"Support the Arab Cause"
A Statement by Alfred Nzo, Secretary General of the African National Congress of South Africa on behalf of African Liberation Movements at The World Conference of Solidarity with the Arab People and the Central Issue - "The Palestine" question - Lisbon 2-6 November 1979.
The last half of the present decade is marked by a massive upsurge of the movements of the oppressed and exploited people the world over, for genuine independence, peace and social progress. Faced with this mounting offensive of the democratic and peace loving forces of the world, imperialism is resorting to different strategies, diversions and .deceptions, in order to halt th forward march of the progressive forces and to hinder its victorious climax.
In no other regions of the world is this policy of imperialism more marked and more similar than in its policies in the Middle East and in Southern Africa. In both regions the present phase of struggle is marked by the acceleration of armed struggle deep insid Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Israel and by open political and diplomatic confrontation in the international arena. In both regions, the only way the enemy attempts to throttle the people's march to freedom is through open terror, execution by hanging, shooting down of unarmed demonstrators and strikers, torture and detention without trial of all political opponents, wholesale imposition of prison sentences, bannings and house arrest of all patriotic forces. Externally it is through open and unprovoke aggression against the neighbouring states - Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Lebanon and Syria. But the ruthlessness terro and open aggression of the oppressors has not been able to hold back the swelling tide for freedom or put a halt to the victorious march of the progressive forces in both regions. What, perhaps, the violation of all human rights by the oppressive regimes in bot regions has glaringly shown, is the desperation of the enemy and its international isolation.
Isolated by the international community and openly condemned by all peace loving and democratic people the world over, the racists in Pretoria and Salisbury and the Zionists in Tel Aviv have resorted to strengthening their bilateral ties and close cooperation with international imperialism.
It is perhaps noteworthy to remember that both in Southern Africa and in Palestine, the problems of racism and colonialism ar inherited from the past. In South Africa there is the legacy of 300 years of racism under colonial and settler rule formalised by the British handing over of power to the white minority 70 years ago and institutionalised with the coming to power of the aparthei regime in 1948.
In Palestine, there is the legacy of British colonialism. More tha thirty years of the rule of the reactionary Afrikaner Nationalist Party in South Africa and more than 30 years of the existence of the State of Israel have served to justify the worst fears of all democratic and peace loving forces of the world that South Africa and Israel stand in the forefront of those states whose policies constitute a threat to the peace, progress and prosperity of the world.
Both Zionism and Afrikaner Nationalism propagate the concept of a "chosen people", specially created by God to lead their adherents to "New Jerusalems". Hence it is not surprising to find Zionist accepting the theory of apartheid as a reasonable solution to South Africa's race problems. This is how they would like to solve their so called "Arab Problem".
The Zionists and the white racist South Africans also find common ground in their attitudes to dark skinned people. Although some Zionist groups might be describing themselves as "socialists", in all the decisive struggles of the revolutionary movements, Zionist have always sided with imperialism against the international anti-imperialist movement - against national liberation.
Israel's policy towards her neighbouring Arab states clearly unmasks the true nature and character of the regime in Tel Aviv. It is this blatant arrogance, this open aggressiveness towards her neighbours and the ruthless oppression and exploitation of the Arab people of Palestine which compares Israel more and more to apartheid South Africa. The essence is that under the influence of exclusive nationalist ideologies both Afrikaner nationalists and Israeli Zionists, think and act towards the indigenous majoritie in their countries and towards their neighbouring states with the callous inhumanity of all who consider others to be of "inferior races " and less human .
Cooperation between the regimes in Pretoria and Tel Aviv has been widened and strengthened in all fields since 1948. Since June 1967 their scope has widened further, with groups of volunteers, together with material aid from racist South Africa, pouring into the occupied territories. Since 1968 there has been a notable increase in trade between the two regimes, including an expansion of El-Al Airlines and South African air services. A considerable increase in exchanges has been marked in other spheres of activity as well.
The climax in this trend was reached in 1972 when South Africa decided to open a diplomatic mission in Tel Aviv and to establish its consular Commerce Section there. During the 1973 Israeli aggression against Arab countries, South Africa sent 1,500 volunteer troops via London to aid the Zionists in their October war of aggression. Only during this time South Africa's contribution to the zionist cause, amounted to a total of 30 million dollars. Thousands of white South Africans were imported to work in Kibbutzim, as a replacement for those zionists fighting in the Zionist army during the war. Cooperation and collaboration between the two regimes has also extended towards the exchange o technological know-how in the field of nuclear energy and armament. As a result of this, South Africa has become one of the Zionists' major trading partners and war allies.
