Programme Director;

Respected Elders;

Beloved Mothers and Fathers;

Honoured brothers and sisters;

Dearest Ladies and gentlemen;

Comrades and friends;

All protocol observed.

 

I greet you with the universal greeting of peace, Assalaamu Alaykum peace be with you. I have just come from the launch of the Mandela Leadership Program, Leading like Mandela. I have been asked to address you on Living the Legacy and I am conflicted by the question: Which is more difficult? Leading like Mandela or Living the Legacy? I think I will go with Living the Legacy cause within our family we are able to trace the Mandela legacy all the way back to the 12th Century when Thembu founded AbaThembu nation. But tonight I wanna speak about Living the Legacy.

 

Our legacy is a legacy of struggle. The struggle against colonization and apartheid defined generation after generation before us. The struggle was my grandfather’s life from a young age. It defined who President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was and what we have inherited as a family and as a nation. This reminds me of the verse from the Qur’an, Chapter 28 verse 5 which says and I quote: “and we wished to be gracious to those who were oppressed on earth, to make them the leaders and make the inheritors.” We all have the responsibility of providing leadership and we all have the responsibility of living the legacy by putting an end to oppression, inequality and poverty.

 

Program Director; 

 

We have been overtaken and overwhelmed by events of the past 24 hours. I say overwhelmed because the response has been so emphatic and unequivocal that one news commentator has said that Trump’s illegal declaration of Jerusalem as capital of Israel has been roundly condemned by all world leaders besides the Prime Minister of Israel.

 

Last week, on Friday to be precise I was standing on the sacred grounds of Masjid Al Aqsa in Jerusalem observing first- hand what my grandfather called the Palestinian struggle “the greatest moral issue of our time”. It is a shame to witness the daily violations of human rights and International law being perpetrated against Palestinians of all faiths. Seeing and experiencing first hand this daily humiliation and violation of basic human rights to dignity, respect and honour made me realize why Madiba took such a strong view of the Palestinian cause.

 

Let me share some of that experience. In Jordan we encountered Palestinians in diaspora with refugees comprising nearly 70 percent of the Jordanian Population. Many of the older generation had been refugees for the past 40 or 50 years and had never been allowed back to see the homes, villages and plantations of their childhood. 

 

My impression of them was a strange mixture of melancholic longing and desolation almost despair that they would never see the land of their birth again. From the Jordanian banks of the Dead Sea they could see Occupied Palestine on the opposite side and perched on the hilltops at night you can see the illegal Israeli settlements overlooking the Bedouins below and scattered Palestinian outposts.

 

For many Palestinian Activists as well as the younger generation that we met in Jordan it was President Mandela’s legacy that kept the memory alive for them. For some just witnessing our street marches and protests we held here in South Africa, breathed new hope, optimism and even courage to continue the struggle with greater vigour and courage. Unlike their parents and grandparents, most of them had never set foot in Palestine and have never been granted permission to do so. I never thought that I would experience Living the Legacy so powerfully.

 

If I felt the pain of those refugees that could not return to Palestine, seeing the indignity with which those living under Israeli occupation was even worse. For many Palestinians living under occupation Nelson Mandela’s experience of incarceration described so vividly in The Long Walk to Freedom was something they could personally relate to. Theirs was just an open jail with the Israeli Defence Force as their keepers and wardens watching their every move; requiring special permits to go from Ramallah to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron. There is no guarantee that a permit to travel outside of your town will be granted and we learnt from Hamdi Bitar of the PLO that he last saw his parents in Gaza ten years ago as he was prohibited from traveling there. 

 

East Jerusalem which has been under Israeli occupation since the 1967 War, bore all the scars of occupation. Very visible IDF presence at Damascus Gate Security Checkpoint the main entry point to the Al Aqsa Complex. Palestinians were always on high alert as settlers show very little regard for the religious sentiments of others. 

 

Brothers and sisters; what have we done over the past two decades of democracy to uphold Madiba’s legacy on Palestine? I am afraid very little in comparison to the scale of the task on hand. We have done excellent work to develop strong policy positions, and we have given leadership and direction in international forums.  Our work in the multilateral institutions is perhaps without parallel. This community has always been very responsive on the Palestine issue responding to calls for boycotts, marches and protests. Of course, the excellent relief work that has been done over many years has been exemplary with South African generosity knowing no bounds, especially on the issue of Palestine. However, President Mandela’s legacy is very well defined and requires nothing less than the freedom of the Palestinian people. How shall we achieve that. For a start let us respond more vehemently to the latest act of aggression. 

 

Donald Trump’s unilateral declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his planned implementation of moving the US Embassy will not be defeated by Press Statements and expressions of indignation. They have no moral qualms of pursuing their common agenda regardless of world opinion or universal opprobrium. We call on world leaders to take immediate and decisive action and we call on the South African government to be the first to take action and to lead the way in this respect: 

 

1We demand that the illegal declaration on Jerusalem must be revoked immediately. 

