Tag Archives: mr mandela

| Pro-Palestine Mandela’s mixed legacy for the Middle East!

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Mandela’s mixed legacy for the Middle East ~ Kevin Connolly, BBC Middle East correspondent, Jerusalem.

We may never see another life like Nelson Mandela’s; and so there may never be a death quite like his either.

The man who repaid persecution with patience and racism with reconciliation came to be seen as a kind of embodiment of our noblest instincts for making peace.

He chose the difficult path of forgiveness and togetherness when he could have been forgiven for choosing the way of bitterness and vengeance.

So its not surprising that in many places of division rival sides scramble to place their ties with Mandela in the best possible light and to claim the legitimacy that confers.

Nowhere more, of course, than in the Middle East.
Yasser Arafat and Nelson Mandela (Cairo, 1993)

There was a genuine personal warmth between Arafat and Mandela, according to a former Palestinian official

The truth is that Mr Mandela did not embroil himself much in the conflicts of others – perhaps naturally wary of diluting his enormous moral authority by spreading himself too thinly around the world’s areas of conflict.

The Middle East is one area though where we know quite a bit about Mr Mandela’s connections and his thoughts and feelings.

Mutual admiration

The Palestinians have the easiest case to make in claiming Mr Mandela’s blessing for their cause.

During his long years in jail as an ANC prisoner he was embraced by the PLO leadership as a fellow-fighter in a kind of global family of liberation movements.

Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Cuba’s Fidel Castro also provided political and material support during the ANC’s long years in the wilderness.

Mandela and Ehud Barak (Oct 1999)Mandela visited Israel but was critical of its policies towards the Palestinians

Mr Mandela never forgot it either, even when the political winds changed and he was a global superstar while some of his old allies found themselves on the losing side of history.

When Yasser Arafat died he called him “an icon in the proper sense of the word”.

He also said simply: “Yasser Arafat was one of the outstanding freedom fighters of his generation… It is with great sadness that one notes that his and his people’s dream of a Palestinian State had not been realised.”

The former foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority Nabil Shaath, who came to know Nelson Mandela personally, said there was a genuine personal warmth between Arafat and Mandela that underlined the political link between them.

And he said Palestinians had much to learn from the ANC about maintaining the momentum of a global campaign through long years of struggle.

He told the BBC: “I think they waged the world’s best-ever campaign [to end apartheid] and there’s a lot to learn from that, as well as the lesson of reconciliation.”

Advice to Israel

At a moment when anyone with a claim to a share in the Mandela legacy is proud to make that connection, Israel has a painfully difficult case to make.

It was a close, if secretive, ally and arms supplier apartheid South Africa and there is a good case to be made that Israeli support helped the all-white regime in Pretoria to last longer than it otherwise might have.


“I owe a debt of honour to the Jews even if I have sometimes made restrained remarks about Israel” ~ Nelson Mandela

There have been stories – which are difficult to substantiate definitively – that the co-operation extended into Israel sharing nuclear weapons technology.

Mr Mandela observed sharply that when he was finally released from prison he received invitations to visit “from almost every country in the world, except Israel”.

When Israel did begin issuing invitations (as many as four in the course of the 1990s) Mr Mandela was in no hurry to accept.

And its no coincidence that when he did come in 1999 it was at a moment when the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak seemed close to a peace deal with the Palestinians – Mr Mandela must have hoped his presence might give some kind of final push.

It didn’t as it turned out but Mr Mandela did spell out his attitude to the core of the problem when he went to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

He was quoted as saying: “Talk of peace will remain hollow if Israel continues to occupy Arab territories… I understand completely well why Israel occupies these lands. There was a war. But if there is going to be peace, there must be complete withdrawal from all of these areas.”

‘New page’

There was no doubt that Israel’s ties to the ugly apartheid regime left an impression on Mr Mandela but the Israeli ambassador to South Africa Alon Liel said a peace deal with the Palestinians could have changed things.

He told us: “[Nelson Mandela] was furious about the co-operation and said ‘we will never forget it’, but he said if you will change your attitude towards the Palestinians we will open a new page with Israel.”

And Mr Mandela knew how to balance the personal with the political.

There was no doubt his heart lay with the Palestinians as a people but he remembered fondly the many individual members of South Africa’s Jewish community who helped him in his hard early years.

There was the man who gave him his first job as a lawyer as well as Arthur Goldreich, the white Jewish ANC activist who went undercover as a farmer to hide Mr Mandela when he was on the run at huge personal risk.

As Mandela himself put it: “I owe a debt of honour to the Jews even if I have sometimes made restrained remarks about Israel.”

At the time of his passing everyone will do what they can to claim something of his legacy – the Palestinians much more plausibly than the Israelis.

But the outsider is left to reflect that the real tragedy is that this conflict is yet to create its own Mandela with a moral personality so powerful that it might become a catalyst for lasting change.

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| Nelson Mandela discharged from South African hospital!

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Nelson Mandela discharged from South African hospital ~ BBC.

