Kasrils Affair, the (Epub)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Kasrils Affair, The (ePub) Edition: Publication date: 2008 Author/Editors: Pollak, J eISBN: 9781919895758 Format: eBook Number of Pages: 208 Retail price: R277.00 (incl. VAT) Website Link: juta.co.za/pdf/25262/ About this Publication: In 2007, Minister Ronnie Kasrils, the highest-ranking Jew in South Africa’s post-apartheid government, launched a campaign against Israeli policy in the occupied territories. In so doing, he ignited a public debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that challenged the identity of South African Jews in the new South Africa. Kasrils offered Jews a choice–oppose Israel and Zionism, and be welcomed into the post-apartheid order, or else remain stuck in the apartheid past, on the fringes of South Africa’s changing society, ostracised by the African National Congress (ANC) government. Kasrils’s ‘declaration of conscience’ marked the first time in recent world history that a prominent Jewish politician outside Israel had attacked the Israeli government and its policies so vehemently—and done so, publicly and self-consciously, as a Jew. Though Kasrils failed to win Jewish support, he succeeded in pulling the community into the orbit of the ANC. The Kasrils Affair: Jews and Minority Politics in post-apartheid South Africa is a contemporary analysis, based largely on published commentary and interviews conducted with the members and staff of the Jewish Board of Deputies. The book also draws heavily on the insights and experiences of the author who, as a speechwriter for Parliament at the time, was personally involved in the debates and discussions surrounding the issue. The book investigates broader patterns of Jewish political behaviour prior to the normalisation and democratisation of South African society and compares the experience of the South African Jewish community in the Kasrils Affair with the recent experiences of Jewish communities in Britain, France and the United States. There are few books on minority politics in South Africa in the post-apartheid era. This book illuminates an interesting but under-explored area of current affairs scholarship. Contents Include: • Provides a contemporary up-to-date account of politics in the South African Jewish community. • Presents an alternative to Kasrils’s partisan view of his campaign against Israeli policies. Of Interest and Benefit to: Readers interested in South Africa as well as Jewish studies; students of Jewish studies, Political Science and Middle East Studies. It will appeal to both academic and non-academic readers..

Copy Link

Recommended publications

PRENEGOTIATION Ln SOUTH AFRICA (1985 -1993) a PHASEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS of the TRANSITIONAL NEGOTIATIONS
PRENEGOTIATION lN SOUTH AFRICA (1985 -1993) A PHASEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE TRANSITIONAL NEGOTIATIONS BOTHA W. KRUGER Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Stellenbosch. Supervisor: ProfPierre du Toit March 1998 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za DECLARATION I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it at any university for a degree. Signature: Date: The fmancial assistance of the Centre for Science Development (HSRC, South Africa) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the Centre for Science Development. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za OPSOMMING Die opvatting bestaan dat die Suid-Afrikaanse oorgangsonderhandelinge geinisieer is deur gebeurtenisse tydens 1990. Hierdie stuC.:ie betwis so 'n opvatting en argumenteer dat 'n noodsaaklike tydperk van informele onderhandeling voor formele kontak bestaan het. Gedurende die voorafgaande tydperk, wat bekend staan as vooronderhandeling, het lede van die Nasionale Party regering en die African National Congress (ANC) gepoog om kommunikasiekanale daar te stel en sodoende die moontlikheid van 'n onderhandelde skikking te ondersoek. Deur van 'n fase-benadering tot onderhandeling gebruik te maak, analiseer hierdie studie die oorgangstydperk met die doel om die struktuur en funksies van Suid-Afrikaanse vooronderhandelinge te bepaal. Die volgende drie onderhandelingsfases word onderskei: onderhande/ing oor onderhandeling, voorlopige onderhande/ing, en substantiewe onderhandeling. Beide fases een en twee word beskou as deel van vooronderhandeling.
