“Dismantling Apartheid, South Africa to Palestine”

News from the Sheffield Palestine Coalition against Israeli Apartheid.

Mandla Mandela, a member of parliament in South Africa, the chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, and a passionate supporter of Palestine, is speaking in Sheffield at 7.00pm on Thursday, October 10^th.

The meeting is organised by the Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and is being held at Sadacca on the Wicker.

Nelson Mandela famously said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians”. His grandson will be speaking on “Dismantling Apartheid, South Africa to Palestine” on his visit from South Africa. 

Some background

Earlier this year South Africa instigated a case at the International Court of Justice [ICJ] accusing Israel of genocide which continues, but the court has already said in its preliminary findings that “the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide” is “at risk of irreparable harm”, and has instructed Israel to take steps to prevent genocidal acts while these critical issues remain under investigation by the Court. Israel ignores those instructions displacing two million people in Gaza, and now over one million in Lebanon, killing tens of thousands, and destroying schools and hospitals.

In a separate investigation, the ICJ ruled in July 2024 that Israel’s 56-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal and “The state of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible”. The Court ruled that Israeli restrictions in the occupied territories constituted “systemic discrimination based on race, religion or ethnic origin”. It also said that Israel had illegally exploited the Palestinians’ natural resources and violated their right to self-determination, in a word: apartheid.

Musheir El Farra, Chair of Sheffield Paletine Solidarity Campaign says: 

“The visit of Chief  Ncosi Zwelivelile, (Mandla Mandela), the grandson of the late leader Nelson Mandela, to Sheffield is very symbolic in view of Sheffield’s history of campaigning strongly against apartheid in South Africa. And today we provide strong support for the Palestinian struggle for freedom and return, through the Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid which has 30 different affiliated organisations. 

“I welcome his visit and look forward to listening to his experiences of suffering as a child under the ugliness of SA apartheid, and witnessing Israeli apartheid during his numerous visits to Palestine”

Here’s a very short video from last weekend’s Assembly.