 Hi, everyone. Good evening. Welcome to this annual lecture by the Centre for Palestine Studies. We have Professor Selim Valli giving the lecture in person after so many years in lockdown. I just can't remember. Maybe we didn't have the sessions for two or three years. But thank you all for coming. And I just want to briefly introduce myself and talk about Professor Valli and then invite him to speak to you. So I'm the Chair, I'm Dina Matar. I'm the Chair of the Centre for Palestine Studies at SOAS, which was established in 2012 under the formerly London Middle East Institute and now renamed SOAS Middle East Institute. The establishment of the Centre responded and continues to respond to the urgency of the study of Palestine as a major global concern over social justice, injustice, rights, settler colonialism, systems of exclusion and global politics. Reflecting this complexity and central importance to the wider Middle East and North Africa region and to the world, the study of Palestine and Palestinians has generated a large and ever-growing body of knowledge across every disciplinary field and between disciplines. For SOAS, the study of Palestine and Palestinians has always been a prominent feature of research and teaching and also of activism. The Centre for Palestine Studies provides an institutional home for work on Palestine across the various disciplines, whether they are in politics, development studies, anthropology, media and communication, languages and economics and other disciplines as well. We organise lectures, seminars and conferences and we also have a book series that is really doing very well and for more information on the book series and the books we have published and are publishing, please check our website. So our lecture today continues a long list of illustrious talks by scholars working on Palestine and related questions, recordings of which are available on the website. The lecture today is urgent and timely, given the level of violence against Palestinians in their occupied homes by the Israeli army, security forces and armed settlers, emboldened by the most right-wing government in the history of Palestine and the world's insistence on not paying attention to what Palestinians have been demanding for 75 years or not paying attention to Israel's continued infliction of violence with impunity. I will leave the discussion about the implications of these practices along with new loads to the enforcement of full-fledged apartheid as our esteemed member of CPS, Nimrod Sultani, has written about in The Guardian. It's really worth reading that piece. I leave the details and the discussions to our esteemed speaker, Professor Selim Vali. Selim Vali is the director of the Center for Education, Rights and Transformation, the South African National Research Foundation's chair in community, adult and workers education. He is also professor at the Faculty of Education University of Johannesburg. He is also a visiting professor at the Nelson Mandela University. Vali was a leading member of the South African students movement in 1976-1977 and left the country after its banning by the erstwhile apartheid regime and after severe depression. On his return, he taught at secondary schools and worked for progressive literacy organization. From 1985 to 1994, he was the university education officer for the trade union and a founded member of Cossatou. Maybe, you know, you can talk about that. He studied at the universities of York with Watson and KwaZulu Natal and was employed by the Witch Education Policy Unit in 1994. Vali joined University of Johannesburg in 2009 and was a visiting lecturer at Columbia and York University. He is a long-serving member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign of South Africa and a coordinating committee member of the South African BDS Coalition. He is presently advising the Dean of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg on establishing a Center for Palestine Studies, a decision the university took several years ago after a Senate for nullifying an upper tide-era agreement between University of Johannesburg and Ben-Gurion University. He has several books including history schools, past struggles, and present realities. The university and social justice struggles across the globe and he has a forthcoming book against radical racial, sorry, capitalism, the selected writings of Neville Alexander which will be published in 2023 this year. So just as a matter of housekeeping, he will speak for 40 to 45 minutes and then we open the floor for questions. As Chair, I just wanted to add this. I might need to exercise my right to prevent any disturbance of the proceedings. Any attempt to abuse the speaker or the audience will not be tolerated but we will also respect the right to freedom of speech. Without further ado, please join me in welcoming Professor Vali who is going to give us this fascinating talk about upper tide in Israel and South Africa lessons for intellectuals or the role of intellectuals. Thanks very much, Dina, the Chair of the Center for Palestine Studies to all of you for sacrificing your evening, coming to listen to me. I feel very privileged and the title actually is fighting apartheid in South African Israel, the responsibility of intellectuals and of course I was asked to put together the abstract before writing the talk and many of you are academics I presume and that's a very difficult thing to do. So the talk will encompass the present situation, the urgent times that Dina mentioned, the various reports in the past few years and I want to pay special attention to a very significant report by the Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese but also there will be a discussion about apartheid I won't disappoint you, the silencing of dissent, many of you have read the article in The Guardian I think it's today about