For millions of Muslims and millions more supporters of Palestine’s legitimate struggle for freedom around the world, Sinwar’s martyrdom may mark the end of a legendary anti-colonial warrior, but not the end of the resistance against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
The history of the struggles against slavery, racism, fascism, imperialism and colonialism, including our own in South Africa against apartheid, teaches us about the colossal price paid by people as they fight for freedom and justice.
Our memories are filled with names of fallen heroes and heroines.
We remember David Webster, for example, who was assassinated by the Pretoria apartheid regime’s security branch nine months before Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. The regime justified his murder in the same language used by apartheid Israel: that he deserved to die because he was involved in “terrorist activities”.
And we remember the unjust death by hanging of Solomon Mahlangu. He joined the African National Congress (ANC) and was sent to Mozambique to be trained as part of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s military wing, which was founded after the Sharpeville massacre, when South African apartheid police shot into a peaceful demonstration, killing 69 and wounding 180. Mahlangu received his training in Angola and Mozambique, and returned to South Africa in 1977 to join the student protests, as recorded in various reports.
His last words that undoubtedly have echoed across the Occupied Palestinian Territory were: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom. Tell my people that I love them. They must continue the fight.”
We also remember the murder of Steve Biko following severe beatings and torture by apartheid forces while in in police custody. The killing of the iconic anti-apartheid activist sparked global outrage and worldwide protests, and led to a UN arms embargo.
The list of such icons is long: Ahmed Timol, Imam Abdullah Haroon, Solwandle Looksmart Ngudle, Alfred Mabake Makaleng, Suliman Saloojee and Joseph Mdluli are just some of those who were brutally killed by the apartheid state while in police custody. Charlotte Maxeke, Helen Joseph, Lillian Ngoyi and Fatima Meer stand tall among the heroines who faced and opposed apartheid’s unjust laws.
Similar and even worse laws exist in apartheid Israel today.
They allow the regime to detain Palestinian men, women and children without trial; subject them to horrific torture; steal their land; demolish their homes; and kill them, all with impunity granted by the international community.
The monstrosity that is the Zionist state led by US-proxy Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to liquidate all Palestinians and their legitimate cause. The son of a Polish immigrant family called Mileikowsky, Netanyahu has a track record of state terrorism steeped in hatred of Palestinians. This has become even more evident in the relentless slaughter taking place as the occupation state carries out its horrific genocide in Gaza. The cruelty of the bloody massacres perpetrated by his thugs across Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and the wider region has left reasonable people gasping in disbelief.
Yet it is a fact of history that the settler-colonial regime is built upon Zionist terrorism and the gruesome ethnic cleansing and extermination of the indigenous Palestinian population. It does this because its supporters in the US and the West allow it to do so.
Netanyahu may enjoy the support of racists within the corridors of power in Western Europe, America and the Zionist lobby groups in South Africa, but not the rest of the world’s majority who resent his evil barbarism.
“You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming,” said Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda. Freedom fighters the world over know the truth of his words. It’s a lesson that inhuman Zionists cannot comprehend.
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