LALIT Letter to Prime Minister on Israeli State Imposing Apartheid
01.12.2020
Prime Minister, Hon. P. Jugnauth,
Dear Sir,
Following our letter to you on 25 September, signed by Former President of the Republic of Mauritius and 8 organizations as well as ours, and later signed up to by the Chagos Refugees Group (See our letter to you, below), LALIT held an Open “ Candlelight Vigil” on Saturday, 28 November, to mark UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. It was remarked upon at the event that the Mauritian Government had not marked this day, and nor had the UNDP. It was also mentioned that it seems that Mauritius has neither ratified nor signed the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid.
During the plenary session before the vigil, those present voted three Resolutions:
1. To set up a Palestinian support committee founded on that very day, one that pivots towards the strategic aim of getting the Israeli State declared an Apartheid State under the meaning at the UN, and to get Israel to stop this form of domination;
2. To subsume into the new support committee the previous BDS (Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions Committee) because BDS support has become the main arm of the world support movement, as happened in the run-up to the end of Apartheid in South Africa; to begin with preparing a boycott call against Puma for its continued support of Israeli settlements and Apartheid;
3. To write a letter to you, this very letter, to request that the Mauritian Government works within the United Nations system, and other arenas like the African union and IOC, at getting the UN to set up a full-scale investigation into the Israeli State for the Crime against humanity of Apartheid, Apartheid having been declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations in 1966.
As you know, in 2008 the then UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Prof. John Dugard, himself an anti-apartheid academic in the field of Constitutional Law in South Africa, found that the Israeli State was acting like an Apartheid State. When Palestine was accepted as a member of the ICC in 2015 , this is what he said, “I’m a South African who lived through apartheid, [and] I have no hesitation in saying that Israel’s crimes are infinitely worse than those committed by the apartheid regime of South Africa.”
He was not the first South African to say this.
In 2014, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Israeli occupation was “worse than apartheid” in South Africa.
And many others, before and after have said similar things:
Jimmy Carter, former US president awarded Nobel Prize for Israel-Egypt peace accord: "Israel... perpetuates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa."
Baleka Mbete, former African National Congress (ANC) chairwoman: "[Israel is] far worse than apartheid South Africa."
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate: "There will be peace … but only when Israel ends apartheid and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people."
Richard Falk, Jewish-American UN human rights expert: "It seems incontestable that Israeli measures do divide the population of the Occupied Palestinian Territory along racial lines, create separate reserves for Palestinians and expropriate their land... acts potentially amounting to segregation and apartheid."
Suzanne Weiss, Holocaust survivor: "The Palestinians are victims of ethnic cleansing and apartheid... The Israeli government's actions toward the Palestinians awaken horrific memories of my family's experiences under Hitlerism: the inhuman walls, the checkpoints, the daily humiliations, killings, diseases, the systematic deprivation."
Yitzhak Laor, prominent Israeli poet, author and journalist: "The system preserving this apartheid is more ruthless than seen in South Africa.”
The list is very long. We have chosen a selection to show the width of support for this new quest: to show the Israeli State up as an apartheid state, and to get it to desist from its continued illegal occupation, state of siege, and politics of apartheid.
Could you confirm with us whether or not Mauritius has signed up to, or even ratified, the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid - G.A. res. 3068 (XXVIII)), 28 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 30) at 75, U.N. Doc. A/9030 (1974), 1015 U.N.T.S. 243, entered into force July 18, 1976?
Yours sincerely,
Alain Ah Vee,
On Behalf of the Assembly
Copy of our joint letter to you in September:
A Premye Minis Pravind Jugnauth,
GUVERNMAN REPIBLIK MORIS BIZIN SUTENIR LET INTERNASYONAL DEPOZE DIVAN LASANBLE ZENERAL NASYON ZINI
Politik Aparteid Israel
Nu ki siyne anba pe sutenir lapel ki enn kolektif 450 lorganizasyon inklir sindika, muvman sosyal ek parti politik depi partu dan lemond pe depoze divan 75yem Lasanble Zeneral Nasyon Zini (UNGA). UNGA pe zwenn aktyelman New York dan enn fason vertyel.
