Nelson Mandela's statement at the opening of the defense case in the Rivonia Trial - 1964

Above all, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy.

But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs it will not change that policy.

This then is what the ANC is fighting. Their struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live.

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

○ The Nelson Mandela (Rivonia) Trial: An Account

To Be Free: Nelson Mandela and Women's Rights

South Africa offers women, at least on paper, one of the most comprehensive sets of rights and protections in the world (South Africa Women's Rights). The nation signed the U.N Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), often referred to as an international bill of rights for women, in 1993, and ratified it in 1995, something the United States has yet to do. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, promulgated by President Mandela in 1996 and taking effect in 1997, states: "Everyone has the right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right (a) to make decisions concerning reproduction and (b) to security in and control over their body." The constitution also provides legal protection for women from discrimination, rape, and domestic violence.

As demonstrated by the challenges faced when reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) here in the United States, seemingly obvious protections against domestic violence are often anything but, and the inclusion of these provisions in the South African Constitution cannot be overlooked. These are protections that every women deserves to have, something Mandela recognizes, saying, "We ought to imprint in the supreme law of the land, firm principles upholding the rights of women" (Message by President Nelson Mandela on Women's Day in 1995). The Constitution also created the Commission for Gender Equality, an organization whose vision is a "society free from gender oppression and all forms of inequality," which aims to achieve that goal through research, public education, policy development, legislative initiatives, effective monitoring, and litigation.

Discrepant Government Behavior Concerning Women

Che Guevara: An inspiration for every human being who loves freedom

On July 7, 1953, Guevara set out again, this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. In the letter Guevara speaks of traversing through the "dominions" of the United Fruit Company, which convinced him "how terrible" the "Capitalist octopuses" were.

Legacy
Over forty years after his execution, Che's life and legacy still remain a contentious and polarizing issue. Some view Che Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom" while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age."

Fall of Communism and the South African Border War

Cross-posted from BooMan's fp story - The New Real America.

Have a peaceful cultural summer

Kerry, speaking to reporters traveling with him, said that progress was being made in the talks. He said he was able to speak of progress because "we have gone through a very detailed, lengthy, in-depth analysis of the security challenges of the region, particularly the challenges to Israel and the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state."

Kerry said that this process has taken time, and that retired US General John Allen briefed Netanyahu about various security concepts. He feels that Allen's analysis - supported by the work of some 160 US officials from the Defense Department, the State Department, and White House and intelligence community - could "help both the Palestinians and Israelis make judgments about some of the choices that are important for arriving at an agreement." And that, he said, "is progress."

Kerry said that security was paramount in Netanyahu's mind with respect to Israel's ability to move forward on other issues.

US plan for Israel's safety

Excellent article @Tikun Olam - Mandela and Lessons for Israel-Palestine: from Armed Struggle to Political Transformation.

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Photo of the Day: Mandela Training in Algeria

(Informed Comment) - h/t Sami Ben Gharbia ‏@ifikra

Nelson Mandela training with the Algerian Liberation Front in 1962. The Algerians fought an 8-year war, 1954-1962, to become independent from French imperialism ...

My message sent to Juan Cole:

Your published photo is taken from an anti-semitic website ...

Photo of the Day: Mandela Training in Algeria
http://the-atrocities-perpetrated-against-th.blogspot.nl/2013_06_16_archive.html

According to Nelson Mandela's biography, he received military training in Morocco and Ethiopia in 1962, traveling under the name of David Motsamayi.
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography/
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/01/nelson-mandela-guerilla-film-john-irvin-gun

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United States, Israel opposed Mandela, supported Apartheid

(Informed Comment) - Reagan, while delivering pro forma denunciations of Apartheid or enforced black separation and subjugation, nevertheless opposed sanctions with teeth on Pretoria. Reagan let the racist authoritarian P.W. Botha come to Washington and met with him.

Likewise  British PM Margaret Thatcher befriended Botha and castigated Mandela's ANC as terrorists. As if the Afrikaners weren't terrorizing the black majority! She may have suggested to Botha that he release Mandela for PR purposes, but there is not any doubt on whose side she stood.