2We demand that until the declaration is revoked, all Israeli Ambassadors and diplomatic staff must be sent back

3We demand that until the illegal declaration is revoked, all borders should be closed for all Israeli citizens and no new visas issued.

4We call for a blockade of all Israeli goods

 

It vitiates against Madiba’s legacy and against the core principles of all those who seek to live the legacy to remain silent in the face of this act of aggression. The Palestinians common folk and leadership alike look to us for support, we dare not fail them. Just how close Nelson Mandela was to the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization was attested to by Abu Mazen the President of the Palestinian National Authority who reminded us saying: “we were not just friends and comrades in arms with Nelson Mandela, we were brothers!”

 

Living the Legacy requires that we stand firm side by side with the Palestinian cause and all our friends in the International Solidarity Movement. I recall accompanying my grandfather to the USA on a fundraising initiative which we were hosted by Bill Gates. On our way we stopped over for fuel in London when Madiba received a call from former President of the USA Bill Clinton, who demanded my grandfather to revoke his relationship with Yasser Arafat, Muammar Ghaddafi and Fidel Castro. Madiba was livid and promptly retorted:  “I will never do that. These men you speak of never supported our struggle for liberation with just words but placed resources at our disposal to effectively fight the brutal apartheid regime. And now that I’m a freeman you want me to renounce my relationship with these Hero’s of our struggle for liberation who stood by us in the darkest days of Apartheid? I will never do that! But I can assure you that I’m coming to the USA with your support or without” He instantly and without hesitance Madiba dropped the phone.

 

As I reflect over the three days we spent in occupied Palestine it struck me that living the legacy was no easy task and that ever before in my life has the reality of Apartheid Israel stared me so bluntly in the face as it did on my visit to Al Aqsa, Bethlehem and  Hebron. Standing in the Sacred Sanctuary on the very place that Apartheid Israel installed metal detectors and surveillance cameras for which we joined thousands in South Africa as they took to the streets and protested a few months ago, made me realize just how intimidation, illegal occupation and brutality is meted out daily to Palestinians. We cannot be complicit by our silence. We say no to Israeli occupation. We say no to intimidation.

 

Praying in Al Aqsa with meshed windows overlooking the excavations and tunnels being dug under the foundations of the Sacred Mosque demonstrated the total disregard that Apartheid Israel has for the religious, cultural and social sensitivities of others and its systematic encroachment designed to lay claim to an ever-increasing occupation of East Jerusalem. I prayed for the wisdom of Solomon but was prevented by Israeli occupation from reaching his and the Prophet David’s burial places. We say down with Israeli occupation! Down!

 

Brothers and sisters, Nelson Mandela’s legacy lives on and the dream of a free Palestine will never die! Everywhere you look in Occupied Palestine, there is signs of the expansion of illegal settlements. We must call for an end to Israel’s illegal land grabs that has seen large tracts of Palestinian lands of Bethlehem incorporated in Israel’s grand scheme of Greater Jerusalem whilst Palestinians stand by helplessly watching as the Wall of Evil grabs more and more Palestinian lands undermining any hope of a viable and contiguous Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.  It was very evident from our visit to the occupied territories that “the two state solution is dead!” The Israeli occupation and liquidation of Palestinian lands has killed any prospect of it becoming a reality. We call for the immediate implementation of all UN resolutions and especially those that declare all settlements illegal.

 

It is high time that the UN, UNESCO and other institutions of global governance step in and send observer missions to assess the extent of Apartheid Israel’s violation of international law through its illegal settler activity and to put an end to the occupation. We demand an immediate cessation of all illegal settler activities.

 

We say for all the world to hear that for centuries Jerusalem and the Muslim World more generally was a safe haven for Jews and Christians and peoples of all faiths. Instead of being a unifying symbol for all faiths that holds Jerusalem sacred Apartheid Israel has turned it into an enclave resembling the worst features of a concentration camp in which Apartheid Israel has illegally arrogated for itself the Cart Blanche right to police and act with absolute impunity. We call for an end to Apartheid Israel’s arrogance and for the implementation of international law with respect to Jerusalem as capital of a free Palestine.

 

In conclusion, I want to applaud Islamic Relief for all its efforts in Palestine, especially in Gaza. You have been truly Living the Legacy and provide hope where there is only despair; light where there is only darkness and humanity, dignity and honour where the only currency is brutality, arrogance and intimidation.

 

I salute you and wish you every strength in the work that you doing. May Allah Almighty grant that you continue Living the Legacy, bringing hope, dignity and peace to humanity.

 

I thank you!