Victor Gordon on Barghuti vs. Mandela

VICTOR GORDON

Victor Gordon of Pretoria writes:

The oft heard comparison of the incarceration in Israel of Marwan Barghuti to that of Nelson Mandela is both odious and wholly out of context.

By now we all are aware of why Mandela spent 27 years in jail and the related moral questions. While Mandela is revered on the cusp of sainthood, it is forgotten that he eventually resorted to violence when all else failed in the ANC’s quest for change.

Despite Mandela identifying with the Palestinians, as he did with Gaddafi, Castro and some others with huge question marks over their commitment to human rights, this did not make his choice of some bed-fellows right nor wise. While his loyalty to past friends was commendable although at times misguided, it inevitably raised some eyebrows in more discerning circles.

To ignore that Marwan Barghuti, who was found guilty of complicity in 5 capital offences (while acquitted on 22 others), is surprising and disappointing and displays a strange dismissal of the value of Israeli lives. Loyalty to a cause is one thing but values, common sense and fairness is something else.

Simply being a member of a group for which one carries sympathy does not make all their actions acceptable.

If some of the quotations attributed to Mandela about Israel are accurate, one would have expected that someone of Madiba’s intellect would have asked himself some pertinent questions in regard to the Palestinian’s own culpability in contributing to their present plight. He might then have concluded that complex situations require equally complex, sensible and even-handed assessment in order to arrive at solutions acceptable to all. To simply apportion blame to one side only and view the other as the eternal innocent victim, is both shallow, hypocritical  and unhelpful.

This was one of Nelson Mandela’s shortcomings.