Christian aid and finally of course the role of intellectuals but first I want to take you on an adventure, an apartheid adventure so hold tight. Welcome to Israel where you can enjoy the special status if you are a correct death religious category you can enjoy your privilege and let's just say you can enjoy your apartheid because in Israel apartheid is of aggressive value in Israel you can be pro-democracy and pro-apartheid at the same time because in Israel apartheid is democracy if you are a direct death religious category segregated roads only democracy in the east segregated buses schools towns liberal democracy millions of people a third of the people controlled by Israel not allowed to vote no similar political rights in Israel because they're not from the correct ethnic religious category apartheid you bet but not just any apartheid this is Israel's greatest innovation apartheid democracy and 90 years time is way overdue for aggressive liberal apartheid great recycling programs support for gay rights if they're of the correct ethnic religious category support for women's rights if they're of the correct ethnic religious category which means on some of them have to see that the back of the bus we even let some people not of the correct ethnic religious category make as long as they agree to the nation say it's not for them really but for us who are the correct ethnic religious category we can tell if he says it's not where we were born they counted 93% of the language in those administrations exclusively for loss of the correct ethnic religious category and they have not threatened our ethnic religious majority but they're demigranting time on the animals children or we might have to take a fortune and measure so if I'm not going to consider going to their cell please don't send me everyone out but in Israel apartheid isn't racism it's self-defense apartheid isn't ethnic privilege it's self-determination apartheid isn't the problem it's the solution so you can keep on being against war against poverty against corruption against corporate welfare too much money and government against discrimination against in quality everywhere except in Israel where you can be in favor of discrimination segregation in quality as apartheid and steal convince yourself you're a good person so put the struggle aside for the day and come to Israel where a viewer of the correct ethnic religious category of apartheid is making the world a better place for you all right that that video was made seven years ago and it effectively exposes the deception of liberal democracy I showed it really to emphasize that even that mask okay sorry technology the adventure continues it's okay so really even that mask of liberal democracy has been torn off and today there's no longer even a pretense about that Itamar Ben Givir is the new minister of internal security in Netanyahu's government and Ben Givir's appointment along with that of other far-right ideologues including Avigdor Moaz who oversees the school curriculum and Bazalel Smotrich the finance minister also responsible for building settlements in the occupied territories really effectively jettisons the old tropes liberal Zionists have employed to defend Israel that you've just seen that it's the only democracy in the Middle East that it seeks a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians in a two-state solution that extremism and racism have no place in Israeli society and that Israel has to impose draconian forms of control on the Palestinians to prevent terrorism many of you know that Ben Givir is the disciple of the genocidal rabbi Meir Kahane and considers Baruch Goldstein a hero and on February the fifth in 1994 you'll recall that Goldstein a US-born settler entered Hebron's Ibrahim Mosque wearing his IDF reserve uniform with a Khalil rifle he opened fire during Muslim morning prayers and killed 29 Palestinians Ben Givir displays a portrait of Goldstein in his living room the cahanist ideology Ben Givir and Goldstein ascribes to has really a deep influence on Israeli policy today the ideology that leads to the massacre to massacre isn't just history the same ideology is today mainstream and massacres are carried out not by individual gunmen but coordinated by the army and police with regularity Avigdor Muaz from the extremist known party also opposes LGBTQI rights is a misogynist and has been appointed to oversee the Israeli school curriculum there are other notorious members of the government including Vika Fogle who chairs the Israeli parliament's national security committee and in January Fogle called for and I quote a final war against Palestinians and in his words to subdue them once and for all we've heard that kind of language previously also of course migrants and asylum seekers will be the most vulnerable with a coalition agreement signed by Likud and religious Zionism calling for legislation to allow and I quote the unlimited incarceration of asylum seekers and foreign workers who cannot be deported from Israel along pinkers writing in her herettes this is how he describes the new coalition government a catechistocracy extraordinaire government by the worst and least suitable collection of ultra nationalist Jewish supremacists anti-democrats races bigots homophobes misogynists corrupt and allegedly corrupt politicians so really the old tropes Israel employed to justify itself were always more fiction than reality in any case Israel long ago became an apartheid state of course we know it directly controls through its illegal Jewish only settlements restricted military zones and army compounds over 60 percent of the west bank and as de facto control over the rest a high priority of the government is the further annexation of the naka desert and the Galilee in Israel south and north respectively where many Palestinians reside they have already made clear their