Nelson Mandela is reported to have said, “The temptation is
to speak in muffled tones about an issue such as the right of the people of Palestine
Let us be clear, Mandela never spoke “in muffled tones” when
it came to human rights and suffering for oppressed people all over the world.
All over the media, politicians and newscasters are jumping
on the band wagon to sing the praises of Nelson Mandela, and rightly so. He was one of the outstanding leaders of the
world during the past century. Yet, how many leaders, political and religious, tell
us the whole of his greatness. To do so would be embarrassing.
Some of his most significant sayings that are being “muffled”
are:
But we know too well that our
freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinian people.[1]
People of conscience cringe with pain when the thought of
what a difference it would make in the suffering of so many people if just one
major TV news anchor would emphasize this aspect of Mandela’s struggle for
peace.
I believe there are many
similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO. We live under a unique form
of colonialism in South Africa ,
as well as in Israel
When challenged by Ted Koppel on ABC, Mandela responded,
We identify with the PLO because,
just like ourselves, they are fighting for the right of self determination.
He told an Australian news media:
We agree with the United Nations
that international disputes should be settled by peaceful means. The belligerent
attitude which is adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable.
Mandela went on to say that the ANC does not consider the
PLO a terrorist group:
If one has to refer to any of the
parties as a terrorist state, one might refer to the Israeli government,
because they are the people who are slaughtering defenseless and innocent Arabs
in the occupied territories, and we don’t regard this as acceptable.[3]
Western leaders, who until 2008, called him a terrorist are
now falling all over themselves to call him a great leader. Obama puts him in
the class with Lincoln, Roosevelt, Gandhi and King. Joe Biden eulogies, “The
most remarkable man I have ever known in my entire life.” I agree. But my fear is that many of those
world leaders gathered to bury Mandela are hoping to bury his principles of
freedom from oppression along with him.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, human rights activist and well known
professor, having taught at University
of Tennessee
In this week’s compilation from
occupied Palestine Bethlehem Israel Palestine
A comment of William Slone Coffin comes to mind; “Peace will
come when those who are not victims of injustice feel as keenly about it as those
who are.”
Mandela lived in an apartheid state in “homelands” with no
power, no military, no real economy and no control over its land, labor or resources”. No surprise that he would identify with the Palestinians
who suffer every day under the oppression of Israel
Thomas
Are
December
12, 2013
[1]
President Nelson Mandela at the International Day of Solidarity with the
Palestinian People. December 4, 1997, Pretoria
[2] Article
in JTA, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Global Jewish News Source, South
African and the U.S.
[3] JTA
article, Mandela Angers
[4] Mazin
Qumsiyeh, Israeli Apartheid Gift to
Mandela: Myrters and Injuries. Popular Resistance, December 7, 2013.
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