Watching the World Cup from South Africa got me reminiscing about the good old days of Apartheid. It’s amazing to see how far South Africa has come in such a short time. When I was in high school, the divestment effort was in full swing, especially on college campuses. It’s probably the issue that first engaged me in politics. Yeah, those were good times. I remember when Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 and Reagan vetoed it. That was awesome. Of course, we had our victory in the end when Congress overrode Reagan’s veto. Maggie Thatcher was no better, as David Cameron acknowledged in 2006.
David Cameron has distanced himself from one of Margaret Thatcher’s key foreign policies, saying that she was wrong to have called the ANC “terrorists” during the apartheid era.
The Conservative leader, who met Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg last week, said his party had made “mistakes” in the past by failing to introduce sanctions against apartheid in South Africa.
Lady Thatcher opposed international calls to introduce sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa and fought a bitter battle with campaigners in Britain. Writing in today’s Observer, Mr Cameron said that Mr Mandela was “one of the greatest men alive”. He said: “The mistakes my party made in the past with respect to relations with the ANC and sanctions on South Africa make it all the more important to listen now.”
And, if you think the Thatcherites have evolved, you’re mistaken…
His remarks were sharply criticised by Sir Bernard Ingham, Lady Thatcher’s former press secretary. He questioned Mr Cameron’s Tory credentials, remarking: “I wonder whether David Cameron is a Conservative.”
…because a Conservative would clearly support unfettered trade with the Apartheid regime…in retrospect or otherwise.
America’s relationship with Apartheid South Africa was always a bit weird. We had our own version of racial segregation (Jim Crow) until 1964 and we didn’t deal with voting until 1965 or housing until 1968. Yet, there we were in November 1962, letting Resolution 1761 pass through the UN Security Council.
That resolution set up the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, which we promptly demonized and ignored. The fact of the matter is that we were never that different from South Africa because of the conservative streak running through our polities.
The National Party government implemented, alongside apartheid, a programme of social conservatism. Pornography, gambling and other such vices were banned. Cinemas, shops selling alcohol and most other businesses were forbidden from operating on Sundays. Abortion, homosexuality and sex education were also restricted; abortion was legal only in cases of rape or if the mother’s life was threatened.
Sound familiar?
ah yes! but wasn’t Phila way ahead of the curve, divesting the city pension fund in something like 1976? then of course there was the bizarre logic of apartheid; a black person with united states citizenship visiting south africa had legal standing of “honorary white”. otoh, now that it’s gone, sa apartheid did preserve the languages and cultures in a way the usa system of mow down the indigenous cultures did not. how far are we from having a Sioux president?
It’s very interesting looking at the 106 co-sponsors of the 1986 Act. DFH’s. Later Neo-cons. Governors and Senators to be. Steny Hoyer. You name it.
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Israel became an independent state in 1948, the same year the Afrikaner-based Nationalist Party institutionalized the system of apartheid in South Africa. Notwithstanding the fascist origins of the Nationalist Party and its Greyshirts, diplomatic and economic relations between the new state of Israel and South Africa were close from the outset. Nationalist Party chief Dr. Malan, a notorious anti-Semite, was the first foreign head of state to visit Israel. The Malan government allowed the South African Jewish community, numbering over 100,000, to send significant funds to Israel.
Adams points out that one consequence of the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war was the clear political convergence between Israel and South Africa. Between 1967 and South Africa’s 1975 military intervention in Angola following the collapse of Portugal’s colonial empire, close collaboration between Israel and South Africa in all areas-economic, military, “internal security,” and intelligence-flourished.
In 1968 the Israeli-South Africa Friendship League-composed of leading political and business figures-was established, a precursor to the Israeli-South Africa Trade Association. By the 1970s the results were the beginning or the expansion of trade between key Israeli and South African industries. For example, Israel exported to South Africa machinery, electronic equipment, chemical and pharmaceutical products, and textiles. Israel imported from South Africa steel, cement, timber, and sugar.
Glenn Frankel, who teaches journalism at Stanford University, was Southern Africa, Jerusalem, and London bureau chief for the Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa by Sasha Polakow-Suransky was be published May 25, 2010.
History is a great teacher, but sometimes it packs a nasty sense of irony. A case in point: South African Prime Minister John Vorster’s visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem in April 1976, where he laid a wreath to the victims of the German Reich he once extolled.
South Africa's prime minister John Vorster (second from right) is feted by Israel's prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (right) and Menachem Begin (left) and Moshe Dayan during his 1976 visit to Jerusalem. Photograph: Sa'ar Ya'acovIt’s bad enough that a former Nazi sympathizer was treated like an honored guest by the Jewish state. Even worse was the purpose behind Vorster’s trip to Israel: to cement the extensive military relationship between Israel and the apartheid regime, a partnership that violated international law and illicitly provided the white-minority government with the weaponry and technology to help sustain its grip on power and its oppression of the black majority over two decades.
Israel’s Own Shameful History and Apartheid
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."racial injustice which existed in South Africa, Britain and the US. Oddly though, you choose not to speak of countries like Sudan and Niger which have thriving slavery businesses today.
That’s today. As in right now.