desire to formally annex large sections of the west bank including area c where around 300 Palestinians live and Netanyahu intends constructing and is adamant about this 10,000 new housing units in nine illegal settlements in the west bank so today the old tropes are being replaced by greedful dire tribes that paint Palestinians and Arabs with Muslims and Christians as contaminants and an existential threat to Israel and this hate speech is accompanied by a vicious internal campaign to silence what they call Jewish traitors especially those who are liberal or left-wing and secular the new autocracy besides eviscerating further the protection of civil society and further codifying what is long being a reality an organic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their own land that dates back to the founding of Israel in the fatties Maureen Claire Murphy writes that there is much liberal hand ringing over the new Israeli government shock and awe assault on the state's judiciary and other laws and mechanisms the Israeli High Court has already rubber stamped served to rubber stamp Israeli violations of Palestinian rights for some time now including mass force population transfers and expelling Palestinian citizens of the state as well as many war crimes of collective punishment like punitive home demolitions for those of us who already know that Israel's democracy is a deception a sham and that it's been a settler colonial enterprise maintained through apartheid and military rule from the beginning there is still plenty to be concerned about with smart rich calling human rights groups an existential threat to the state of Israel any group that stands in the way of theocratic rule may find their work criminalized liberal Zionist groups like peace now and the new Israeli fund and Israeli anti-occupation groups like breaking the silence are also really in the cross hairs and while I agree that the Israeli government represents continuity in the political development of the Zionist project there is a caveat Netanyahu's government is indeed not only a case of going from bad to worse but as a certain point quantitative change becomes qualitative the new government has a clear genocidal strategy unencumbered by what is called international opinion which in any case has been ineffective and the horrors that they will unleash will create very distinct challenges and opportunities for both Palestinian resistant resistance and movements of international solidarity as I say this we have just witnessed a violent rampage of settlers in Huwara and an army massacre in Nablus following on the massacre in Genine a short while before and what happened in Huwara is really telling it was a veritable pogrom which left 75 homes business schools and mosques and at least 100 cars smoldering local fire engines were attacked so that the spreading frames could not be contained 500 Palestinians were treated for injuries the settlers also attacked ambulances and it was reported that the Israeli army prevented the Red Cross from entering the town here we have shades of Shabra and Shatila and the fanatical settlers playing the same role as the fascist for lunch in Lebanon protected of course by the Israeli army occupation forces so the UN declared 2022 as the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2006 this excludes of course major escalations of violence such as the frequent bombing of Gaza Israeli occupation forces killed 224 Palestinians in the West Bank alone including the journalist Shirin Abu Akali since 2000 settlement construction increased by 62% and six additional illegal colonies were established in 2022 Israel announced its plans to start the largest mass ethnic cleansing since 1968 with the destruction of over eight Palestinian villages in the Masafar Yata region in the southern West Bank 2022 has also been the six consecutive year of an increase in the number of Israeli settler attacks which last year reach record heights and Gaza under a medieval like siege for I think over 15 years and the world's largest open air prison will continue to be frequently bombed and shalt its infrastructure including its water electric and sewerage systems as well as fuel storage facilities will be targeted as before cousins and their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank will be subject to ever tightening blockades reducing them to the level of subsistence that will be one step above starvation Jamal Juma of the stop the wall campaign writes the extent and brutality of the crimes of this apartheid regime are staggering though unsurprising Israel's regime has been granted impunity for everything it has done so far that has allowed it to shed all restraints goes on by saying that while the responsibility is on the international community the price is being paid by Palestinian people however grim the reality looks to Palestinians this may be the moment of change he concludes by saying they say that the night is darkest just before dawn breaks now before continuing I just want to make a short digression and speak to a UK audience and about the special responsibility people who live in this country have because much of the narrative of the dispossession of the Palestinians begins in 1948 and so I think it's important to cast the net a little deeper into history to the signing of the Balfour Declaration in 1917 because it's so unambiguously shows the hand of British imperialism in the destruction of Palestine Arthur Kusla I don't quote him very often but he had an interesting thing to say he captured the effect of the Balfour Declaration in the following terms one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third Lord Balfour himself in 1919 said in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country Zionism be it right or wrong is more important than the wishes of 700 thousand Arabs what is clear is