By Nurah Tape – The Palestine Chronicle 
“It is without a doubt not just genocide washing, it is not just Israeli apologists, it is spitting on the struggle of Palestinian people, on real progressive Israelis like Ilan Pappe who are not trying to defend their government.”
A conference scheduled to take place in South Africa next week touted to provide “meaningful dialogue” for peace in the Middle East has been slammed as “genocide washing” by “Israeli apologists” and a page out of the “Zionist playbook.”
“Essentially what you have is a very sophisticated piece of sophistry that is occurring, and what you are doing is you are acting like you are creating dialogue, when in actual fact you are not accepting that there is a genocide taking place,” Donovan Williams of the South African BDS coalition told the Palestine Chronicle on Thursday.
Williams said the organizers “are making it seem that the only people that regard it as a genocide are radicals. But that the organizers are moderate liberal voices,” who debate “not just whether there is a genocide, but how do you resolve this matter, like it’s an equal conflict, and not a war and genocide on Palestinians.”
In that regard, he added, “What it then does, (is) it removes the people struggling, the people being oppressed, the people being killed and murdered, and this is how you wash away the idea that it is a genocide, that you can have a dialogue, a very nice civil dialogue on matters.”
‘Stellar Lineup of Experts’
The African Global Dialogues conference, organized by the New South Institute is its “signature annual event” aimed at addressing major political and policy challenges relevant to South Africa and the Global South, according to the NSI website.
This year’s conference from September 18 to 20, is “aimed at” addressing the “Narrative Conditions Towards Peace in the Middle East,” and lists “a stellar lineup of experts” from around the world, the NSI said, including Benny Morris, an Israeli professor based at the Ben-Gurion University.
“Join celebrated global leaders and scholars in meaningful dialogue to foster sustainable peace,” states the conference website.
We are excited to announce our second round of exceptional experts who will be leading key conversations on September 18-20. Click the link to register for the LIVE broadcast: https://t.co/VJTete7izn #HIPI #MiddleEast #PublicPolicy #Democracy #AfricanGlobalDialogue #Global pic.twitter.com/TNnzyugcOV
— African Global Dialogues (@AG_Dialogues) September 10, 2024
Williams said “this is basically being Israeli apologists and genocide apologists. So this is sophisticated sophistry. It is taking place at a time when all over the world, there is an acceptance that Israel is wrong.”
He pointed out that even in countries where the governments are major supporters of Israel “the people are standing up to their governments saying this is wrong.”
Williams further said “It is without a doubt not just genocide washing, it is not just Israeli apologists, it is spitting on the struggle of Palestinian people, on real progressive Israelis like Ilan Pappe and so forth, who are not trying to defend their government and their people in any matter whatsoever. So it is without a doubt genocide-washing.”
‘Radicalized Discourse’
The outline for the conference refers to “the physical assault on Israel on the 7th of October and the subsequent Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza,” adding that “the public discourse on Israel/Palestine has radicalized in crude and violent ways.”
“I think what they’re trying to do by using this kind of name and talking about narratives and moderates …, they’re trying to paint the pro-Palestine movement as essentially based on emotion and one-sided and not considered, said Josh Marcus of the SA Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) organization.
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“Whereas they, on the other hand, are promoting themselves as having discussions about this, willing to speak to everyone, which is why they’ve got all these names on their list who seemingly are not coming,” he added.
Marcus told The Palestine Chronicle that “we’ve heard from a number of people who are listed on their website as speakers that they’re not going to, that they haven’t actually heard of the conference in the first place.”
Listed Speakers Unaware
His statement concurs with that of the BDS coalition which said, in a press release, that “African Global Dialogue has attempted to lend credibility to the conference by listing a number of people as speakers, participants and invitees, most of whom have no intention of attending, disagree with the aims of the conference or have no knowledge at all of the event.”
“These people include Minister Ronald Lamola, Siphamandla Zondi, Philani Mthembu, Imraan Valodia, Adebayo Olukoshi, Kuben Naidoo, Saths Cooper, Achille Mbembe, Zeblon Vilakazi, Ferial Haffejee, Lebohang Lieopollo Pheko and others,” the statement said.
