| There is a forum being held in Berkeley on Feb 1st, I think, with
one of the primary speakers described to me as a South African Jew and
a member of the ANC, who spent many years in jail in SA, moved to
Israel, became disillusioned because of the Palestinian question,
and now lives in London. Dennis somebody? I have no other
information, and I wasn't planning to drive all the way up to Berkeley.
I believe the Oakland mayor is a guest, so if someone is interested
in attending his office might know the exact time and place.
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| since the anc was mentioned and is sometimes discussed as an
alternative to the botha gov,t a closer look should be taken of
this movement and its' relation to jews and israel.
as a revolutionary national movement oriented toward moscow, the
anc has long echoed soviet attempts to undermine the legitimacy
of israel. morever, perhaps not surprisingly, the anc is a strident
supporter of the plo.
in 1970 the anc denounced "israel's aggressive expansionism" as
"supported to the hilt by the ruling circles of the u.s. and their
allies" and urged "all peace loving states to immediately sever
state relations with israel..."
an article in the sept. 1971 issue of sechaba, the monthly anc magazine
headlined "zionism, south africa and apartheid - a paradoxical
triangle," was adapted from a pamphlet with the same title published
by the palestine research center, an affiliate of the plo.
in sept. 1980 anc president oliver tambo spoke in paris at an
international conference on solidarity with the struggle of the
namibian people council, a soviet front. he said
"...i would like to assure our comrades in the liberation struggle..and
the plo that their struggle is ours, our fight is carried on inthe
knowledge of the degree of intamacy and political military and economic
alliance that has been developed between zionism and racism."
at the 60th anniversary meeting of the south african communist party
(sacp) in 1981 ,tambo stated"today in the anti-imperialist struggle,we
have won new allies like the struggling people of palestine. we
have thrown up new enemies of peoples, like those who murder civilians
in beirut."
in july,1982 during the israeli military action against the plo
in lebanon,anc chief united nations observer johnstone m. makatini
denounced israel for its' "flagrant and unprovoked aggression in
lebanon and its' attempted extermination of the palestinian people."
he referred to prime minister begin's policies as "zionist nazism"
witnesses who had been associated with the anc testified before
the u.s. senate judiciary committee subcommittee in march 1982 stated
that there was much cooperation and training between the plo and
the anc.
finaly cin 1983 closer to home at the stony brook university of new york,
proffessor ernest dube, an anc repr.at the un serving on the un national
education council created a controversy by teaching in his course
"the ploitics of racism" that "zionism is as much racism as nazism
is racism"
this is not mentioned in any way to condone the apartheid gov't
of south africa, but rather to hopefully demonstrate that we have
to be very careful who we support.
south africa's policy of blatant racism is horrendous there can be
no denying that fact. but a point to keep in mind is that south
africa was the only african country not to break relations with
israel after the 1973 war.
btw. almost the exact same can be said of the sandinista regime
and the anc's relationship toward the plo. i's write more on the
sandinista regime but my fingers are tired from typing. i can imagine
how tired i'd feel if i had been using the shift key.
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| After living in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) for 17 years and having
a large number of friends who either live or have lived in South
Africa I feel qualified enough to say emphatically that the majority
of Jews living in that country are absolutely against apartheid.
Some of those friends have even spent time in prison as a result
of their actions against apartheid.
School holidays where spent on the various beaches of South Africa,
and to see signs on the beach such as "Whites Only"kind of reminds
one of the signs " No Jews Allowed".
As a teenager I was very heavily involved in the Habonim Zionist
Movement, and the topic of apartheid was discussed very heavily.
At the age of 18 I had plans of returning to Israel ( I was born
there) and what sped up my plans was the Rhodesian draft board.
In those days the Rhodesian army was being very co-operative with
the South African forces.
In Canada I have seen a large number of South African Jews who have
left as a result of apatheid, and by the way there is no such animal
as a Jewish Afrikaaner.
I hope this was not to long winded, but this topic is was once and
and still is very close to home for me.
Thanks for listening,
Aryeh...
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| re:.3 "no such thing as a Jewish Afrikaaner"
A rather entertaining and enlightening show on PBX a couple of weeks
ago featured a South African comedian who is, indeed, a Jewish
Afrikaaner. On one side he's Jewish, on the other he's descended from
the founders of the National Party (the ruling Afrikaaner party). A
very strange marriage... Having such yichus, he's able to get away
with more than most South Africans, and his act includes some very good
PWBotha imitations, plus a drag impersonation of a white lady which
mocks white attitudes (drag acts are generally illegal in SA; few
others could get away with it).
He's one of the leading internal opponents to apartheid, needless
to say. (I can't remember his name, though.)
fred
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