[Show full text]
ADDRESS by the MINISTER of WATER AFFAIRS and FORESTRY RONNIE KASRILS, MP at the RENAMING of the CHELMSFORD DAM to NTSHINGWAYO DAM Newcastle 6 August 2000
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF WATER AFFAIRS AND FORESTRY RONNIE KASRILS, MP AT THE RENAMING OF THE CHELMSFORD DAM TO NTSHINGWAYO DAM Newcastle 6 August 2000 Deputy President, Mr Jacob Zuma His Majesty, King Goodwill Zwelithini Ministers of the National Cabinet Premier of KwaZulu-Natal Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps Members of the Executive Council Your Worship - The Mayor of Newcastle and the Chairperson of the Umzinyathi Regional Council Councillors - Members of the Executive Councils of Transitional Local Councils Amakhosi and Distinguished Guests “What’s in a name”, asked Juliet, when she realised that Romeo of the House of Montague was the son of her family’s bitter rival. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” she hoped. She was wrong, of course. The name of a person is the stamp of their identity and their ancestry. The name of a place reflects the perspective of those who did the naming. For anybody who travels in South Africa, or studies its place names on a map, it is quite clear what that perspective was; who conquered and held the power here and when they did so. All over the country, there are signs of British occupation, revealed in the names of towns, natural features and streets. And, as one would expect, all over the country there are Afrikaans names, signposts put up by the Trekkers and their descendents. All too often, the original names for South African places were simply ignored and discarded, as were the people who suffered at the hands of the oppressors.
[Show full text]
Trc-Media-Sapa-2000.Pdf
GRAHAMSTOWN Jan 5 Sapa THREE OF DE KOCK'S CO-ACCUSED TO CHALLENGE TRC DECISION Three former security branch policemen plan to challenge the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's decision to refuse them and seven of their former colleagues, including Eugene de Kock, amnesty for the 1989 murder of four policemen. De Kock, Daniel Snyman, Nicholaas Janse Van Rensburg, Gerhardus Lotz, Jacobus Kok, Wybrand Du Toit, Nicolaas Vermeulen, Marthinus Ras and Gideon Nieuwoudt admitted responsibility for the massive car bomb which claimed the lives of Warrant Officer Mbalala Mgoduka, Sergeant Amos Faku, Sergeant Desmond Mpipa and an Askari named Xolile Shepherd Sekati. The four men died when a bomb hidden in the police car they were travelling in was detonated in a deserted area in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth, late at night in December 1989. Lawyer for Nieuwoudt, Lotz and Van Rensburg, Francois van der Merwe said he would shortly give notice to the TRC of their intention to take on review the decision to refuse the nine men amnesty. He said the judgment would be taken on review in its entirety, and if it was overturned by the court, the TRC would once again have to apply its mind to the matter in respect of all nine applicants. The applicants had been "unfairly treated", he said and the judges had failed to properly apply their mind to the matter. The amnesty decision was split, with Acting Judge Denzil Potgieter and Judge Bernard Ngoepe finding in the majority decision that the nine men did not qualify for amnesty as the act was not associated with a political objective and was not directed against members of the ANC or other liberation movements.
[Show full text]
LEARNING from CHRIS HANI by Ronnie Kasrils on Returning Home from Exile Chris Hani Referred in Many a Speech of the Need For
LEARNING FROM CHRIS HANI by Ronnie Kasrils On returning home from exile Chris Hani referred in many a speech of the need for political tolerance. What a contrast to the current leader of the SACP, Blade Nzimande, and the invective he spews at his opponents or those he simply does not agree with. The Public Protector tells “white lies” and comrades who oppose the ANC are insulted as "factory rejects" and "enemy agents" similar insults hurled at Hani in 1969 for speaking out against corruption and nepotism in the then ANC. ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe descends to similar abuse, detracting and undermining serious political debate. What sad commentaries these two and their acolytes let loose as they rush to divert attention from the real substance of debate and desperately try to cover up the rotten state of affairs in the ruling party and government as the time comes for our fifth national election in a democratic South Africa. What has led to this current situation in which long standing members of the movement have taken a dramatic step to call on the public not to cast a vote for the ANC?. The massacre at Marikana, the obscene expenditure at Nkandla are two of the most publicised events that come on top of a long series of scandals involving President Jacob Zuma and numbers of senior party and government officials. Good comrades within the structures of the movement have not been able to challenge these developments, let alone speak truth to power. They believe that remaining within the movement and raising the issues they can alter the disastrous state of affairs, but to many of us the rot has gone too deep.