The Israeli government had extremely warm relations with Apartheid South Africa, to the point where  Tel Aviv offered the Afrikaners a nuclear weapon (presumably for brandishing at the leftist states of black Africa). That the Israelis accuse  Iran of being a nuclear proliferator is actually hilarious if you know the history. Iran doesn't appear ever to have attempted to construct a nuclear weapon, whereas Israel has hundreds and seems entirely willing to share.

In the US, the vehemently anti-Palestinian Anti-Defamation League in San Francisco spied on American anti-Apartheid activists on behalf of the Apartheid state. If the ADL ever calls you a racist, you can revel in the irony.

 Ronald Reagan imagined that there were "moderates" in the Botha government. There weren't. He wanted "constructive engagement" with them. It failed. The Afrikaners imposed martial law. Reagan tried to veto Congressional sanctions on Pretoria in 1986 but Congress over-rode him.

○ Mandela, the man once branded a 'terrorist' by the US

The unspoken alliance: Israel's secret relationship with apartheid South Africa

Editor's note: The eulogies from Israeli leaders in response to the death of Nelson Mandela are pouring in. What goes unspoken in their remembrances is that Israel had a close relationship with the South African apartheid regime. Here's an excerpt from Sasha Polakow-Suransky's groundbreaking book that delves deep into the alliance. Titled "The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa," it was published in 2010.

(Mondoweiss) - Aided by a healthy dose of Arab and Soviet propaganda, Israel's image as a state of Holocaust survivors in need of protection gradually deteriorated into that of an imperialist stooge of the West. As criticism of Israel mounted and Arab states dangled dollars and oil in the faces of poor African nations in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Third World countries increasingly switched allegiance. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all but a few African countries severed diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, and the Israeli government abandoned the last vestiges of moral foreign policy in favor of hard-nosed realpolitik.

It wasn't long before Israel initiated defense cooperation with some of the world's most notoriously brutal regimes, including Argentina's military dictatorship, Pinochet's Chile, and apartheid South Africa.

At its core, the Israeli-South African relationship was a marriage of interests and ideologies. Israel profited handsomely from arms exports and South Africa gained access to cutting-edge weaponry at a time when the rest of the world was turning against the apartheid state. For the next twenty years, a Janus- faced Israel denied its ties with South Africa, claiming that it opposed apartheid on moral and religious grounds even as it secretly strengthened the arsenal of a white supremacist government.

Israel and South Africa joined forces at a precarious and auspicious time. The alliance began in earnest after the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, and shared military and economic interests drove the relationship for the next three years.

...
Rabin's Labor Party government, which ruled the country from 1974 to 1977, did not share the ethnic nationalist ideology of South Africa's rulers, but Israel's war-battered industries desperately needed export markets and the possibility of lucrative trade with South Africa was hard for Defense Minister Shimon Peres to resist. As Rabin, Peres, and a new generation of leaders inherited the party from David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, the conviction that compromising certain values was necessary for survival gained sway and socialist idealism gave way to realpolitik. During the Rabin years, South African arms purchases breathed life into the Israeli economy and Israeli weapons helped to reinforce the beleaguered and isolated apartheid regime in Pretoria.

Israeli Apartheid Week: South Africa Rejoins Palestine

Mandela explicitly and clearly voiced his solidarity with the Palestinian people by saying "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians," on The International Day Of Solidarity With The Palestinian People in 1997 ("Address by President Nelson Mandela at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People," ANC website).

These soldiers of peace recognise that the world we live in is rising above the trappings of religious and racial hatred and conflict. They recognise that the spurning of agreements reached in good faith and the forceful occupation of land can only fan the flames of conflict. They know from their own experience that, it is in a situation such as this, that extremists on all sides thrive, fed by the blood lust of centuries gone by.