Nelson Mandela has left hospital and has gone to his Johannesburg home, where he is continuing to receive intensive care, the South African presidency says on its website.

The announcement came a day after officials denied reports that the 95-year-old had already been discharged.

The statement says Mr Mandela condition remains critical and at time unstable.

South Africa’s first democratically elected president has been in hospital since June with a lung infection.

“His team of doctors are convinced that he will receive the same level of intensive care at his Houghton home that he received in Pretoria [hospital],” the presidency statement says.

It says his home has been “reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there” and he will be treated by the same health care personnel as in hospital.

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Nelson Mandela discharged from South African hospital

A portrait of former South African President Nelson Mandela with get well messages outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital where he has been treated in Pretoria, South Africa, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013.
South Africans have been leaving message of support for Mr Mandela at hospital

Nelson Mandela has left hospital and has gone to his Johannesburg home, where he is continuing to receive intensive care, the South African presidency says on its website.

The announcement came a day after officials denied reports that the 95-year-old had already been discharged.

The statement says Mr Mandela condition remains critical and at time unstable.

South Africa’s first democratically elected president has been in hospital since June with a lung infection.

“His team of doctors are convinced that he will receive the same level of intensive care at his Houghton home that he received in Pretoria [hospital],” the presidency statement says.

It says his home has been “reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there” and he will be treated by the same health care personnel as in hospital.

If necessary, he will be readmitted to hospital, the statement says.

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| End of an era beckons as Mandela critically ill in hospital!

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Nelson Mandela critically ill in hospital ~ BBC.

Nelson Mandela has become critically ill in hospital, the South African presidency has announced.

President Jacob Zuma said he had visited Mr Mandela and spoken to his wife and medical teams.

Doctors were “doing everything possible to get his condition to improve” said Mr Zuma in a statement.

South Africa’s first black president, 94, was taken to hospital in Pretoria earlier this month for the third time this year, with a lung infection.

Mr Zuma said he had been told by doctors on Sunday that the former president’s condition had worsened over the past 24 hours.

“The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands,” said President Zuma, using Mr Mandela’s clan name by which he is widely known in South Africa.

Mr Zuma – who was joined at the hospital by the deputy leader of his ruling African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa – appealed for prayers for Mr Mandela and his medical team.

Mac Maharaj, Mr Zuma’s spokesman, told the BBC’s Newshour that the doctors’ use of the word “critical” was “sufficient explanation that should raise concern amongst us”.

“Therefore we want to assure the public that the doctors are working away to try and get his condition to improve,” he said.

Mr Maharaj added that this was a stressful time for the Mandela family, and appealed for their privacy.

The ANC – the party of Mr Mandela and Mr Zuma – said it “noted with concern” the latest reports, and that it joined the president in calling “for us all to keep Madiba, his family and medical team in our thoughts and prayers during this trying time”.

The White House issued a statement on Sunday saying: “Our thoughts and prayers are with him [Mr Mandela], his family and the people of South Africa.”

‘Expert care’The BBC’s Andrew Harding in Johannesburg says the release of information relating to Mr Mandela is always carefully controlled by the government to avoid sparking alarm.

Wellwishers outside the hospital in Pretoria (17 June 2013)
Wellwishers have been visiting the hospital in Pretoria for the past two weeks

Describing his condition as critical will be very worrying for South Africans, many of whom see him as like a family member, our correspondent says.

There has been little information about his condition in recent days. On 13 June Mr Zuma said Mr Mandela’s health continued to improve but that his condition remained serious.

More recently, one of Mr Mandela’s grandsons, Ndaba Mandela, said his grandfather was getting better and he hoped he would be home soon.

Last week, Mr Mandela’s wife Graca Machel thanked all those who had sent messages of support, saying they had brought “love, comfort and hope”.

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Nelson Mandela: Key dates

  • 1918 Born in the Eastern Cape
  • 1944 Joins African National Congress
  • 1956 Charged with high treason, but charges dropped
  • 1962 Arrested, convicted of sabotage, sentenced to five years in prison
  • 1964 Charged again, sentenced to life
  • 1990 Freed from prison
  • 1993 Wins Nobel Peace Prize
  • 1994 Elected first black president
  • 1999 Steps down as leader

Mr Mandela is revered for leading the fight against white minority rule in South Africa and then preaching reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27 years. He left power after five years as president.

The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner is believed to have suffered damage to his lungs while working in a prison quarry.

He contracted tuberculosis in the 1980s while being held in jail on the windswept Robben Island.

Mr Mandela retired from public life in 2004 and has rarely been seen at official events since.

On Saturday, it emerged that the ambulance in which Mr Mandela was taken to hospital on 8 June broke down, meaning he had to be moved to another vehicle.

But Mr Zuma said he had been assured that “all care was taken to ensure his medical condition was not compromised”.

“There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care,” he said.

Mr Zuma also denied reports that the former leader had suffered a cardiac arrest.

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