Faced with this blatant and open aggression, the violation of all basic freedoms, the suppression of their right to self 'determination and the intransigency of the regimes in Southern Africa and Israel, the people led by their time tested vanguard movements, the Patriotic Front in Zimbabwe, SWAPO in Namibia, ANC in South Africa and the PLO in Palestine, had no alternative but t intensify their struggle in all spheres of confrontation.
The intensification of armed resistance and the application of all forms of struggle, including the political and diplomatic confrontation of the enemy in the international arena by the democratic forces of the Middle East and Southern Africa has put imperialism in a dilemma. The long drawn struggles in Palestine, as in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa has produced revolutionaries who are determined never to compromise on principle with imperialism. It is for this reason that imperialism is in a state of panic and is feverishly searching for a political device which will dampen the revolutionary edge of the people's struggle. Imperialism is deeply concerned with the developing class character of the liberation movements and their growing anti imperialist posture, which it considers as a permanent threat to its interest in both regions.
The growing and unabated resistance of the democratic forces in both regions has forced imperialism to recognise the fact that in Southern Africa just as in Palestine and the whole of the Middle East, naked and open colonial and racist rule can no longer be maintained. The oppressed and exploited people in both regions have fully demonstrated in practice, in full view of the whole world, that they are determined to achieve victory at any expense. This has forced the imperialist and racist circles to grudgingly accede to change.
Thus while irnperialism recognises that the time for the setting up of an independent state of Palestine and for the decolonisation of Southern Africa has come, it wants a state of affairs which will leave its interests, its hegemony and its power in both region intact. A form of liberation therefore, which will be incomplete and fraudulent, leaving both peoples of Africa and the Middle East bound hand and foot to the imperialist system of economic, military and political exploitation and domination.
It is in this light that the Camp David Agreements, the Anglo American initiative in Zimbabwe, the five Western powers' initiative on Namibia and the Bantustanisation and the lifting of petty apartheid in South Africa should be seen.
Further it should not be forgotten that in both regions, the USA has been the initiator if not playing the leading role in implementing the new imperialist policy. The whole policy is being carried out under the cloak of "American concern for peace in the Middle East" and for "majority rule and human rights" for the oppressed majorities in Southern Africa. Although the USA claims to be concerned about the so called 'Soviet influence" in Southern Africa and the Middle East, the struggling peoples in both areas know and are fully convinced that the Soviet Union has never been and never will be a threat to any people fighting for independenc and social liberation. She has been, remains and will always remain a friend to all peoples fighting for national independence and sovereignty. The actual aim of the policy is to keep the people of Southern Africa, Palestine, the whole Middle East and the whole of independent Africa within the sphere of USA influence. Herein lies the core of the whole problem.
The whole policy is a total denial of the rights of the people of Southern Africa and Palestine to self determination and to th establishment of their own sovereign states under the authority of their authentic liberation movements, PLO, SWAPO, the Patriotic Front and the ANC. It sanctions the continued domination of Southern Africa by the South African racist regime and of the Middle East by Israel.
In the Middle East the Camp David Accords threaten not only the Palestinian people and the PLO but also all the Arab peoples and the whole Arab national liberation movement. They undermine everything achieved by the arduous 30 years struggle of the Arab liberation movement and enable the imperialists and reactionarie to reinstitute their domination over the area with the aim of turning the Arab countries into bases for aggression against the socialist countries, the progressive neighbouring countries and in particular against the liberation movements in Africa.
A just and durable peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through total Israeli withdrawal from the Arab territories occupied in 1967 and the solution of the Palestinian problem in accordanc with various international resolutions which state that the essence of the Middle East question is the Palestinian question. These resolutions recognise the right of the Palestinian people to return to their homes and property to exercise their right of self determination and to the establishment of their independent stat under their sole and authentic representative, the PLO.
A just settlement of the Palestinian problem will inevitably contribute directly or indirectly towards the democratic solution of our problem in Southern Africa or vice versa. Hence the need fo closer cooperation between struggling people of Palestine and all the liberation movements in Southern Africa.
It is in this light that we denounce the Tel Aviv government polic of aggression and adventurism, which culminates in measures of expansion, annexation and creation of colonies on the territories of Palestinian and Arab peoples occupied by Israel. We denounc this policy as being responsible for the explosive situation in the middle East and for being a menace to peace in the world. We warn the international community against the dangers inherent in this aggressive and adventurist policy, for another confrontation in the Middle East will have repercussions far beyond this region.