Ruptly
"A rally marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba kicked off at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town on Saturday, with demonstrators gathering at South Africa's oldest surviving colonial building to commemorate the mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948. Footage shows protesters waving Palestinian flags on the roof of the castle, decorated with signs reading 'Zionism is racism' and 'Cape Town is not Tel Aviv' among others. "Today we are commemorating 78 years of Nakba, of disaster, of a catastrophe, and we are here to pledge solidarity with the people of Palestine, dead or alive, in exile, in refugee camps and those who are waiting to be bombed, still remaining in Gaza," said General Secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions Zwelinzima Vavi. During the event, particular emphasis was placed on the call for the release of 'Palestinian Nelson Mandela' Marwan Barghouti. The Palestinian political leader has remained imprisoned by Israel since April 15, 2002, serving five consecutive life sentences. "We're all free now. So that's what we want for the Gazans, for Palestinians, to be free and rebuild their homes and be like a free person, like everybody around the world," stated protester Ebrahim Levy. Demonstrator Gadija Ahjum remarked, "If we look at it broadly speaking, we recognise the fact that it's part of a broader colonialist project, it's part of an imperialist project. That's what the Nakba is about, that's what the genocide is about, that's what apartheid was about. And so, particularly as South Africans, we recognise that the duty falls upon us even more so." The African National Congress, which has governed South Africa since 1994, has close relations with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the official representative of the Palestinian people. Both movements collaborated on an international scale to fight racial oppression, including by advocating for the landmark 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions. The demonstration was reportedly called by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. The rally took place a day after the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for 'catastrophe', when some 750,000 Palestinians were displaced following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, a date Israel observes as its Independence Day."
Go to News Site