Only Free Men Can Negotiate
Arjan El Fassed for Palestine Chronicle - 18.07.2002 10:20
Recently, Nelson Mandela visited the Netherlands and expressed his appreciation for the Dutch support for the struggle against apartheid. Mandela visited the Netherlands to receive the Four Freedoms Award.
The struggle against apartheid only started late in Holland. The relation between Holland and South Africa was a special one. Previously, Holland was not opposing the racist policies of the white South African minority government.
Only during the seventies a government came into power in Holland which expressed some opposition against apartheid in South Africa. Since that time official visits to South Africa were cancelled, Holland voted at the United Nations in favor of anti-apartheid resolutions and those organizations struggling against apartheid received financial support.
Holland has also a special relationship with Israel. In Holland criticism of Israel's actions were seen as something bad. Today, with accusations of 'anti-Semitism' due to criticism of Israeli practices against Palestinians, it seems that this attitude has returned.
Since the fifties, various Dutch governments felt a strong connection with Israel. In 1956 and 1967 Dutch military equipment was sent to Israel. Also in 1973 the Dutch government supported Israel with military equipment, while other European countries such as France, Italy and England were reluctant to support Israel and imposed an arms embargo.
Also today, despite criticism of the Israeli government, Holland did not find it necessary to take appropriate measures and to impose a formal arms embargo. Satisfying the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, two months ago, a call for sanctions from the center left political parties, was voted out, although with a small margin.
Holland is within Europe, besides Germany and the United Kingdom, one of the most important allies of Israel. Thanks to these three countries, Israel is being awarded for gross violations of human rights and grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, including war crimes.
Recently, the black South African bishop Desmond Tutu compared the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people with practices of the apartheid regime in South Africa. According to Tutu, the situation of Palestinians is not different than that of the black majority in South Africa. The bishop added that Israel would never be secure as long as it oppresses another people. 'Peace can only be realized through justice', he said in a speech in the United States.
Also the South African National Congress (ANC) has frequently compared Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories with the practices of the apartheid regime in South Africa. In a declaration issued prior to the conference against racism in Durban last year, the ANC declared that 'the South African apartheid regime has many things in common with Israel'.
According to the ANC the struggle against apartheid was part of an 'international struggle.' 'South Africans, who dismantled apartheid, have a direct stake in the dismantling of apartheid on a global scale, in particular with regard to the Palestinian cause.'
During the summer of 2001, a delegation of the South African NGO coalition visited Palestine. The members of the delegation were shocked at what they saw. 'The apartheids regime in South Africa never sent tanks to the black bantustans. We were used to the closure of townships, but this usually lasted only a couple of days. Soldiers searched homes and imposed punitive measures, but they cannot be compared with the repressive actions of the Israeli army and the prolonged curfews and closures of Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps.'
At the end of last year, two Jewish heroes of the South African liberation struggle, Ronnie Kasrils, the current South African minister of Water Affairs and former commander of the armed wing of the ANC, and Maz Ozinskinsky, wrote a declaration entitled 'declaration of conscience'. 'It is hard', they wrote, 'in particular from South African perspective, to not compare the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel and the oppression in South Africa by the apartheid regime.'
Most black South Africans understand the living conditions of Palestinians and have experienced the same portrayal by the West as being 'terrorists' as Palestinians have experienced. They remember that as late as 1986, Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) was classified as a 'terrorist organization' by the U.S. administration. The ANC was removed from the American list of terrorist organizations without the organization changing either its tactics or its
program.
Stephen Friedman, one of the signatories of the earlier mentioned 'declaration of conscience' pointed out to a correspondent of the Washington Post that the arms which killed the children of Soweto and other townships were made in Israel.
Still, despite the many similarities, the Dutch government refuses to take appropriate measures against Israel. The Dutch government even refuses to take measures it legally is obligated to take. While the Israeli army has destroyed development projects funded with European tax money, Israeli companies have preferential status. The European countries refuse to suspend its trade agreement with Israel, which gives Israeli exporters een preferential treatment, while Israel violates provisions of the association agreement which make human rights an essential element.
'I wish Arafat had Mandela's talent', wrote a Dutch columnist recently. The existance of a Palestinian Mandela in the absence of an Israeli De Klerk is irrelevant. It was the South African Prime Minister De Klerk, who came from John Vorster's National Party, the party that introduced apartheid, who knew how to break the deadlock. He understood that apartheid did not work. The aimed 'separated development' in the so-called 'homelands' was a failure.
Israel has intensified restrictions on movement of Palestinians. To travel between various Palestinian towns and villages, one needs approval of the Israeli authorities. Fences and walls are built and Israel has created so-called 'bufferzones'.
Since Ariel Sharon came to power, more than 54 new settlements have been built and with daily invasions and occupation, Israel has effectively re-occupied the entire Westbank. The chance that an Israeli De Klerk will emerge who would see that this system will not work seems very low.
Calls from Israel to Palestinians to 'stop the violence' have not worked. Repressions leads to resistence. This circle does not seem to be broken. Also the apartheid regime of South Africa called numerous times on the ANC to 'stop the violence'. When Mandela was still in prison on Robben Island, the South African apartheid regime offered his release in exchange for his call to end the violence. Mandela replied: 'Prisoners cannot enter into contracts, only free men can negotiate.'
Without dramatic changes we will witness more people being killed and injured. Without international intervention, based on justice, peace seems impossible. Palestinians, locked up in their cities and villages, are not free to negotiate. Only international pressure, in the form of boycott and protest, will make Israel understand that its current system will not work and that it should choose between two independent separate states with recognized and secure borders or one secular democratic state. Any solution in between, including so-called 'autonomy', will certainly fail.
The member states of the European Union should not only apply political pressure but also economic pressure. Suspension of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel would be a first step to show that Europe does not reward human rights violations. If the European, and in particular the Dutch opposition against apartheid in South Africa was genuine, they also should start considering sanctions against apartheid now.
Arjan El Fassed is affiliated with LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights based in Palestine. He is a regular contributor to the Palestine Chronicle. This article first appeared in the Dutch daily De Volkskrant on 21 June 2002.
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