that the pursuit in their pursuit of their own imperialist interests Britain became the main sponsor and supporter of Zionism and it opened the path for the eventual establishment of the state of Israel after the Second World War the Balfour Declaration lies at the heart of this betrayal of a people and its consequences remain steadfastly with us today so Zionism developed in the womb of British colonialism and the ground was present was prepared for the present reality prior to the establishment of Israel and we have to say clearly that the Zionist ideology linked to European colonialism is inherently races even before the establishment of Israel with the handing over of the British mandate to the newly established United Nations another point many people miss is that almost all countries in Africa and elsewhere were not members of the UN when this decision was made they were still colonized so I'll continue by talking about apartheid over the past few years as I've mentioned many organizations have conclusively shown that systemic and widespread discriminatory Israeli policies and practices against the Palestinians amounts to a violation of the international convention on the suppression and the punishment of the crime of apartheid and of course Palestinians and South Africans have been saying this for decades the special rapporteur Francesca Albanese in a report in September I think last year on human rights in occupied territory laments that and I quote while the international community has not fully acted upon it she still makes the point that the concept that Israeli occupation meets the legal threshold of apartheid is gaining traction a brief very brief mention of these reports in January 2001 Beth Salam the Israeli human rights organization released a report unambiguously titled a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea this is apartheid three months later human rights watch echoed this finding when it issued an exhaustive report including extensive legal analysis and a year later in January 2022 Amnesty International issued a report titled Israel's apartheid against Palestinians a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity the latter reports key components include territorial fragmentation segregation and control dispossession of land and property the denial of basic economic and social rights and the suppression of Palestinians human development in addition I'm aware of numerous theses and dissertations that speak to these issues and many books about apartheid in South Africa and Israel such as Abdel Wahab, a Mercedes book as early as 1976 Israel and South Africa the progression of a relationship right up to the edited book by Ilan Pape in 2015 titled Israel and South Africa the many faces of apartheid published by Zett books and many many books in between those years 1976 and 2015 I have a long list of titles exploring the issues of apartheid which I can share with you and clearly the subject itself has become a genre and the most recent report by Albanese a report to the UN General Assembly does require a bit of discussion it significantly speaks to some limitations of the previous reports I mentioned so I'm going to provide just a bit of the detail firstly she says with a few exceptions the scope of recent reports on Israeli apartheid is primarily territorial and excludes the experience of Palestinian refugees she says the recognition of Israeli apartheid must address the experience of the Palestinian people in its entirety and their unity as a people including those who are displaced denationalized and dispossessed secondly the focus on Israeli apartheid alone misses the inherent illegality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem its illegality also stems from its systematic violation of at least three preemptory norms of international law the prohibition on the acquisition of territory through the use of force the prohibition on imposing regimes of alien subjugation domination and exploitation including racial discrimination and apartheid and finally the obligation of states to respect the rights of people to self-determination she also talks about that the apartheid framework in the reports do not address the root causes which she calls settler colonialism which is a war crime under the Rome statutes about two months after the special rapideers report al-haq in its report Israeli apartheid tools of Zionist settler colonialism echoed albany's and expands the current international discourse on apartheid and importantly examines apartheid as a structural element of furthering Zionist settler colonialism on both sides of the green line and against the Palestinian people as a whole the the report of al-haq adds clear Palestinian voices and analysis to the wider international calls demanding an end to Israel's apartheid regime i want to quote the conclusion of the al-haq report it says Palestinian civil society demand decolonization and dismantling of israel's settler colonialism and apartheid regime the fulfillment of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination systematically denied since the british mandate and the right of refugees and exiles in the diaspora to return i'm often asked why are south africans so interested in the palestinian struggle apart from the obvious well well to start with both societies as settler colonial formations were overseen by british imperialism they enacted their particular racist states in 1948 relying on white supremacy and its civilizing mission complemented by the messianic god's chosen people view and the gift of a promised land based on the bible at the expense in both cases of the indigenous people but in addition to identifying with the struggle of palestinian south africans also recognize israel's culpability in their own oppression israel was an important arms supplier to apartheid south africa despite