According to the statement, Pheko, a political economist, said: “This is nefarious…people that I’ve spoken to on that list know nothing about it…and certainly are not sympathetic to Zionist apologetics… myself included.”
Marcus further said “I think it’s the Zionist playbook, as we’ve always seen it. They bring speakers who, they often use the whiteness of the speakers and Jewishness to imply that these are experts, these are the people who know what they’re talking about.
“And they don’t give the Palestinian perspective because part of the Zionist project and the propaganda from the beginning has been to pretend that there is no Palestinian perspective. The erasure has been, or the attempt at erasure has been complete.”
‘Progressive’ vs Right-Wing Zionism
He said that many, like himself, who have attended Jewish schools “were taught that there were no people in the land when the Jews arrived there. And we were taught that the Nakba didn’t happen, not only that it didn’t happen, but it wasn’t presented to us as something that was even a consideration.”
“So at a conference like this, or at any Zionist conference, they cannot have speakers from who they consider the other side, because they don’t have space for those narratives.”
Marcus explained that “the threat” of this conference, or what the general public often thinks is that right-wing Zionists, are “the most extreme ones are the biggest threat, because they are the ones who openly want to commit genocide.”
“But from our perspective, it is the liberal Zionists who are the biggest threat, because they normalize Zionism. Without them, this genocide couldn’t go ahead, because America and all of the nations supporting it will have a very difficult time selling it if every single face of the genocide was Smotrich or Ben-Gvir,” he said.
Marcus added, “A conference like this which seeks to present Zionism as this system which is progressive is particularly dangerous. So our approach is to show why it is not just not progressive but that it is as racist and as problematic as right-wing Zionism is.”
‘No Authentic Voices’
The BDS coalition also criticized the line-up of speakers at the event saying the conference website names a number of pro-Zionist speakers including Benny Morris, from Ben Gurion University in Israel,”a Zionist genocide apologist whom Ilan Pappé and Norman Finkelstein eviscerated for his racist anti-Palestinian statements and support for genocide.”
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Williams said “There are no authentic voices there, there is no acceptance of Palestinian leadership both Fatah and Hamas…they are united as we saw them get together in Beijing” in July signing a unity agreement, adding “and yet you cannot invite them.”
BDS called the conference “a feeble attempt to undermine South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)” saying it comes shortly before South Africa presents its 500-page memorial dossier to the World Court.
“It should be seen alongside Israel’s attempt to put pressure on the US Congress to stop South Africa from pursuing its legal case at the ICJ,” the movement stressed.
Choice of Venue
Constitution Hill, the choice of the venue for the conference, has also come under fire since it is the seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
“We hope that Constitution Hill will not allow this event to take place and call on people to boycott this attempt to undermine the global campaign against genocide and the Palestinian call for international solidarity through boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS),” the movement said.
BDS said that under “the guise of promoting so-called ‘dialogue’ in South Africa, this conference is aimed at demonizing the right of Palestinians to resist 75 years of settler colonialism, occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide.”
It pointed out that the conference takes place “mere weeks” before the one-year mark since the massive escalation of Israel’s 76-year genocidal campaign against Palestinians, “in which we have witnessed displays of deplorable inhumanity, along with the devastation of Gaza’s infrastructure and the increasing pogroms and terror in the West Bank.”
Over 40,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza over the last 11 months through direct bombing and “many more will die of illness and starvation.”
The SA BDS Coalition and others intend to demonstrate against the conference if it goes ahead.
The Palestine Chronicle could not reach the media liaison for the conference at the time of publication.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Nurah Tape is a South Africa-based journalist. She is an editor with The Palestine Chronicle.
The height of insolence occurring here.These South African ‘Chosenites’ are lucky to be even living there, considering their attitude towards the indigenous where they actively supported apartheid and violence against during the old regime. This crowd have definitely had their prominent noses pushed out of place with SA’s effort with the ICC, now resorting to subterfuge, lying and outright slander against decent people who want nothing to do with them.
Hide yourself well in your wealthy walled estates you crowd. One day the piper may come to collect his dues off you with machetes and sledgehammers as a means of persuasion for you to ‘see the light’ of the error of your ways, Gaza style.
Yes hitting the mark and exposing the crudity grifters of liberal Zionism in their nefarious cheap support for genocide. The playbook of Goebbels.