These Palestinian and Israeli campaigners for peace know that security for any nation is not abstract; neither is it exclusive. It depends on the security of others; it depends on mutual respect and trust. Indeed, these soldiers of peace know that their destiny is bound together, and that none can be at peace while others wallow in poverty and insecurity.

Thus, in extending our hands across the miles to the people of Palestine, we do so in the full knowledge that we are part of a humanity that is at one, that the time has come for progress in the implementation of agreements. The majority of the world community; the majority of the people of the Middle East; the majority of Israelis and Palestinians are suing for peace.

On charisma and humanity  by Alon Liel, former Israel's ambassador to South Africa

(Ynet News) - In October 1993, all ambassadors were invited to an event marking the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's arrival in South Africa. Mandela was the keynote speaker. When I approached the place, one of his assistants said to me, "Madiba (Mandela's clan name) would like to talk to you."

I entered the small room where he was learning his speech. He stood up to greet me and with an earnest expression told me excitedly, "This morning I was informed from Stockholm that De Klerk and I have won the Nobel Peace Prize for this year. I ask you, honorable ambassador, to send a telegram to Jerusalem and let your prime minister know that he is the one who deserves this prize, not me."

I was speechless. Besides the nobleness on the personal level, I suddenly realized just how affected Mandela was by the handshake between Rabin and Arafat. He clearly saw Israeli-Palestinian peace as a mission of the same magnitude of his life's challenge: Turning South Africa into a democratic country.

Mandela and Israel

The comradeship between the two struggles was highlighted by Mandela, just sixteen days after he was released from 27 long years in prison in 1990. In February 1990, Mandela met with Yasser Arafat in Lusaka in Zambia. At Lusaka airport, Mandela embraced Arafat and reiterated his support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian struggle telling the media that Arafat was "fighting against a unique form of colonialism and we wish him success in his struggle".  He went on to say, "I I believe that there are many similarities between our struggle and that of the PLO" stating "We live under a unique form of colonialism in South Africa, as well as in Israel, and a lot flows from that."

Eight months later, during his three day visit to Australia in October1990, Mandela reiterated his support for the Palestinian struggle and the PLO saying, "We identify with them [the Palestinians] because we do not believe it is right for the Israeli government to suppress basic human rights in the conquered territories."

Mandela told the Australian media, "We agree with the United Nations that international disputes should be settled by peaceful means. The belligerent attitude which is adopted by the Israeli government is to us unacceptable."

He went on to tell the Australia media that the ANC did not consider the PLO a terrorist group, stating "If one has to refer to any of the parties as a terrorist state, one might refer to the Israeli government, because they are the people who are slaughtering defenceless and innocent Arabs in the occupied territories, and we don't regard that as acceptable."

From the Archive: Nelson Mandela and the Jews

○ Nelson Mandela, Iconic Leader for Jews of South Africa -- and World  by Richard Goldstone
○ Memories of Mandela from a Zionist Childhood  by J.J. Goldberg
○ Nelson Mandela: Iconic Figure Not Always Perfect Leader -- Especially for Jews  by Dana Evan Kaplan

Mandela gebruikte zijn statuur als icoon, en leefde het als een acteur die zijn rol wordt. "Mandela's politieke acties waren onderdeel van een voorstelling", schreef politicoloog Tom Lodge in Mandela, a critical life. "Zelfbewust gepland en gescript om aan publieke verwachtingen te voldoen."
[Tom Lodge Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies Dean, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Limerick - see more thorough essay below]

...
De Klerk heeft het debat minutieus voorbereid en is een uur lang de meerdere van Mandela. Maar als het debat op het einde loopt, leunt Mandela voorover en vraagt om de hand van De Klerk. "De problemen van dit land zullen we samen wel oplossen", glimlacht Mandela. Met die handdruk en die warme lach, vloerde hij De Klerk genadeloos. Dit was de stijl-Mandela. Verzoening als machtspolitiek.

