Israel sounds chillingly similar to apartheid SA in justifying the killing of children

11 May 2021

Good people around the world are rightly condemning the State of Israel for the unbridled violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people, including Palestinian children.

According to Unicef, on Sunday, 29 Palestinian children were injured in East Jerusalem over the weekend.

The following day, yesterday, Gaza health officials said at least 20 people had died in Israeli air strikes, including nine children.

Israel’s attempts to justify its aggression on the basis that it has to defend itself against Palestinian violence sound chillingly similar to the old apartheid security forces justifications for the killing of Black children in South Africa. The lethal force it applies is not commensurate with the force that is directed against it.

There is no justice in killing children.

Instead of perpetrating violence in order to defend unjust and discriminatory policies, land grabs and occupations, as South Africa did, Israel must come to terms with the necessity for transformation – as South Africa eventually did.

Sustainable peace and justice can never be negotiated through the barrel of a gun.

Among the tools that proved most effective in persuading the apartheid regime to enter negotiations with the likes of the ANC and other liberation forces – which it regarded with similar hostility to how the State of Israel regards Hamas – was the boycott and sanctions movement.

GOOD strongly associates itself with the global call for serious and meaningful sanctions against an apartheid-like Israel.

The South African government is more qualified than most to know apartheid when it sees it. We call on our government to play a global leadership role in this very urgent matter.

Issued by Brett Herron, Secretary General, GOOD, 11 May 2021