Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2016

The 12th annual international Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) will be held in South Africa from the7th-13th March 2016. 

IAW aims to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement. 

Apartheid is a term and system that we South Africans understand all too well. It is this system that not only discriminated and segregated but oppressed people according to racial lines. Apartheid in Israel is taken to a new level under the guise of ‘democracy’. 

While the nature of the Apartheid ideology is enforced and enshrined within the Israeli system we must not forget the fundamental issue that this system was built on: OCCUPATION, DISPOSSESSION and EXPULSION. 

Notwithstanding the above, as an act of defiance, one of the chief architects of the Apartheid-Zionist ideology, Shimon Peres, was invited by the Pro-Zionist lobby to visit our country. His brief was to defend racist, Zionist, Apartheid Israel. He, who was a friend of Apartheid John Vorster and Eschel Rhoodie, preaching to South Africans about justice and peace, is an insult to all South Africans and an affront to the English language.  

The Media Review Network (MRN) is pleased that IAW is taking place in South Africa and that a large portion of the community are in support and in solidarity with the Palestinians. We fully support this campaign as it draws international attention to the plight of the Palestinians and that Zionism remains a threat to peace and justice to the free and democratic World.

Statement issued by Nabila Ismail, Researcher, Media Review Network, 3 March 2016