“Didn’t the world support the boycott of apartheid South Africa?” (Photo by Jonathan C. Katzenellenbogen/Getty Images)
I was stunned to read that the South African Rugby Union (Saru) was to host a rugby tour in March by a team representing the apartheid state of Israel in the 2023 Currie Cup competition. The Tel Aviv Heat were invited to play four games in South Africa next month.
Now that Saru has withdrawn the invitation after an outcry, it’s time for South African sport to face some tough questions.
To us in New Zealand it seems utterly incomprehensible that a country which experienced first-hand the brutality and degradation associated with apartheid could, after liberation, agree to host a team representing another racist apartheid state.
How on earth could this be possible? Which part of South African history did the rugby union miss? Why did they have to be reminded of the power of rugby for good, and the power of rugby to “sports-wash racism”?
Just to be clear, every major international human rights organisation now recognises Israel as an apartheid state. Palestinians have always known this as spelt out recently by Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq in a comprehensive report.
Israel’s settler colonial apartheid regime is denying human rights to Palestinians — didn’t that sound familiar to Saru? Wasn’t it another European settler colonial regime which denied civil, political and human rights to black South Africans, just as Israel denies the same to Palestinians today?
UK based Amnesty International, US based Human Rights Watch and the largest and most respected human rights organisation in Israel, B’Tselem, have all condemned Israel as an apartheid state.
B’Tselem’s sums up the situation eloquently in the title of their 2021 report, “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”.
Didn’t the world, New Zealand included, support the boycott of apartheid South Africa? Didn’t we disrupt rugby games played by racist South African teams to help bring international pressure for change and human rights to black South Africans?
So how is it comprehensible that in 2023 the South African Rugby Union could ignore human rights for others living under apartheid elsewhere and refuse to respect Palestinian calls for international boycotts of Israel to bring pressure for change?
Saru needs to conduct a review and explain how such a drastic mistake could have been made, even if it was rectified and the invitation withdrawn shortly after it was announced.
Saru needs to apologise to Palestinians.
South African friends tell me the problem is that rugby was never transformed from its old apartheid structures into a truly democratic, representative organisation. The name on the door changed from South African Rugby Board to South African Rugby Union and a few black faces sat at the table but the deep-seated attitudes embedded in the old apartheid structures were never transformed. As soon as it had undermined and side-lined the non-racial sports bodies in SACOS (South African Council on Sport) it was pretty much business as usual for South African rugby.
This is the only reason which makes sense to me. The job was never finished.
We must also remember this same state of Israel, which still wants to tour South Africa and help whitewash its vicious apartheid regime, worked hand in glove with the old South African apartheid regime to undermine sanctions on South Africa and provide arms to bolster the old racist state.
How many black South Africans protesting against apartheid were killed by Israeli arms and ammunition supplied to the old apartheid state in defiance of the United Nations arms embargo?
Palestinians are asking South Africa for the same international solidarity given to black South Africans struggling under apartheid — boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel — and Saru should be proud to honour this request. Developing a policy whereby Saru condemns the apartheid state of Israel and declares it will not compete with Israeli teams until everyone living in historic Palestine has equal rights would be a good first step.
Sport can be a powerful force for good but in the wrong hands it can also be used to help normalise racism and apartheid.
There is no place for apartheid in sport. As the non-racial South African Council on Sport used to say “There can be no normal sport in an abnormal society”. This applies to Israel today just as it applied to the old South African regime.
Saru dropped the ball this time. Never again.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.