Boycott campaigns against apartheid Israel must be intensified
7 February 2023
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has noted the decision by the SA Rugby Union to withdraw an invitation for the Israeli based Tel Aviv Heat to play in the Mzansi challenge rugby tournament. The decision was reversed because of pressure, particularly from progressive organisations like the BDS Coalition who launched a public campaign rejecting this decision. For years the BDS has been driving a campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel for its Apartheid policies against the people of Palestine.
NUMSA is not confused and we think it is disturbing that SARU was even considering to allow them to participate here on South African soil. Israel is an Apartheid state. It is a settler colonial regime denying human rights to Palestinians. Its laws are geared towards subjugating the entire Palestinian population and they have done this through a brutal system of laws, designed to strip Palestinians of their dignity, and also their land.
The Israeli government has done a very good job of driving a false narrative to white wash this crime against humanity, and SARU as well as other institutions in South Africa, should ensure that they educate themselves, so that they do not make embarrassing decisions like this in the future. We align ourselves with the statement issued by the BDS Coalition that the Israeli government is using sports as a means to ‘sports wash’ or white wash its crimes against humanity and organisations like SARU should not participate in this.
Under Apartheid the slogan was “no normal sport in an abnormal society,” this too should be the attitude now. We must stop Israel from being allowed to participate in any sporting or cultural activities. They should be rejected just like the South African Apartheid government was subjected to cultural and sports boycotts all over the globe.
It is NUMSA’s view that Israel should be treated like the pariah that it is. Israel is unapologetic for its illegal occupation of Palestine. The Apartheid state of Israel has institutionalized terror and brutality against the Palestinian population. It recently escalated the demolition of Palestinian homes in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.
A report by Human Rights Watch released in April 2021, titled, “A threshold Crossed”, describes the Apartheid State of Israel in the following way:
“Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”
Palestinians supported the liberation movement during the dark days of Apartheid. We must never forget who are true friends are. Apartheid Israel is no friend of ours. They are a reactionary, racist, fascist state and they should be rejected and denounced on every public platform. We support all the demands made by the BDS including the demand for economic sanctions against Apartheid Israel. The campaigns to boycott, divest and sanction Israel must be intensified. That is the only way that the people of Palestine will be free.
Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!
Issued by Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, NUMSA National Spokesperson, 7 February 2023
