with Nadija Samour (Palestinian lawyer), Patrick Bond (South African academic and activist) and Barbara Schreiner (South African activist and Executive Director of the Water Integrity Network).

A meeting for activists and academics to discuss and analyse Israeli apartheid, with particular focus on comparisons with South Africa

In 2022, Amnesty International called Israel an Apartheid state. Other organisations, like B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch and the South African government have made the same charge. B’Tselem argue that Israel “advanc[es] and perpetuat[es] the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.”

Others argue that although Israel and Apartheid South Africa are both racist states, which collaborated in developing a joint nuclear programme, it is wrong to compare them too closely. For example, South African Apartheid depended on the exploitation of Black Labour, while Palestinians are systematically excluded from the Israeli economy. The current Israeli policy in Gaza is aimed more at expulsion and extermination than in racial separation.

Others, like South African artist Adam Broomberg, go further, arguing “It is inaccurate to compare Israel with South Africa. What’s going on in Israel is much worse”. And yet, despite the differences between the two systems, the overthrow of Apartheid in South Africa can help us develop a strategy for opposing Israeli terror today.

Professor Patrick Bond was an active participant in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, and advised the international BDS campaign on what they could learn from the mass boycott of Apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s. Patrick will be talking about the similarities and differences between Israel now and South Africa then.

Nadija Samour is a Palestinian lawyer based in Berlin, who was recently the subject of a profile on Al-Jazeera. She will bring the discussion up-to-date, and talk about how the demonisation and separation of Palestinians works in Israel, and in Berlin.

We are pleased to announce an extra speaker from South Africs Barbara Schreiner, Executive Director of the Water Integrity Network. Barbara recently reported on visiting Occupied Palestine.

After Patrick, Nadija and Barbara speak, there will be plenty of time for questions and contributions. Everyone who is interested in justice for Palestine is invited to join the debate.

The meeting will be livestreamed here.

This meeting is organised by the website theleftberlin.com and the Berlin LINKE Internationals