the international arms embargo and as late as 1980 35 percent of israel's arms exports were destined for south africa much has been written about the subsequent relationship between apartheid south africa and israel it'll suffice here to say that israel was loyal to the apartheid state and clung to the friendship when almost all other relationships had dissolved during the 1970s this affiliation extended into the field of nuclear weaponry when israeli experts helped south africa to develop at least six nuclear warheads and in the 1980s when the global anti-apartheid movement had forced their states to impose sanctions on the apartheid regime israel continued to import south african goods and really export them to the world as a form of interracist solidarity israeli companies subsidized by the south african regime despite the pittance they paid workers were established in a number of the bantu stunts on the other hand strong bonds were also forged between palestinians the plow and south african liberation movements now there's very clear similarities between the 65 pieces of discriminatory legislation in israel that governs all aspects of everyday life the fragmentation and theft of the land and the matrix of security laws which existed in apartheid south africa as well and there's extensive details in the many books about these comparisons a close friend naeem jeena recently wrote an article about these laws and concludes that while the laws are similar actually apartheid in israel is much more severe than it was in south africa and he gives references to these various laws naeem is not the only person other south africans have said this including the late archbishop desmond tutu who visited occupied palestine there's one critical crucial difference though apartheid south africa depended on the super exploitation of the labor of indigenous people in israel the indigenous palestinians are disposable so i want to turn to what you see there it's taken me some time and i'm going to rush through the paper i still think i've got quite a bit of time i hope okay so i want to talk about anti semitism and this is a series of posters the visualizing palestine group intends bringing out on different issues i'm not going to go through all the issues but as they say as a recognition of israel grows the israeli regime and its supporters continuously develop tactics to silence advocates for palestinian liberation as well as any criticism of israel um so this uh visual is first in a series on the theme of freedom of expression and it captures the wide range of actors and tactics involved in the system of silencing and there's some detail in the articles of what they did with christian aid as well and of course the effect they want to have is as some people called it a chilling effect but more and more people are fighting back and are pushing against this so the visualizing palestine people say that when israeli lawmakers ban the palestinian flag in public and german police ban a nakba day protest and i want to add or raja waters concert in frankfurt it's part of a system of oppression when israeli authorities arrest palestinians of voice criticism online and the palestinian authority does the same it's part of the system of oppression or when israeli lawmakers prohibit boycotts and us lawmakers follow with a raft of anti boycott laws hold hold tight do you going to have some of those laws introduced once again in this country i'll mention that when an israeli soldier murders a palestinian journalist and a major news publication narrates it in passive voice it's part of a system of oppression when the israeli government senses archival records to hide past atrocities and social media companies censor palestinians document documenting ongoing atrocities it's the same when israeli soldiers invade the offices of palestinian human rights organizations and law fair groups attack civil society abroad it's also part of the system of oppression and i want to add and i wish visualizing apartheid i'm sure they will talk about this when the international holocaust remembrance alliance is used to suppress criticism of israel then it's also part of the system of oppression so many of us outside the uk looked on in disbelief at the way jeremy cobin someone who we admired in southern continue to admire in south africa and respect for his his exemplary anti-racist and anti-apartheid track record was pilloried by those using the same canard of anti-semitism the vehicle through this was done as you've heard was the ihra working definition uh the same definition published in 2005 by the european by the defunct european union monitoring center on racism and xenophobia eu mc with some very small amendments so this these documents have been extensively just criticized over the past past few years including by 135 british academics who are also israeli citizens who strongly opposed its flawed working definition and urge uk universities to reject it they were responding to a letter sent to vice-chancellors by gavin williamson the then secretary of state of education in 2020 explicitly threatening to withhold funds uh the letter attempted to exert pressure on on universities to adopt the ihra document uh in their response the academics point to aspects of the document that in their words they found distressing in the higher education context and they wrote fighting anti-semitism in all its forms is an absolute must yet the ihra document is inherently flawed in ways that undermine this fight in addition it threatens free speech and academic freedom and constitutes an attack both on the palestinian right to determination and the struggle to democratize israel essentially the academics point out that the working definition confuses and conflates criticism of israeli government policy and actions with genuine anti-semitism and has been used to silence debate