Dismantling Israeli Apartheid Tour Organising Committee Statement
24 October 2024
The British Government has denied a visa application by Mandla Mandela on the grounds that his visit to Britain is not ‘conducive to the public good’. This is just the latest example of British full-spectrum support for Zionist/Israeli ethnic cleansing.
Shocking but not surprising from a government which supports Israel's right to deny water, i.e. life itself, to the Palestinians of Gaza. Decades-long British support for Israel’s ethnic cleansing geared up seamlessly into facilitating genocide over the last year.
Britain is an active component of the coalition of genocide In Palestine and Lebanon just as it was a last-ditch supporter of the brutal apartheid regime in South Africa that walled up Nelson Mandela for 27 years.
Every butchery by Israel is prosecuted with confidence, following the green light that Biden and Sunak gave Netanyahu in early October 2023. Starmer has not hesitated in following Biden to give Netanyahu and his thuggish generals arms shipments and full diplomatic, political, economic and military support.
Efforts to stop the genocide from Yemen are met with US and British bombs while domestic opponents of genocide face police raids, arrest and bans.
When the UN General Assembly witnessed a recent mass walkout during Netanyahu's racist rant, British diplomats sat glued to their seats. During another mass walkout at the world assembly of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), fuelled by revulsion at Israel's barbarity, Britain again sided with those promoting genocide.
Just as Palestinians, Lebanese, Yemenis and the other peoples of the area have no choice but to resist Israel's never-ending aggressions, opponents of British involvement in this savagery against civilian populations will also not be intimidated.
The Palestinians have shown the world the true, bestial nature of the Zionist regime and the British Government's efforts to conflate opposition to genocide with hostility to Jewish people per se will not deter us. How callous that the British government rejected Mandela's visa application on the grounds that speaking of genocide in Britain might upset elements of the British Jewish communities.
We dispute this antisemitic assertion, but it begs the question why the British Government seems blithely indifferent to the feelings of other British communities when war criminal Netanyahu swans in and out of London although the ICC Chief Prosecutor seeks an arrest warrant against him for the mass murderer of Palestinians, Lebanese and other Arabs, overwhelmingly Muslims.
We will intensify our efforts to deliver solidarity to the violated Palestinian people.
END
Media Statement by Nkosi ZMD Mandela
UK Official Visa Refusal Letter affirms its duplicity and support for, and complicity with genocide Israel.
Mvezo Komkhulu, Thursday 24th October 2024: Nothing will ever deter us from advocating for the struggle of the Palestinian people and their rights under international law; the right to resist occupation, the right of return to their land, and the fundamental human rights accorded to all.
We will not be silenced. We carry the legacy that Madiba advocated when he said during his trial: "We have fought against black domination and white domination". We will carry this legacy with pride and fight inequality, domination, occupation and inequality wherever it raises its ugly head. We will continue to stand with the oppressed of the world wherever they may be. We will never abandon the Palestinian people who stood with us in our darkest hour.
We can never be silenced and we will never let the refusal of a visa prevent us for standing for justice, peace and equality. We will continue to raise our voice against the unjust occupation, genocide and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and all of Occupied Palestine sponsored by the UK and its ilk.
The Visa Refusal Letter which I received today is symptomatic of the UKs complicity with Apartheid Israel and its ongoing support for the genocide in Gaza and all of Occupied Palestine.
We achieved our freedom despite the support Apartheid South Africa received from the UK and USA and this refusal letter is an extension of the colonial mentality that seeks to deny us our right of free movement, association and speech. We will not be silenced. The denial of visa is an infringement of my movement and an attempt to undermine the work of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the UK.
My grandfather's movement and freedom was likewise restricted but he refused the condition of release from prison that restricted him to the Transkei. He remained firm in his pursuit of justice and continued to be a symbol of freedom, justice and human rights for all.
We will not be deterred by anything from our support of the Palestinian struggle and will continue to utilise every available platform in the world to call on the global family to resist the occupation and genocide by any means necessary. We will not be silenced!
We receive this letter of denial of visa barely a week before we observe the 107th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of 2nd November 1917 orchestrated by the Zionists, and yet the UK continues to do their bidding in defiance of international law, by ignoring the ruling of the International Court of Justice, and rendering itself complicit in genocide through supplying arms, funding and military personnel to Apartheid Israel.
The UK cannot absolve itself from the "problem" it created nor has it demonstrated any will to make reparations for the Balfour travesty. It seems it is intent on staying on the wrong side of history. It seems it has learnt nothing from its colonial history, its support for Apartheid South Africa nor the saga of the Tony Blair era of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Its support for Apartheid Israel and the killing of innocent civilians, rape and the bombing of babies defies all values of morality, decency and basic respect for human life.
We call on all in the international solidarity movement, and the Anti- Apartheid Movement in the UK and Ireland in particular, to intensify their mobilisation in support of the just cause of the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel must be isolated and treated as the pariah terrorist state that it is.
Where is the UKs condemnation of the fire bombing of displaced refugees in their tents? Where is the UKs condemnation of the extermination of 400 000 civilians trapped in Northern Gaza that is unfolding right now.
We reiterate our call for Apartheid Israel to be expelled from the United Nations just as Apartheid South Africa was expelled for far lesser crimes. Apartheid Israel continues to kill UN workers, eliminate health care workers, target journalists, and destroy critical infrastructure in pursuit of its ethnic cleansing and genocide.
We are denied a visa for supporting the Palestinian Resistance but the UK consistently fails to condemn Apartheid Israel's war crimes, occupation of Palestinian land and the genocide of the people of Gaza and all of Occupied Palestine. This is double-standards in the extreme and will be severely judged by history.
Your hands are bloodied by the long list of countries that you have occupied and now you stand here again with oppression and bloodshed. Bloodshed that didn't start on the 7th October 2023 but has persisted since the creation of Apartheid Israel massacre after massacre all supported by you. Will you not learn? Will your humanity not oblige you to stand on the side of the right?
When history tells our story it will be written that we refused to be silenced and we remained standing for the oppressed and most vulnerable. We cannot and we will never support a murderous regime nor will we stand by in silence as they do your bidding wreaking havoc, sowing mayhem, and committing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
Visa or no visa, the struggle continues and we shall relentlessly pursue the ideal of justice, freedom, dignity and human rights for all. We shall continue to be a voice for the suffering and oppressed peoples of the world.
We will not be silenced!
Long live the struggle for justice and peace!
Long live the Palestinian Resistance!
Long live!
ENDS
Nkosi Zwelivelile
Royal House of Mandela
Mvezo Komkhulu
P.O. Box 126
Viedgesville 5102
Eastern Cape Province
South Africa
