Chomsky on the need for effective BDS

Noam Chomsky wonders when the US will ditch its Zionist ally. Only when US businesses think a true anti-apartheid struggle catches on. It’s coming: While intensively engaged in illegal settlement expansion, the government of Israel is also seeking to deal with two problems: a global campaign of what it perceives as “delegitimation” – that is,…

Ben-Gurion University is ripe for boycott

South Africa knows a thing or two about apartheid. No wonder growing numbers of people there won’t tolerate similar or worse behaviour in the Zionist state: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Unisa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana and author Breyten Breytenbach have added their voices to calls for the University of Johannesburg to sever academic ties with Israel’s Ben-Gurion…

Chinese repression isn’t the way forward

The Western capitalist model is inherently problematic with massive over-consumption and a gross disregard for human rights (if corporations get in the way). But this really isn’t an alternative and viable model: The “discipline” of China’s authoritarian political system should be considered as a potential recipe for economic growth in Africa and other developing regions,…

Post apartheid troubles in South Africa

When democracies start trying to silence brave journalism, be afraid: Royal sex scandals rarely come riper. A government minister is caught in bed with the king’s wife – in fact, one of the king’s 14 wives. Ndumiso Mamba, justice minister in Swaziland, is forced to resign and could yet face much worse from King Mswati…

The history of apartheid continues to resonate

I can’t help but read this story in the New York Times about the World Cup and wonder about years ahead, when Israel has left its apartheid behind. People will look back and wonder how it ever happened. And those who backed and supported to the last drop of blood will not be forgotten. Who…

Please sir, can we buy the bomb?

Yet more revelations that shows Israel as a nation like any other; ruthless and unprincipled: An apartheid-era cabinet minister carried a “nuclear trigger” to South Africa from Israel as part of Pretoria’s efforts to build an atom bomb, according to a report in a Johannesburg newspaper. Two renowned South African journalists have revealed that Eschel…

How South Africa has inspired us all

Hind Awwad, national coordinator of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, tells Electronic Intifada: It took the South African BDS campaign 25 years to achieve what we achieved in five years. That is what South Africans and anti-apartheid activists tell us. And we see [new tactics] of BDS activities by the young generation…

Israel is becoming the new South Africa, says major Israeli writer

Israeli writer Amos Oz speaking to the country’s Army Radio: We are placing ourselves under an international siege, which is more dangerous for us than the siege on Gaza in dangerous to Gaza. Israel is turning into South Africa in the Apartheid days – a country which the world’s nation wouldn’t want to buy its…

From the depths of South Africa, Israel receives a warning

This event is resonating around the world. From a country that knows a thing or two about racial oppression: Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and a group of retired global leaders have joined international leaders in condemning the Israeli forces’ raid on a ship delivering relief supplies to Gaza. “We as elders condemn Israel utterly…

The how and why of boycotting a nation like Israel

The Guardian music blog publishes an interesting discussion about the rights, wrongs and issues over musical boycotts (South Africa, Israel etc): Last week, Elvis Costello became the latest, though probably not the last, musician to pull out of a concert in Israel under pressure from various groups calling for a cultural boycott of the country…

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