By Umamah Bakharia

Amnesty International South Africa held a panel in Lenasia and Pretoria this week to raise awareness of Amnesty’s report on ‘Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians’, highlighting the inhumane living conditions and racial segregation towards Palestinian by Israelis.

The keynote address was by Saleh Hijazi from Amnesty International’s head office in Jerusalem. At the same time, the panellist consisted of Former Minister of Intelligence Services of South Africa Ronnie Kasrils and Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) advisor, Zane Dangor. It was moderated by Afro-Middle East Center (AMEC), Zeenat Adam.

From right to left: Amnesty International’s Saleh Hijazi, Former minister Ronnie Kasrils and DIRCO’s Zane Dnagor.

To begin the address, Hijazi mentioned some of the recent incidents towards Palestinians that support Amnesty International and many other human rights organisations that Israel is an apartheid state.

“It all starts with recognition,” said Hijazi as he gave the reason for his visit to South Africa.

The report by Amnesty International exposes how Israel is imposing a system of oppression and domination resulting in apartheid and perpetrating the crime against humanity against Palestinians.

“This system is composed of four pain pillars: the fragmentation of the Palestinian communities, the segregation and control very often violently, the dispossession of land and property and the deprivation of basic rights,” said Hijazi.

He adds: “the intent behind this is a racist intent.”

This statement was supported by former minister Kasrils, who emphasised that Israel is an apartheid state.

Since the report’s release, there has been a lot of comparison to the apartheid system in South Africa with that of the Palestinian people. Dangor said: “The intent of the crime is the same, but we cannot compare the situation on the ground.”

Dangor added that South Africa is starting to transition from “political solidarity to legal duty” to help raise awareness of the situation in Palestine.

Ending off the discussion, moderation Zeenat Adam, said she was pleased with the outcome of the event, especially from student activists wanting to be educated on the situation on Palestine.