about israel and palestine on campus antony lerman's expert testimony in support of dr steven uh seiza the anglican priest also fallaciously accused of anti-semitism by the board of deputies also discusses the ihra working definition and of course there's many things to say about antony lerman but just to say that he is an associate editor of the journal patterns of prejudice the international academic journal on racism and anti-semitism and the founding editor of the anti-semitism world report from 1992 to 1998 and he writes despite having holocaust remembrance as its aim the ihra is a highly political body almost exclusively european not so exclusively focused on holocaust remembrance used by many of its members to demonstrate that their past connections with fascism and nazism are a thing of the past even as leaders in some of these countries like victor or barn by the way were again displaying far right anti-semitic and anti-democratic tendencies and either encouraging or turning a blind eye to the dissemination of anti-semitic propaganda the original drafter of the european union the eu mc working document i mentioned canith stern has very publicly criticized how the definition has been applied including through many op-eds and at a public hearing of the us house judiciary committee of congress which incorporate the ihra working definition into the proposed anti-semitism awareness act and stern warn that the working definition will do more to stifle pro-palestinian speech than protect Jewish students lerman also points out that there are certainly many ways in which the anti-semitism contention can be disputed for example when the international community supported boycott actions against South Africa no one argued that this was a manifestation of anti-white or even anti-bure racism then of course it's the government year their desire to outlaw bds the johnson government pledged to do so but the palestine solidarity campaign challenged the plan in the supreme court which determined that it was illegal the case revolved around the psc successfully arguing that the regulation which restricts local government pension schemes from divesting from companies complicit in israeli human rights violation is a serious infringement on the right of pension holders from from having a say in the investment and divestment of the fund the landmark ruling on april the 29th 2020 in favor of the psc was a setback to the government but despite this their malicious campaign has not stopped rift car bar not the excuse me if i'm pronouncing your name correctly the deputy director of the psc in an article in the tribune magazine last april explains that the government continues its campaign and plans to introduce an anti boycott bull to stop to stop public bodies from boycotting or divesting from companies involved in human rights abuse or environmental destruction and this bull is the impending the impending bull is expected to target universities and local councils and will threaten many campaigns of social and climate justice including international solidarity campaigns around ballastinian rights since that article was published in the tribune rick va tells me that there has been some important developments a campaign called the right to boycott coalition led by the psc has been formed and it now includes about 60 organizations including 12 trade unions just a few days ago following a complaint by the uk lawyers for israel the chelsea and westminster hospital removed a display of artwork um at the hospital um and i think if i can that that's the display it's decorated plates along with explanations about their significance and they were designed by children in two unra schools in gaza the designs were transferred onto the plates by children at the chelsea community hospital school and the display is entitled crossing board is a festival of plates amongst uh uk lawyers for israel's objections was a plate with a palestinian flag as well as a description on a plate which reads the olive branch is the symbol of peace and is used to express the wish for an independent palestinian state when the plates this display was removed uk uh lawyers for israel and i quote were delighted uh because they felt that some jewish patients felt victimized and vulnerable um i'm certain their concern doesn't extend to the hundreds of thousands of palestinian kids in gaza who are constantly traumatized and face bombing campaigns all the time i just want to say a few things about the responsibility of intellectuals and i think this particular quote of edward syed in the 1993 wreath lectures says it all and of course many of us know that syed was emphatic that he says that intellectuals always has a choice either to side with the weaker the less represented the forgotten or the ignored or to side with the more powerful uh there are many academics we know of um and many scholars who pretend to be involved with social and political conflict or or are outside and above it but in one way or another they cannot escape the social conflict they either deliberately or involuntarily fall on one side or the other you can't be neutral either on the basis of their direct involvement or their indirect influences some people in academia again have chosen the camp of the ruling class very explicitly and they put their knowledge entirely to serving the ruling classes of their established oligarchy for syed and many have read this but it bears repeating and this is what is said the late neville alexander from south africa as well a political prisoner on robin island with mandela and others for 10 years and who spent a further five years under harsh arrest was arguably one of south africa's foremost public intellectuals he's also deeply influenced by antonio gramshi and edward syed and he wrote an essay shortly before his passing titled the moral responsibility of the