Of course, during his lifetime his image was larger than reality. His incarceration and freedom was more than symbolism of an oppressed people who gained hope of a free society. Compare SA with the Soviet Union during the first decade after the fall of Communism. Those years were an extreme challenge for society and government. Mandela had to start from scratch and could not have mirrored Mugabe and Rhodesia by nationalizing farms, corporations or mines. Just as in Europe, the Third Way gave away union and labor rights, what would you expect from South Africa and Mandela. A Cuban Revolution?

South Africa is divided by tribal loyalties besides the black-white split in population. Apartheid also meant living in townships and travel bans. Having suffered under colonial rule, a decade is much too short to judge the effort by Mandela as first president of a new SA.

○ Nelson Mandela And The Virtue Of Compromise
○ Nelson Mandela: assessing the icon   by Tom Lodge (2008)

A reply to discussion started by Bjinse @ET in diary - Nelson Mandela RIP.

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How it started?
On March 27, 2001, Thomas Friedman wrote a column in the style of a 'mock memo' entitled Bush's First Memo. In this 'mock memo' Thomas Friedman writes in the name of U.S. President George W. Bush A Memo to Palestinian President Yasir Arafat. Arjan El Fassed wrote in the the 'mock memo' style that Friedman himself liked to use and offered Nelson Mandela responding to Friedman's [Bush] Memo to Yasser Arafat.

Mandela's first memo to Thomas Friedman  (30 March 2001)

Since Thomas Friedman tells his readers that Palestinians should forget about 1948 and forget about returning to their homes, I wanted to show that current policies against Palestinians resemble an apartheid-like situation. Since Nelson Mandela has become the personification of the struggle against apartheid, I thought a 'mock memo' including Mandela was the logical thing to do. I could also have taken Steven Biko who has said that "the most potential weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" or Oliver Tambo or others anti-apartheid activists.

Soon, however, I found the 'mock memo' I wrote and which clearly indicated that I wrote it, on various listservers and websites but without the byline mentioning that it was in fact written by me. This led to a vast confusion amongst editors of newspapers in many countries ...

What Nelson Mandela indeed has said

"It is completely wrong that the United States must be the mediator in this conflict. Everybody knows the United States is a friend of Israel."

"As far as we are concerned what is being done to the Palestinians is a matter of grave concern. We are the friends of Yasser Arafat. We are the friends of the Palestinians. We support their struggle" (Reuters, 1 June 2001, Mandela, speaking at a news conference after talks with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin).

"Israel should withdraw from the areas which it won from the Arabs -- the Golan Heights, south Lebanon and the West Bank -- that is the price of peace" (Dispatch, 20 October 1999)

"Our men and women with vision choose peace rather than confrontation, except in cases where we cannot get, where we cannot proceed, where we cannot move forward. Then, if the only alternative is violence, we will use violence" (Associated Press , 20 October 1999)

"The histories of our two peoples, Palestinian and South African, correspond in such painful and poignant ways, that I intensely feel myself being at home amongst compatriots" (Associated Press , 20 October 1999)

"The long-standing fraternal bonds between our two liberation movements are now translating into the relations between two governments" (Associated Press, 20 October 1999)

Address by President Nelson Mandela at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Pretoria, 4 December 1997

h/t to Mondoweiss - Israel apologists attempted to discredit Mandela with false Israel apartheid quote.

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Back-up or bagman Edelstein will travel to the Mandela memorial service in Johannesburg.

○ 'South Africans Don't Hate Israel, They Hate Oppression'
○ Knesset speaker boycotts Hollande's Israel visit

Have a peaceful cultural summer

Obama's Complete Nelson Mandela Memorial Speech

(BBC News) - "It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner but the jailer," US President Barack Obama said to a standing ovation. He said Nelson Mandela embodied the sprit of "uBuntu", which means "I am because you are."

YouTube video - Obama's Mandela Memorial Speech .

Thousands braved the unseasonably cold weather and rain to pay their respects to the country's first black president at the FNB stadium in Soweto. The crowds were in high spirits but were asked to "behave" after booing President Jacob Zuma a number of times.

Remarks of President Barack Obama - As Prepared for Delivery