[Show full text]
Umkhonto Wesizwe)
Spear of the Nation (Umkhonto weSizwe) SOUTH AFRICA’S LIBERATION ARMY, 1960s–1990s Janet Cherry OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS ATHENS Contents Preface ....................................7 1. Introduction ............................9 2. The turn to armed struggle, 1960–3 ........13 3. The Wankie and Sipolilo campaigns, 1967–8 ................................35 4. Struggling to get home, 1969–84...........47 5. Reaping the whirlwind, 1984–9 ............85 6. The end of armed struggle...............113 7. A sober assessment of MK ...............133 Sources and further reading ................145 Index ...................................153 1 Introduction Hailed as heroes by many South Africans, demonised as evil terrorists by others, Umkhonto weSizwe, the Spear of the Nation, is now part of history. Though the organisation no longer exists, its former members are represented by the MK Military Veterans’ Association, which still carries some political clout within the ruling African National Congress (ANC). The story of MK, as Umkhonto is widely and colloquially known in South Africa, is one of paradox and contradiction, successes and failures. A people’s army fighting a people’s war of national liberation, they never got to march triumphant into Pretoria. A small group of dedicated revolutionaries trained by the Soviet Union and its allies, they were committed to the seizure of state power, but instead found their principals engaged in negotiated settlement with the enemy as the winds of global politics shifted in 9 the late 1980s. A guerrilla army of a few thousand soldiers in exile, disciplined and well trained, many of them were never deployed in battle, and most could not ‘get home’ to engage the enemy. Though MK soldiers set off limpet mines in public places in South Africa, killing a number of innocent civilians, they refrained from laying the anti-personnel mines that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands in other late-twentieth-century wars.
[Show full text]
The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare
The Rollback of South Africa’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Program Stephen Burgess and Helen Purkitt US Air Force Counterproliferation Center Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama THE ROLLBACK OF SOUTH AFRICA’S CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE PROGRAM by Dr. Stephen F. Burgess and Dr. Helen E. Purkitt USAF Counterproliferation Center Air War College Air University Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama The Rollback of South Africa’s Chemical and Biological Warfare Program Dr. Stephen F. Burgess and Dr. Helen E. Purkitt April 2001 USAF Counterproliferation Center Air War College Air University Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama 36112-6427 The internet address for the USAF Counterproliferation Center is: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-cps.htm . Contents Page Disclaimer.....................................................................................................i The Authors ............................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments .......................................................................................v Chronology ................................................................................................vii I. Introduction .............................................................................................1 II. The Origins of the Chemical and Biological Warfare Program.............3 III. Project Coast, 1981-1993....................................................................17 IV. Rollback of Project Coast, 1988-1994................................................39
[Show full text]
The Rise and Fall of the Ciskei Homeland and Bantustan Leadership, 1972–1994
Article The Rise and Fall of the Ciskei Homeland and Bantustan Leadership, 1972–1994 Fezile Cindi Independent Researcher, South Africa [email protected] Abstract In this article, I grapple with notions of celebration, commemoration, and leadership as narratives of memory, in the Ciskei Bantustan in particular. The aim of the article is to get readers to remember and reflect on our past, in order to understand the present. The article also focuses on the history of the Ciskei homeland, its leadership values, and role of traditional leaders, rural development, legislative imperatives, and the impact of the policy of separate development, as well as the coups, suppression, torture and killings that happened between 1972 and 1994. Keywords: Bantustan; Ciskei; homeland; leadership Introduction I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. (Alexander the Great) In this article, I grapple with notions of celebration, commemoration, and leadership as narratives of memory, in the Ciskei Bantustan in particular. The aim of the article is to get readers to remember and reflect on our past in order to understand the present. The article also focuses on the history of the Ciskei homeland and its leadership values, and it touches on the role of traditional leaders, rural development, legislative imperatives, the policy of separate development, as well as the coups, torture, oppression, and killings that happened between 1972 and 1994. The Ciskei Bantustan in the Eastern Cape was formed to serve as an enclave for Xhosa- speaking people in South Africa, as part of the policy of racial segregation, following the constitution of the Republic of South Africa in May 1961.
