Former judge Richard Goldstone, author of the Goldstone report, chastises those who use the ‘canard’ of Israeli apartheid in a ‘calculated’ attempt to retard peace talks and deny terrorist attacks (1). Kopty and Rahman (2) and Ben White (3) say Goldstone is missing the point – the reality of Israeli state power in the occupied territories.

A visitor from Abahlali, the Durban shack-dwellers’ movement,, witnesses a house demolition in Palestine, and makes connections with what oppresion means, from Palestine to South Africa and on….

What did the Proms protest achieve? First, two blogs from Zionist Federation co-chairman Jonathan Hoffman (who was ejected from the concert for waving an Israeli flag) then a hard-argued debate between the editor of Israeli Occupation Archive and critics including Tony Greenstein

South African Shafiq Morton found much of his critique of Zionist blindness was no longer controversial. The sticking point for his readers was Hamas;despite experience with the ANC of the gap between demagoguery and practical negotiation they could not hear the nuance.

Last February, guitarist Dave Randall said on South African radio ‘Twenty years ago I would not have played in apartheid South Africa; today I refuse to play in Israel. Be on the right side of history.’ Complaints were made. Today they have been rejected

Young Palestinians see the BDS campaign as the key to a mass movement at home and links with people abroad. The campaign against apartheid South Africa is their inspiration, yet the home-grown leadership of the BDS work is vital

Doc Jazz, inspired by South Africa to create the Musical Intifada, applauds ‘Freedom for Palestine’ – see this page -and the power of music to bring courage and hope

The University of Johannesburg took the momentous decision last week to break off institutional relations with Ben Gurion University. We posted materials on the debate around this issue last October. In this posting there is a news report on the decision and immediate reactions to it, John Strawson’s Engage posting critical of the decision; and Ran Greenstein’s reflective analysis of some issues around the academic boycott, sparked off by this recent decision.

In the face of the US veto at the Security Council last week, Jeff Halper argues that “the United States simply cannot deliver on a just peace in Israel/Palestine”, that even if Obama, Petraeus and the rest “understand that Israel’s occupation is unsustainable and only isolates the US in the international community”, they cannot deliver – because of the overwhelming support for Israel in both Houses: “Unlike other foreign policy issues, Israel has become a domestic American issue.”

The US should no longer be “seen as the sole and ultimate arbitrator of the conflict”: instead we and the Palestinians should be looking for ways of “Working around America”, with Latin America, Turkey, South Africa, Russia, all of which are making interesting noises about the conflict…

The attempt by prominent Zionists in South Africa to denounce Archbishop Tutu as antisemitic and force the South African Holocaust Foundation to dismiss him as a patron has been seen off. Thanks to the over five thousand who signed a petition in his support, including former chief justice Arthur Chaskalson, human rights lawyer Joel Joffe, Annie Lennox, Adam Hochschild, Andrew Feinstein, Neve Gordon, Justice Albie Sachs, Zackie Achmat, Justice Dennis Davis, Geoff Budlender, Barbara Hogan, Pregs Govender and Jan Kavan.

An appeal from South Africa: Archbishop Tutu has been labeled an “anti-Semite” and a “bigot”. Please read the appeal and sign the petition in his support.

In October Archbishop Desmond Tutu appealed to the Cape Town’s renowned opera troupe to cancel a performance of Porty and Bess in Israel in November. The opera company refused and the performance went ahead – with a highly creative flashmob protest in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, in South Africa the Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein wrote an Open letter to Tutu saying there was ‘no apartheid in Israel’. Allan Boesak & Farid Esack responded.

CodePink reports on the successes of its Boycott Ahava campaign to date and call for renewed energy and exertion in the months ahead… Seven Brooklyn rabbis wrote to the campaign claiming that the kibbutz Mizpeh Shalom, where Ahava is based, is in Area C of the West Bank, so it is all right. Brooklyn for Peace answered politely but firmly, pointing out the error in the rabbis’ position…

Chris McGreal reports: “Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state’s possession of nuclear weapons…”

Gary Younge writes: “To rubbish the former judge’s report on Gaza, Israel has dredged up his record in South Africa – while forgetting its own.”

We recently linked to Sasha Polakow-Suransky’s defence of Richard Godlstone in a posting on “The Get Goldstone campaign”. Here veteran anti-apartheid campaigner Benjamin Pogrund reviews Polakow-Suransky’s new book, “The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship With Apartheid South Africa”.

The Jerusalem Post asked former Chief Justice of South Africa, Arthur Chaskalson for a comment about recent allegations against Richard Goldstone. This is an edited and somewhat longer version of his email, to which he attached a statement made previously by him and Advocate George Bizos SC, one of the foremost human rights lawyers in South Africa with a world wide reputation. The statement was made in response to unfounded attacks on Justice Goldstone’s character following the publication of the report on Gaza…

A new personal attack is being mounted against Justice Goldstone, accusing him of crimes under apartheid. As Sasha Polakow-Suransky of Foreign Policy writes: “Goldstone’s apartheid-era judicial rulings are undoubtedly a blot on his record, but his critics never mention the crucial part he played in shepherding South Africa through its democratic transition and warding off violent threats to a peaceful transfer of power — a role that led Nelson Mandela to embrace him and appoint him to the country’s highest court. More importantly, [Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny] Ayalon’s and [Knesset Speaker Reuven] Rivlin’s moralism conveniently ignores Israel’s history of arming the apartheid regime from the mid-1970s until the early 1990s…

Justice Goldstone writes: “It would have been hypocritical for me not to speak out about Israeli violations of international law simply because I am Jewish…”

Two evaluations of the South African Jewish community’s Goldstone scandal: Larry Derfner “What the South African Jewish community did last week was shameful” published in the Jerusalem Post on 22nd April 2010; and Gilad Isaacs “What South African Community Leaders Should Have Done – The Goldstone Scandal” published on Mondoweiss on 25 April 2010…