intellectual in post apartheid south africa an opponent of the neoliberal trajectory um embarked on by the post apartheid establishment he wrote it has always been the task of the intelligence has to speak out we have to find our way back to the passion and values of freedom equality and solidarity that drove us to struggle against the apartheid system we have to get back to the modesty and the generosity of spirit that inspired many of us then so i'm moving towards the conclusion now and i pose the question the famous question what must be done so it's really time as i've been emphasizing for intellectuals particularly in the uk to speak out as many of you are doing already and of course you have a special responsibility the barbarity of israel will continue in direct proportion to the pampering this latter day settler colonial apartheid state receives the material support israel has received has not tempered its vile crimes but instead made it more vicious and apartheid israel must be seen in all of its nakedness as a pariah state like its dear and unlimited former friend apartheid south africa that really is our task if israel is allowed to continue with impunity then i have no doubt that the coming atrocities and massacres will eclipse the wholesale slaughter meted out in gaza and the west bank during many of israel's assaults over the years and there's a lot of data i can share with you compiled by the u.n. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs but i'm fast running out of time but i agree the sober assessment and frustrations of people like tarik bakoni from al shabaka is understandable and i quote him we as palestinians have learned that international law is not the only site of our liberation it is merely a tool in the struggle that is unfolding in other areas there can be no expectation that our liberation will be ushered in on the wings of reports written by israeli or international organizations close quote for me this is not defeatism instead it embodies the indomitable spirit of palestinians to exist and resist the book by ramsey barud and ilan pape's our vision for liberation a collection of essays by 30 engage public intellectuals organic intellectuals in the crunching sense expands on the quote by tarik despite the existence of numerous international treaties and conventions meant to be normative guides for the behavior nation states they've all been violated by israel many of the contributions in the book by pape and barud speak to the martyrdom of loved ones dispossession of land and livelihoods the everyday gut-wrenching brutality of zionist forces carried out with impunity the perfidy and venality of what edwards side referred to as bad leadership the euphemism despotic authoritarian arab rulers and the duplicity of western and other governments yet the contributors modestly and clearly document their fortitude and share their creativity and strategies out of the impasse some time ago karma nabul see wrote the tarnish trickery of those tired catchphrases last chance for peace painful compromises moderates against extremists is now worn so thin even a child would not be deceived there is intense defeatism and tired politicians without valor as we've seen in akaba recently but there is a hopeful reality many ordinary citizens all over the world have not given up and the palestinians have not given up on themselves and here we can derive inspiration from the solidarity south africans received in the struggle against apartheid it took a few decades of hard work before the boycott campaign made an impact despite the impression given by many venal government leaders that they supported the isolation of the apartheid state from the outset this is just not true the anti-apartheid movement was initially built by ordinary people throughout the world and their organizations student academic organizations women's groups unions faith-based organizations cultural groups and the anti-apartheid movement was formed as long ago as 1959 and the first significant breakthrough came in 1963 when danish dock workers refused to offload south african goods and of course liveable dockers followed suit in the 70s and the shop workers in island as well our sister union i was in the similar union in south africa at that time so the point is that it does take time palestinians and many others are insisting on the importance of international resolve to end and punish israeli annexation and apartheid and so these are a few mechanisms i've mentioned but i want to emphasize the point about stop stopping arming apartheid israeli war machine jeff halper published a wonderful book called war against the people and it shows how israel through its high tech weaponry securitization methods of pacification plays a key role in the global suppression of human rights it makes the very important point jeff halper makes the point that the occupation itself and i quote represents a resource for israel in two senses economically it provides a testing ground for the development of weapons security systems models of population control and tactics without which israel would be unable to complete compete in the international arms and security markets but no less important being a major military power serves other militaries and security services the world over lends israel an international status amongst the global hegemon's it would not have otherwise so a reading of imperialism shows that apartheid is needed as a fundamentalist and militarized warrior state not only to quell the undefeated and unbowled palestinians but also as a rapid response font of reaction in concert with despotic arab regimes to do the empire's bidding not just in the middle east but far beyond that and so we have to recognize that the foundation of the israeli economy was founded on the special political and military role which does zionism then and continues