[Show full text]
Boycotts and Sanctions Against South Africa: an International History, 1946-1970
Boycotts and Sanctions against South Africa: An International History, 1946-1970 Simon Stevens Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2016 © 2016 Simon Stevens All rights reserved ABSTRACT Boycotts and Sanctions against South Africa: An International History, 1946-1970 Simon Stevens This dissertation analyzes the role of various kinds of boycotts and sanctions in the strategies and tactics of those active in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. What was unprecedented about the efforts of members of the global anti-apartheid movement was that they experimented with so many ways of severing so many forms of interaction with South Africa, and that boycotts ultimately came to be seen as such a central element of their struggle. But it was not inevitable that international boycotts would become indelibly associated with the struggle against apartheid. Calling for boycotts and sanctions was a political choice. In the years before 1959, most leading opponents of apartheid both inside and outside South Africa showed little interest in the idea of international boycotts of South Africa. This dissertation identifies the conjuncture of circumstances that caused this to change, and explains the subsequent shifts in the kinds of boycotts that opponents of apartheid prioritized. It shows that the various advocates of boycotts and sanctions expected them to contribute to ending apartheid by a range of different mechanisms, from bringing about an evolutionary change in white attitudes through promoting the desegregation of sport, to weakening the state’s ability to resist the efforts of the liberation movements to seize power through guerrilla warfare.
[Show full text]
Kasrils, Ronnie
Kasrils, Ronnie. 'Armed and Dangerous': My Underground Struggle Against Apartheid. Oxford. UK: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1993. In an earlier article in Conflict Quarterly, (Winter 1993, p. 75), I noted that it seemed unlikely that senior security commanders on either side of South Africa's clandestine struggle would be writing their personal histories "at least in the foreseeable future." But, even at that point, one of the key figures in the African National Congress (ANC)'s underground struggle, Ronnie Kasrils — since appointed South African deputy defence minister by President Nelson Mandela in July 1994 — was doing just that. For readers looking for a first-time "behind the scenes" view of the efforts and sacrifices made in the underground struggle against apartheid, Kasrils' memoirs are an interesting and well written read. He had been one of the original members of the ANC's MK underground guerrilla force when it was formed in 1961, rising to be head of its Military Intelligence in 1984, as well as being a member of the secretive South African Communist Party — "the Party" — since 1961. For researchers and observers more knowledgeable on South African affairs, there will be considerable interest in the intriguing "Party" spins given to a variety of issues and events — and often with a "red herring" thrown in as well — which Kasrils repeatedly offers up. Even so, it is his background of separate but associated memberships in the various ANC. MK and S ACP structures that make this book informative, and provides at least two levels at which this "personal history'1 can be read.
[Show full text]
No Time Like the Present
No time like the present: Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer, Nobel laureate and Booker Prize winner, is one of our most telling contemporary writers. With each new work, she attacks – with a clear-eyed lack of sentimentality and a deep understanding of the darkest depths of the human soul – her eternal themes: the inextricable link between personal and communal history; the inescapable moral ambiguities of daily life; the political and racial tensions which persist in South Africa. And in each new work is fresh evidence of her literary genius: in the sharpness of her psychological insights; the stark beauty of her language; the complexity of her characters and the difficult choices with which they are faced. In No Time Like the Present, Gordimer trains her keen eye on South Africa and what has become of it since Mandela’s jubilant release from prison. At the heart of her story is an interracial couple, Steve and Jabulile, living in a newly – tentatively – free South Africa, he a university lecturer, she a lawyer, both comrades in the Struggle and now parents of children born in freedom. There is nothing so extraordinary about their lives, and yet, in telling their story, and the stories of their friends and families, Gordimer manages to capture the tortured, fragmented essence of a nation struggling to define itself in the post-apartheid world of Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. The subject is contemporary, but Gordimer’s treatment is, as ever, timeless. No Time Like the Present is a powerful state of the nation novel with a very human heart.
