When I hear that Israel is an apartheid state … depending on the mood I’m in I either pack out laughing or I get really, really angry. Because it’s an absolute lie … To incite violence and encourage the destruction of a people just because you don’t like them, that’s disgusting. You are making what our parents went through – you’re making the struggle – a mockery…
To my brothers and sisters, specifically in South Africa, specifically like me, that are black: This war is real. It’s a war for history, it’s a war for another nation’s survival. There was a time when people did not want us to exist; when they didn’t believe we had a right to anything…
Rev. Kenneith Meshoe, President of the African Christian Democratic Party and a member of the South African Parliament, says he has visited Israel and investigated – and the social system practiced in Israel is definitely not apartheid:
I was born in apartheid, I grew up and live in apartheid. So, when people talk about apartheid, they can’t tell me something I don’t know. I’ve been to Israel about 14 times … I’ve looked at what’s happening in the legislature, the Knesset, I’ve looked at what’s happening in the streets and I’ve concluded: what’s happening in South Africa under apartheid, that’s not happening in Israel.
I’ve been a member of Parliament for the last 21 years. During apartheid in South Africa you could not have black people in the Parliament … you go to Israel, you find members of the Knesset who are Arabs and Muslims, members of the Knesset who speak against their own government. In South Africa during apartheid when black people spoke against their government, we were charged for treason.
Video by Israel Collective. Hat tip to Shamgar Amram for this humbling find.