Frank Chikane leads new organisation in isolating Israel

Struggle stalwart Reverend Frank Chikane has launched a new anti-apartheid movement that will target one country only: Israel.

“The movement against apartheid in Israel isn’t against Jewish people, it’s a movement against a supremacist regime,” he told the SA Jewish Report.

The new organisation, called the South African Chapter of the Global Anti-Apartheid Movement, was launched at an event on 28 and 29 November at Freedom Park in Pretoria. It’s a continuation of a conference held in Johannesburg in May 2024, when delegates from more than 24 countries came together for the “Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine”, an anti-Israel hate-fest.

The organisation “aims to mobilise a broad coalition of societal forces to advocate for the total isolation of the Israeli state”. Its launch was attended by civil society leaders, solidarity groups, members of the diplomatic corps, academics, faith leaders, and government members.

The organisers resolved to “confront Zionist propaganda and promote the Palestinian narrative” and “punish the Zionist project legally and diplomatically”, among other points. One news outlet, PressTV, reported that the new chapter was “inspired by the Al-Aqsa flood operation”, which is Hamas’s name for its 7 October massacre.

Ronald Lamola, the minister of international relations and cooperation, was a keynote speaker at the event, giving the organisation his blessing and calling on South Africans to “unite” to support Palestinians. The organisers said their chapter was committed to “collaborating with the South African government in its attempts to hold the Israeli state accountable”.

Professor Karen Milner, the national chairperson of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, said the new organisation was “yet another entity focused on demonising Israel and anyone associated with it. This initiative appears to recycle familiar figures who move from one group to another, perpetuating the same rhetoric without bringing tangible improvement to the lives of Palestinians.”

At the event, Chikane, who is chairperson of the chapter’s steering committee, stated, “Together, we demand accountability, justice, and freedom from apartheid from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.

“I’m calling for those who are responsible for the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza to face legal responsibility for their crimes, and for an end to the apartheid regime that Israel is imposing in the region between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea,” he said.

But South African Zionist Federation spokesperson Rolene Marks points out that “Israel remains the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, where the rights of Arab citizens are inclusively protected under the rule of law. Israel has every right to defend herself against murderous extremists complicit in acts of terror, and this movement won’t change either of these facts.”

Said Chikane, “You cannot envision the future of Israel without that of Palestinians, both within Israel and outside Israel – that is, in the West Bank, Gaza, and refugees. I therefore envision a future in which Israel recognises the inalienable right of Palestinians to self-determination, and where Israel abides by international law.”

The organisation aims to engage with international governments and organisations including the corporate sector, pension funds, universities, and other investors to “divest from and implement sanctions on Israel”.

It hosted protests on 29 November at the United States (US) embassy in Pretoria, as well as the US consulates in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg to apply pressure on governments whose “actions support and fund the Israeli state’s violent actions”.

The organisation has divided its members into “thematic groups” to target Israel in various ways. These include “stop arming genocide; no trade with apartheid; don’t play with apartheid; stopping the scholasticide; ending reproductive genocide; defending children’s rights; ending the ecocide; supporting Palestinian prisoners and their families; and mobilising faith-based communities.”

“Scholasticide”, Chikane said, refers to the “systematic destruction of an education system”, and “reproductive genocide” refers to “the systematic imposition of measures intended to prevent births within a group”, which he believes Israel is implementing.

Milner notes that these “thematic groups” amount to little more than sloganeering, “designed to cast the widest possible net in the hope of resonating with a potential audience. The reduction of such a complex conflict into empty slogans is a further demonstration of the hollow nature of this latest construct.”

The SA Jewish Report asked Chikane what the organisation meant by confronting Zionist propaganda, promoting the Palestinian narrative, and punishing the Zionist project legally and diplomatically.

“Promoting the Palestinian narrative entails telling the historical truth about the founding of the state of Israel, which included the ethnic cleansing of approximately 750 000 Palestinians from their homes; the settler-colonial nature of the state; and the oppression of the Palestinians who live under its rule,” he said.

“Confronting Zionist propaganda entails exposing the real intentions of Zionists: of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and forcing them out of their homes and land, and then declaring them aggressors when they respond to the brutal violence unleashed against them by the Zionists,” Chikane said.

As for “punishing the Zionist project legally and diplomatically”, he said this involved raising awareness “about the reality that the Zionist project can be achieved only by enforcing an apartheid system from the river to the sea, or forcing Palestinians out of Palestine.

“Punishing the Zionist project entails challenging it at the International Court of Justice, and ensuring that the warrants of arrest of those who are committing these crimes are effected,” Chikane said. “It entails advocating boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. We seek to isolate the apartheid regime in Israel, as was done to the apartheid regime in South Africa, and hold Israel accountable in international fora.”

Milner believes that the “mask” of the organisation slips in its call to support Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have perpetrated acts of violence against Israeli civilians. “Endorsing such individuals undermines the credibility of any group championing their cause,” she says.

“Equally glaring is the omission of any appeal for the release of the 101 hostages still held in Gaza, which could meaningfully contribute to easing the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis. If there was a sincere willingness to find a peaceful outcome to this painful conflict, efforts would be directed at developing an organisation devoted to dialogue,” she said.

To the community, Chikane said, “It’s saddening that members of the South African Jewish community feel unsafe because of anti-apartheid activism and advocacy for the human rights of Palestinians. I understand that it must be difficult for a person who has grown up in such a close-knit community that has had so much of its identity and sense of security constructed around a particular political ideology to see that ideology so directly and vociferously challenged. But our movement is guided by universalist values that in many cases found their first expression in Jewish texts and animate the Jewish ethical tradition.”