Having grown up in Apartheid South Africa, I have a real difficulty understanding how the issue of Israel & Palestine is confusing to other South Africans. Especially those who themselves experienced Apartheid first hand.

This week we watched in horror as conflict escalated again between Hamas and Israel and days later over 2000 people have been killed. Helpless, we still try to understand how to diffuse an ongoing conflict of over 75 years.

Israel is still coasting on the world’s sympathy for what the Jews experienced during the holocaust. But they themselves are now perpetuating that same tragedy. Perhaps it is some form of mass emotional protection to never be that victim again BUT there is no doubt that Israel is now an Apartheid state practicing exactly what the South African Apartheid government did:

• Denying the Palestinians basic human rights of movement within their own country
• Forced removals from their homes and occupying their land
• Separating living areas of one ethnic group from another
• Daily persecution and dehumanisation
• Control of borders and entry to Gaza
• Control of their electricity, water and food supply
• The list goes on….

I don’t believe violence can solve this problem but… just like in South Africa, the Hamas attack did not happen in a vacuum. It is a culmination of decades of oppression. Just like black South Africans refused to be dehumanised and fought their coloniser, so too do the Palestinians have a right to not be dehumanised. And the world applauds the fall of Apartheid in South Africa but refuses to recognise it in Israel.

But all this is due to a Western coloniser mindset. The world forgets where most of the West stood during Apartheid. And that the great “saviour” America was the last nation to end their support of the Apartheid government. With the strength of the biggest media machine and the loudest voices they have brainwashed people to believe that the occupier is the victim. They are on the wrong side of history!

So many influencers and celebrities who know better and could be more vocal are playing word gymnastics in their posts, sitting on the fence and protecting their following. Now is not the time. It was never the time. Do your research on both sides. Speak the truth.

Don’t be on the wrong side of history!