by.

In addition to the killing of journalists, Israel has also enacted and enforced laws to repress the work of respected and credible human rights organisations and activists in occupied Palestinian territories. 

On 19 October 2021, six Palestinian human rights NGOs were designated as “terrorist organisations” by the Israeli Minister of Defence in terms of Israel’s Counter Terrorism Law of 2016. The reason provided by the Minister of Defence for these designations is that the organisations are an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

These claims have been dismissed by multiple international NGOs such as the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as being completely unsubstantiated. More than 20 UN Special Rapporteurs have also condemned Israel’s actions.

In terms of this Counter Terrorism Law, once an organisation is designated as a “terrorist organisation”, the Israeli government is authorised to shut down their offices, confiscate their property and impose criminal sanctions on their staff. 

Furthermore, providing funding to these organisations – which are reliant on donations – is prohibited. More recently, on the morning of 18 August 2022, the Israeli Occupying Forces confiscated property including files and computers belonging to these organisations and welded the doors of the organisations’ offices shut. 

These types of practices are not unheard of to us – in response to domestic anti-apartheid campaigning, the apartheid government banned or placed severe restrictions not only on liberation movements, but on grassroots and civil society organisations. 

The state-sanctioned bombings of the headquarters of Cosatu and the South African Council of Churches, rendering them inaccessible and unusable, is comparable to Israel’s actions.

The fight against apartheid was not fought for and achieved by South Africans alone. Solidarity from progressive pockets of the international community – including governments and foreign and international human rights organisations – played an instrumental role in isolating the Pretoria regime and forcing it to the negotiating table. 

This solidarity came in the form of boycotts, divestments and sanctions against South Africa. These acts of solidarity ultimately played a critical role in helping to bring apartheid to an end. 

In many ways, we as South Africans have a heightened moral duty to be especially vocal and unequivocal in our support for the Palestinian cause.  

This duty rests not only on our government, but South African civil society should also be among the first to call out Israeli violations of human rights and demand accountability, especially when our Palestinian counterparts face criminalisation and assassination for advocating for the respect and promotion of human rights. 

As Oliver Tambo once said: “We who are free to eat and sleep at will, to write, to speak, to travel as we please; we who are free to make or break a revolution, let us use our comparative freedom, not to perpetuate the misery of those who suffer, nor to give indirect aid to the enemy they fight, by withholding our own contributions.”

Motheo Brodie is a legal research and advocacy officer at the public interest law centre SECTION27.