[Show full text]
Resistance to the Cession of the Kangwane
Sifiso Mxolisi Ndlovu Professor and Executive SOWING THE SEEDS OF Director, South African POLITICAL MOBILISATION IN Democracy Education Trust, University of BANTUSTANS: RESISTANCE South Africa. E-mail: sifisondlovu@telkomsa. TO THE CESSION OF THE net KANGWANE BANTUSTAN TO THE DOI: https://dx.doi. KINGDOM OF SWAZILAND org/10.18820/24150509/ JCH43.v1.3 ISSN 0258-2422 (Print) Abstract ISSN 2415-0509 (Online) This article on the proposed 1982 land deal between the Kingdom Journal for Contemporary of Swaziland and the South African Government to cede the History KaNgwane Bantustan and Ingwavuma to Swaziland, focuses upon 2018 43(1):43-69 the geopolitics of southern Africa and the trajectory of the struggle © UV/UFS for national liberation in South Africa, particularly on the role of the African Nationalist Congress (ANC) in Bantustan politics. By focusing specifically on the geopolitics of the liberation struggle in southern Africa, this article adds new dimensions to the work of Shireen Ally, Hugh Macmillan and other scholars, whose research on the proposed cession of the KaNgwane Bantustan focuses primarily on ethnic nationalism and ethno-nationalistic politics. Keywords: Swaziland; South African Government; African National Congress (ANC); KaNgwane Bantustan; Enos Mabuza; apartheid. Sleutelwoorde: Swaziland; Suid-Afrikaanse regering; African National Congress (ANC); KaNgwane-tuisland; Enos Mabuza; apartheid. 1. INTRODUCTION This article on the proposed 1982 land deal between the Kingdom of Swaziland and the South African Government to cede the KaNgwane Bantustan1 and Ingwavuma to Swaziland, focuses upon the geopolitics of southern Africa and the trajectory of the struggle for national liberation in South Africa, particularly the role of the African Nationalist Congress (ANC) in Bantustan politics.
[Show full text]
DEBATE Parliament, 13/02/02 Mr. Ronnie Kasrils MP, Minister
SPEECH FOR THE PRESIDENT’S “STATE OF THE NATION” DEBATE Parliament, 13/02/02 Mr. Ronnie Kasrils MP, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Madame Speaker, The President has paid tribute to “those who led the negotiations process”, and the “mass of our people who, ultimately, are the true midwives of democracy”. It is those same groups, whom we all represent, that must answer President Mbeki’s call – Vuk’unzenzele – to build a non-racist, non-sexist, democratic country. Mr. President despite the whinging of the chattering strata we have made massive achievements in the struggle against racism, in the fight against sexism, in the war on poverty. The new South Africa is a triumph. We are held up as the model for the world. They come from Ireland, Israel and Palestine, East Timor and Burundi, for inspiration. Ten years ago, the doomsayers predicted race war. Through participation in our democratic process every member in this House – no matter the discordant chatter of some - stood up, and solved the problem, for the common good. We are a triumph: We wrote the most progressive Constitution and Bill of Rights on earth. We formed a Constitutional Court which has built a world legal reputation for sensible judgements. 2 We are the model. We formed this Parliament as a free and fair expression of the will of the people. We held successful elections for new local government and a second national election. Power passed without pain from one President to another. Every party in this house agrees that South Africa is a successful, working constitutional democracy, and the Honourable Tony Leon’s sour assertion that the ANC is bent on the “obsessive accumulation of power” is contradicted by his own presence here, although his fading support suggests that increasingly mature South Africans are growing weary of sour-faced whinging.
[Show full text]