Nadine Gordimer on her decision to participate in "Israel at 60 Celebrations"

By Dr. Haidar Eid


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Dear Ms. Gordimer,

I am a Palestinian lecturer in Cultural Studies living in Gaza.

I happen to also have South African citizenship as a result of my

marriage to a citizen of that beloved country. I spent more than

five years in Johannesburg, the city in which I earned my Ph.D

and lectured at both traditionally black and white universities.

At Vista in Soweto, I taught your anti-apartheid novels

My Son's Story, July's People and The Late Bourgeois World.

I have been teaching the same novels, in addition to The

Pick Up and Selected Stories, to my Palestinian students in

Gaza at Al-Aqsa University. This course is called "Resistance,

Anti-Racism and Xenophobia". I deliberately chose to teach

your novels because, as an anti-apartheid writer, you defied

racial stereotypes by calling for resistance against all forms

of oppression, be they racial or religious. Your support of

sanctions against apartheid South Africa has, to say the l

east, impressed my Gazan students.

The news of your conscious decision to take part in the

"Israel at 60" celebrations has reached us, students and

citizens of Gaza, as both a painful surprise, and a glaring

example of a hypocritical intellectual double standard. My

students, psychologically and emotionally traumatized and

already showing early signs of malnutrition as a result of

the genocidal policy of the country whose birth you intend

celebrating, demand an explanation.

They wonder in amazement that you might have missed

Archbishop Tutu's contention that conditions in

Israeli-occupied Palestine are worse than those under

apartheid? They ask how you can ignore John Dugard's

dispassionate and insightful report on the dismal state of

Human Rights in the Occupied Territories? Surely, you have

not been unaware of Ronnie Kasrils' writings following his

latest visit to Gaza and the West Bank? Like you, these

three men, all South Africans, were also active in the

fight against racism and apartheid. Dugard's words on

Palestine are very significant: "I certainly have a sense

of déjà vu... The sad thing is that Israel is unwilling to

learn from the South African precedent." In an article

titled, "Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped,"

Dugard observed that the human rights situation in the

occupied territories continues to deteriorate and called

the conditions "intolerable, appalling, and tragic for

ordinary Palestinians." Significantly, Dugard made shocking

parallels between the situation in the Palestine and your

country South Africa under apartheid: "Many aspects of

Israel's occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime.

Israel's large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling

of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted

assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar

practices in apartheid South Africa." Moreover, in its

final declaration, the World Conference against Racism

(WCAR) NGO forum, held in Durban in 2001, stated that:

"We declare Israel as a racist, apartheid state in which

Israel's brand of apartheid as a crime against humanity

has been characterized by separation and segregation,

dispossession, restricted land access, denationalization,

‘bantustanization' and inhumane acts."

You are no doubt aware of Israel's deep ties with apartheid

South Africa, during which Israel, breaking the international

embargo, supplied South Africa with hundreds of millions of

dollars of weapons. Apartheid South Africa relied on

apartheid Israel to persuade Western governments to lift

the embargo. How did you relate to Israel during that

period and what was your position regarding countries

and individuals that did not support the policy of isolating

apartheid South Africa? You were surely critical of the

infamous policy of 'constructive engagement' led by

Thatcher and Reagan at the height of the struggle in

the 80s? And today, inexplicably, you have joined the

ranks of sanctions busters.

The eminent Palestinian, Edward Said, who gave you his

friendship, would have been dismayed by your decision.

He named you as a model for what he called, "oppositional

intellectuals." It was his strong belief that, with regard to

Israel, "[i]t only takes a few bold spirits to speak out and

start challenging a status quo that gets worse and more

dissembling each day." Little did he know that you would

fail the oppressed in Palestine.

My cold and hungry students have divided themselves into

two groups, with one group adamant that you, like many of

your courageous characters, will reconsider your

participation in an Israeli Festival that aims to celebrate the

annihilation of Palestine and Palestinians. The other group

believes that you have already crossed over to the side of

the oppressor, negating every word you have ever written.

We all wait for your next action.

Dr. Haidar Eid

Gaza, Palestine

Dr. Haidar Eid is an Associate Professor in the
Department of English Literature, Al-Aqsa University,
Gaza Strip, Palestine.