Sa semenn la, atraver sa let kolektif la, tu sa lorganizasyon pe fer demand pu ki Nasyon Zini deklans enn gran lanket internasyonal lor politik Aparteid ki rezim Israel pe servi kont lepep Palestinyin. Bi se pu al ver tu Leta inpoz sanksyon spesifik pu ki Israel aret so politik aparteid, e aret so anexasyon ilegal later Palestinn.
Nu bizin rapel ki Nasyon Zini ti deklar Aparteid “enn krim kont limanite” le 16 Desam 1966.
Sa let 450 lorganizasyon azordi pe expoz Israel kuma enn “leta aparteid”. Sa vedir ki efektivman tu Leta dan Nasyon Zini zot responsab pu amenn lafin sa sityasyon ilegal la. Alepok Nasyon Zini ti fer lanket pu expoz e denons politik aparteid dan Sid Afrik e inpoz sanksyon kont Sid Afrik. Dayer se sa aksyon internasyonal ki finn kontribye pu amenn lafin rezim aparteid laba. Kifer zordi Nasyon Zini pa fer parey kont Israel?
Alor,
Nu, atraver sa deklarasyon zordi, pe lans enn lapel pu ki Guvernman Moris sutenir sa let la. Nu demand ki Guvernman, atraver Premye Minis Pravind Jugnauth ek Minis Zafer Etranzer Nando Bodha azut lavwa Leta Moris dan lelan protestasyon ki finn leve dan lemond antye kont politik rasist, kont lokipasyon militer ek kolonyal Israel, e sirtu kont so sistem Aparteid.
Zordi, avek Trump opuvwar dan Lamerik, e sutyin indesan so Ladministrasyon pu Leta Israel, li neseser ki partu dan lemond nu azir pu met enn kal kont sa sistem Aparteid dan Israel la.
Anmemtan ki pran sa pozisyon la, bizin izol Israel e bizin sutenir kanpayn Boykot-Dezinvestisman-Sanksyon (BDS) kont Israel. Sa kanpayn internasyonal pe, parey kuma ti arive dan Sid Afrik, aport so fri.
Ala demand ki sa kolektif la pe fer vizavi UNGA, e nu pe demand Guverman pu sutenir:
1. Deklans enn lanket internasyonal lor politik “rezim aparteid” ki Israel pe inpoze kont lepep Palestinyin an antye. Bizin osi fer lanket lor responsabilite kriminel bann Leta ek individi ki, kant-a zot, finn asosye zot ar Israel. Anmemtam bizin rekonstitye Komite Spesyal Nasyon Zini kont Aparteid ek Sant Nasyon Zini kont Aparteid pu ki nu reysi aboli aparteid enn fwa pu-tut dan 21syek.
2. Interdir lavant zarm e interdir korperasyon militer ubyin sekiriter ar Israel.
3. Interdir tu komers ar bann ‘settlements’ (koloni) Israel ilegal dan Palestinn e asire ki tu konpayni napa angaz zot ar bann lantrepriz Israelyin ki dan settlements ilegal, e aret tu biznes kumsa ki deza onn-going.
Nom Lorganizasyon/Individi
Haniff Peerun Mauritius Labour Congress, and All Workers’ Federation
Vinod Seegum Confederation of General Trade unions
Reeaz Chuttoo Confederation des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publique et Privé
Deepak Benydin Federation of Parastatal Bodies and Other union
Mosadeq Sahebdin Consumer Advocacy Platform
Samad Abdus Dulloo Dr. Idrice Goomany Treatment Centre
Ragini Kistnasamy Muvman Liberasyon Fam
Alain Ah Vee LALIT
Cassam Uteem Former President of the Republic
Plus later signed up to by
Olivier Bancoult President, Chagos Refugees Group
