fighting apartheid

Last night, I was watching the movie Catch a Fire. This is the story of a Black South African oil worker in the early 1980's.

Framed and fixed up by the White South African police, Patrick is tortured and his wife brutalised, until finally he joins the ANC to become the terrorist that he never was. In one poignant schene, Patrick is taken from the interrogation cell to eat at the table of the brutal police Colonel's family home and then made to see his children from the policecar playing outside their rundown shack in a township, before chosing the life of resistance which leads to the loss of all the things he holds precious.

The major themes include how a white policeman can be a loving father and on the other hand a sadistic murdering bastard whose only aim is to destroy terrorists. Another is how someone who only wants to keep his head down is forced by circumstance to become politically radicalised.

I have said before that Israel/Palestine is not South Africa and the experiences are not the same as apartheid. I am now not sure - there seem to me to be dramatic similarities.

The Israelis hold all the power, are engaged in legalised murder and torture. The Palestinians are radicalised and engaged in acts of awful violence. The Israelis want to project themselves as modern, westernised and under attack from terrorists and those who hate them. The Palestinians want to be seen as freedom fighters aiming for a better world for their children.

Like South Africa, however, violence is not going to resolve the issues. We need a politician with the stature of Mandela to lead his people to freedom.