Sunday Times 2
From some, Mandela praise masks a darker past
View(s):Jerusalem (AFP)- World leaders have heaped praise on the late Nelson Mandela, but among the countries paying tribute are some that had long backed the South African apartheid regime that jailed him.
Many of the eulogies for the iconic peacemaker have glossed over Western support for the white supremacist regime in Pretoria during the Cold War, when Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) were blacklisted as Soviet proxies.
A Palestinian youth holds a portait of Nelson Mandela, during a candle vigil in Gaza City on December 8 (AFP)
Israel was one of South Africa’s closest allies at a time when Pretoria was facing UN-led sanctions, maintaining defence ties which also benefitted an authoritarian anti-communist regime in Taiwan.
Fear of communism prompted Britain’s Margaret Thatcher to support the apartheid regime during the 1980s, and Mandela himself was only removed from the US terror watch list in 2008, just days before his 90th birthday.
Eulogising Mandela, Israeli President Shimon Peres described him as a “fighter for human rights who left an indelible mark on the struggle against racism and discrimination.”
But during the 1970s and 1980s, when Mandela was serving a 27-year prison sentence, Israel’s stance on South Africa was very different.
The Jewish state had initially supported UN sanctions on South Africa, but finding itself increasingly isolated after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, it cultivated ties with Pretoria — a process in which Peres was deeply involved, first as defence minister and then as foreign minister.
Israel’s close defence and security cooperation with South Africa, allegedly including development of nuclear weapons, left the Jewish state isolated and nearly cost it crucial US military aid as it flew in the face of UN resolutions sanctioning Pretoria.
“It was a kind of alliance, with a very strong military and security dimension,” said Alon Liel, who served as Israel’s ambassador to South Africa from 1992-1994 during the final years of apartheid.
“South Africa was completely isolated from 1977 by the UN arms embargo, which we bypassed,” Liel said.
A report Wednesday by Haaretz newspaper said South Africa was the Israeli defence industry’s “biggest customer” with cooperation peaking in 1988 when Israel sold Pretoria 60 Kfir fighter jets for $1.7 billion.
As Western states refused to sell Pretoria arms, apartheid South Africa became a “captive customer” of Israel’s military industry, Haaretz said.
South Africa maintained diplomatic ties with Israel after the end of apartheid, but Mandela emerged as a strong critic of the Israeli occupation, saying in a 1997 speech that “our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
In the latest awkward twist to the relationship, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reneged on a pledge to attend the memorial, saying the visit would cost too much following a week of bad press over his personal expenses.
Peres was unable to attend because he was recovering from flu, his office said.
In Washington and London, Mandela and his ANC were long seen as yet another Soviet proxy to be opposed in the name of freedom and democracy, despite the racist policies of the government he sought to overthrow.
Britain’s Thatcher, who died earlier this year, refused to support sanctions in the 1980s, denouncing the ANC as “terrorists.”
“Broad swathes of the Conservative party were careful to disapprove of apartheid … but this was outweighed by the perception that the South African government was anti-communist and a dependable partner of the Western alliance.”