By Dr Mamphele Ramphele
The ghastly pictures of famine coming out of Gaza are reminiscent of the pictures of emaciated Jews who survived concentration camps during the Second World War.
That, within a few generations, the descendants of concentration camp victims can perpetrate a mass starvation strategy on top of a genocidal military strategy, while the world watches on TV and does nothing, is an indictment on all of humanity.
The vast majority of the world’s Jewry do not associate themselves with Zionism or barbarity, and most do not live in Israel. But they, too, will be scarred by the slipping of the mask of cultured and resilient humanity that Israel has sought to symbolise and project for nearly 80 years. Israel’s
actions today will fuel anti-Semitism for generations to come.
Benjamin Netenyahu is a rogue Prime Minister presiding over a rogue state that regards Palestinians as lesser human beings.
His support in Israel is, by all accounts, dwindling, as is the support of many nations who, until recently, Israel would have regarded as its friends.
But, no matter how many countries join South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, or how many leaders announce plans to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, Netenyahu is secure in the knowledge that successive US administrations have used their veto powers at the UN to continue arming and protecting him.
The people of Israel can’t leave it to others; they must remove Netenyahu from power and re-assert Jewish humanity, themselves.
They must chart a new course of inter-dependency based on a recognition of collective and separate histories, on the principles of human rights and just war… a new course of common and equal humanity in which apartheid policies, military skirmishing, hostages, genocide and famine are unthinkable.
“My plea to the people of Israel is to see beyond the moment, to see beyond the anger at feeling perpetually under siege, to see a world in which Israel and Palestine can coexist – a world in which mutual dignity and respect reign.
“It requires a mind-set shift… that recognizes that attempting to perpetuate the current status quo is to damn future generations to violence and insecurity. A mind-set shift that stops regarding legitimate criticism of a state’s policies as an attack on Judaism. A mind-set shift that begins at home and ripples out across communities and nations and regions – to the Diaspora scattered across the world we share. The only world we share.”
These words ring even truer today than when written by the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and published by Haaretz 11 years ago.
* Dr Ramphele is the Chairperson of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Intellectual Property Trust…
Posted 26 August 2025
