To justify the bloody Oct. 7 massacre of Jews, apologists for Hamas claim that Israel is like South Africa before apartheid was overthrown in the 1990s. Blacks in South Africa fought to overthrow apartheid “by any means necessary,” therefore Palestinians have the right to do the same against Israel, they say.
“Everything we do is justified,” says Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad.
But this is dead wrong. Working people and all those who truly want to fight against oppression need to start with the facts.
Apartheid in South Africa was a brutal system where a minority of 5 million whites, out of a population of 33 million, controlled the country. Some 24 million Black Africans, the overwhelming majority, were denied the right to citizenship or to vote. Those the rulers referred to as Coloured — mixed race — numbered 3 million and they and 1 million Indians had a few more rights than Black Africans.
Africans were denied the right to own land. Every aspect of their labor and life — where they lived, where they could work, how long they could stay in “white” cities, where and when they could travel — was under the control of the apartheid rulers. If they quit their job or were laid off or fired, they had to return to rural tribal “homelands.”
It’s preposterous to say that’s what exists in capitalist Israel today, a country of 9.9 million people where 21% of the Israeli population are Arabs, mostly Muslims, almost all of whom are citizens with the right to vote and the right to travel anywhere they want.
Arab political parties have elected members in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. One member of the Supreme Court is a Muslim Arab citizen.
While like every capitalist country there is racism and discrimination, working people have fought to overcome those divisions.
Two trade union federations — the Histadrut, which is the largest, and Koach LaOvdim — organize workers regardless of their religious beliefs or nationality. There have been numerous labor battles over the last decades where Jewish, Arab and immigrant workers have fought side by side.
The claim of Hamas supporters that they are following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela, who led the fight against apartheid, is also preposterous.
Mandela and the African National Congress opposed the ultra-left, reactionary line of the rival Pan African Congress, which called for expulsion or killing of all whites under the slogan “One settler, one bullet.” This is similar to Hamas’ call “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Mandela won the support of the vast majority of South Africans, under the banner of “South Africa belongs to all who live in it.”
A victory over Hamas would open the door to fight for gains for Palestinians and for common working-class struggles.
To learn more about the real history of the fight against apartheid, read “The Coming Revolution in South Africa” by Socialist Workers Party National Secretary Jack Barnes in New International no. 5, available at pathfinderpress.com.