By Nurah Tape – The Palestine Chronicle  

“We will not be able to have true freedom and true peace without the complete dismantlement of the settler colonial system in Palestine.”

Palestinian Legislative Council member Dr Mustafa Barghouti has said he does not see Palestine except as one country with one democratic system with equal rights for everybody, adding that the resistance of the Palestinian people is already contributing to the future.

“I think the resistance of the Palestinian people and the steadfastness of the people on the ground especially now the steadfastness of our people in Gaza – which has failed the Israeli intention of conducting ethnic cleansing – is what is making the future of Palestinians,” he told The Palestine Chronicle on the sidelines of the Global Anti-Apartheid Conference on Palestine in Johannesburg on Sunday.

Warplanes, Artillery, Naval Boats – Scores of Palestinians Killed as Gaza Genocide Continues

He stressed that “the immediate task” was to “stop this genocide of our people.”

“I think we are in a very important struggle to achieve our freedom and our dignity. I do not see Palestine except as one country with one democratic system with equal rights for everybody, where Palestinians can enjoy not only freedom and dignity but also prosperity,” Dr. Barghouti emphasized.

Since the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948, “no less than 150,000 Palestinians” have been killed, “42,000 just in Gaza,” he said.

Genocide and Fascism

“We are subjected now not only to genocide, not only to collective punishment, and not only of acts of ethnic cleansing, we are subjected to fascism,” he stressed. “That’s why I say we will not be able to have true freedom and true peace without the complete dismantlement of the settler colonial system in Palestine.”

Asked for his view on the sentiment shared at the conference that Palestine is standing at its ‘South Africa moment’, Dr Barghouti said “I always thought so, even before this war. We are exactly at the same place South Africa was in the 80s.”

He explained  that “at that time, nobody thought it would end very quickly and so soon. And I do believe that is exactly our situation.”

“I think the resistance of the Palestinian people and the steadfastness of the people on the ground especially now the steadfastness of our people in Gaza – which has failed the Israeli intention of conducting ethnic cleansing – is what is making the future of Palestinians.”

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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 12, 2024

He further said the rise now of the anti-apartheid movement “is by itself an indicator of where we are standing in history. And this global revolution … this huge solidarity with Palestinians which is unprecedented is a very strong indicator of where we are heading.”

The anti-apartheid conference aimed to “set the basis for the mobilization of a Global Anti-Apartheid Movement to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people, and to work to dismantle” the state, concluded on Sunday.

Held over three days, the conference was attended by delegates from more than two dozen countries representing civil societies, religious organizations and solidarity movements. #palestineafrica2024

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Nurah Tape is a South Africa-based journalist. She is an editor with The Palestine Chronicle.