to fulfill for western imperialism it has also carved out today a niche market producing high-tech security essential for the day-to-day functioning of imperialism the weaponry and technology the israeli military industrial complex exports around the world of course as we know our field tested on the bodies of palestinian men women and children and as adam hania wrote it is not merely the depths of suffering or the length of exile that makes the palestinian struggle and imperative of international solidarity in the current period it is also the central location of the struggle within the broader context of global resistance to imperialism and neoliberalism so in july 2022 the palestine solidarity campaign campaign against arm straights and worn one released a report that shows that barkley's bank holds over one billion pounds in shares and provides over three billion pounds in loans and underwriting to nine companies including albert systems whose weapons components and military technology are used by israel and psc and others have taken regularly a regular action against barkley's branches to call on the bank to end all financial tiles with companies arming israel and they plan to embark on an action which i hope all of you support it's i think the proposed title is barkley's day of action possibly i think on march the tunifer correct me rifka and the action is timed for the saturday after the un day for the elimination of racial discrimination it's also held more or less on the anniversary of the sharpville massacre so please support them so i'm rounding up now thanks you've been very generous so the demands of the bds campaign is not that israel should be better than other countries but it should adhere to the very modest minimum standards of human rights and international law this doesn't mean that other countries should not face censure not at all but i think it's a tactical thing as well you know we had the pol pot regime during the apartheid era but the apartheid system in south africa was supported by the west pol pot was an isolationist in any case so it wouldn't have made any difference there's a number of other reasons why one can respond to this question why single out israel and many of its indignant cousins you know why not the what aboutry argument etc there's three key uh at basic demands all within existing law of the bds movement one ending its occupation and colonization of all arab lands and dismantling their apartheid world two recognizing the fundamental rights of arab palestinian citizens of israel to full equality and three respecting protecting and promoting the rights of palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in u n resolution 195 so jamal juma against us and says as palestinians we cannot wait any longer crimes are escalating against our people as you read it'll get worse no matter no matter whether this current government continues or collapses we are steadfast challenging the occupation standing up against the rape bulldozers holding on under torture and bearing our debt the zionist theory that the old people will die and the young will forget is proven false by the determination and popular resistance of the palestinian people raiment williams cultural theorists and public intellectual in his book resources of hope published posthumously in 1989 explain to be radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing one of our tasks must be to do that and to ensure that the ongoing violence of the israeli government is consistently exposed however difficult so that any person with a conscience will find it difficult to defend what is being done acts of defiance determination and resistance often against seemingly overwhelming odds continue to drive the will of the palestinians global solidarity activists need to be inspired and strengthened by the steadfastness the some mood and courage of palestinians despite the abject obsequiousness of some of their so-called leaders victoria britain has written a wonderful forward which i've had the privilege of seeing before haida id's book on gaza has been published and she shows that despite the massacres and the injustices there's a vibrant collective of cultural effervescence even in a place like gaza many cultural groups lots of education paintings musics etc i don't have the time to go through her wonderful lyrical quote but to say that despite 75 years of massacres and atrocities piled upon out outrages and injustices and a leadership in the words of ramsey and ilan in the book that is silence imprisoned assassinated or co-opted their book which also discusses the unity in tiffada is an antidote to the all two human feelings of despair in the face of this violence by placing on center stage a microcosm of those palestinians actually resisting so bravely on so many fronts we on the outside should be inspired by this resistance and we have a clear role to play it is now in our hands to change this unconscionable situation not by appealing to the ruling classes of the world and their institutions which remain in the main and the face of abundant evidence unmoved callous and hypocritical think ukraine in fact many of these elites directly sustained provides sucker to and benefit from the israeli state's reign of terror but rather it is by applying the most potent weapon we have learned to rely on forged and steeled through the tried and tested struggles of workers and oppressed people spanning time and space think of the spanish civil war think of the international brigades think of the support for the people of indochina think of apartheid south africa and that is solidarity and international solidarity in that sense in the words of the late muslim beacon revolutionary samarama shell is not an act of charity but an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains towards the same objectives thank you very much