By banning Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar from visiting the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel has created a political upheaval in the U.S., with many Americans now favoring cutting aid to the country. One thing achieved this result: The women support BDS, and they have demonstrated the power of the nonviolent campaign.
Joe Hallgarten writes one of the simplest yet most powerful slogans in history has brought deep changes to every society that has genuinely adopted its simple principle: one state, one vote.
In April a delegation of Palestinian youth headed to Johannesburg: “Witnessing South Africa’s persistent social, racial, and economic inequities, that are remnants of colonialism and Apartheid, we problematized the way we, as Palestinians, understand the apartheid analysis.”
BDS South Africa board member Tisetso Magama writes: “South African workers, across all sectors, are becoming flag-bearers of the BDS and Palestine solidarity movement with unionists insisting that workplaces must become Apartheid Israel Free Zones. The Palestinian BDS campaign against Israel, inspired by our own successful isolation of Apartheid South Africa, is moving at a far faster pace than the boycott of Apartheid South Africa did. This is partially because the Israeli regime of Apartheid and oppression against the Palestinians, as our former President Kgalema Mothlante, has put it, ‘is far worse that what we Black South Africans experienced.'”
Jeff Klein remembers South African fighter Jabulani Jali, a former member of the ANC’s armed wing the uMkhonto we Sizwe, after his passing earlier this year.