Tunisian lawyers have played a key role both in opposing human rights abuses and consolidating the transition to democracy. In many ways, apartheid South Africa was arguably more concerned with cheap labor for its mining operations than it was in promoting white superiority. — a lens that describes a great deal in both present-day South Africa and Israel-Palestine — the American academic Cedric Robinson. [1] Former South African President Nelson Mandela had visited both Israel and Palestine and called for peace between both sides. While there has been an increase in the number of poorer white South Africans in the last 30 years, the economic picture remains mostly unchanged in terms of race. South Africa stands with Palestine – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor] As the list of supporters and petition signatories grows, so does the momentum to have this … South Africa’s complex and checkered history is a valuable roadmap for thinking through the challenges facing Israel-Palestine, and bringing potential ways forward into sharper focus. While his arguments are not new, they represent the beginning of a significant shift in how the conflict is understood and debated among American Jews, a bedrock of pro-Israel support in the United States. And in pursuit of this human rights imperative, has displayed remarkable courage to offend Israel’s main benefactor, the United States of … South Africa’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, amassed a personal, as a board member and advisor to several major mining companies. With these lucrative relations in hand, Israel has even less reason to remove its footprint from the occupied West Bank and Gaza. According to the World Bank, the wealthiest 10 percent of South Africans own more than 90 percent of the country’s total wealth, while 80 percent own almost no wealth. The negotiations in the 1990s between ANC experts schooled in Western economics and the white South African business elite highlighted just how much the ANC was out of their league. Nelson Mandela had close relations with Yasser Arafat. The final installment will return focus to Israel-Palestine and consider how the structures of economic apartheid have already been created. Whites largely make up the middle and upper classes, while Blacks remain poor. Many of these politicians were placed on the boards of major South African companies and became personally wealthy beyond imagination. This process, curiously, began in both contexts around the same time in the early 1990s. (Activestills.org), South African women protest against the Pass Laws, which restricted the movement of Blacks in the country, 1956. The distance between these areas is little more than 30km — less than a 45 minute drive away. 1,856 likes. Economic prowess remains deeply connected to race, with the more expensive residential areas being almost exclusively white and the shantytowns Black. There are often protests that end with the police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at residents fed up with the sordid state of public services. In October, South Africa's ambassador to the UN, Jerry Matjila, criticised the UN for not implementing any of its 72 resolutions on Palestine since 1948. CONTACT DETAILS FOR THE PALESTINIAN EMBASSY IN PRETORIA. CAPE TOWN — Every Monday morning, my son’s nanny, Miriam, travels an hour across Cape Town to our home. Peaceful coexistence, reconciliation, and the creation of viable democratic institutions are among the many achievements of the post-apartheid period. 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