Makhura signs Declaration for Barghouthi's release

Gauteng Premier David Makhura has signed the Robben Island Declaration calling for the release of Palestinian leader, Marwan Barghouthi.  

The signing took place at the annual Walk for Freedom hosted on September 28 by the Palestine Solidarity Alliance in Lenasia.

Makhura is the only serving Premier in the country to have signed the Declaration, taking the lead from Kgalema Motlanthe, who signed the Declaration while still in office as Deputy President.

The Declaration was also signed by Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Ismail Vadi, and City of Johannesburg Chief Whip, Prema Naidoo.

"The growing support from elected representatives calling for the freedom of Barghouthi is significant, bearing in mind that Barghouthi was the first Member of the Palestinian Parliament to be arrested," said Director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Neeshan Balton.

Speaking at the event, Makhura called on South Africans to take the campaign to Free Marwan Barghouthi and All Palestinian Political Prisoners to a "different level" across the country. He compared it to the Release Mandela Campaign, which "mobilised the entire world behind the cause of freedom in our country".

Makhura also drew similarities between South African prisoners under apartheid, and that of Palestinian political prisoners. "Those of us who have been arrested before by the brutal apartheid police know what it means to be imprisoned particularly for freedom, when you stand for the freedom and liberation of your people," Makhura said.

The Premier urged those in governmental positions to support the Palestinian struggle.

He also emphasised the need for ongoing international solidarity for Palestine, expressed support for the boycott of Israeli products and praised young people from the Palestine Solidarity Alliance for their involvement and creative campaigning methods.

"We need to broaden this movement," Makhura added, stating that all peace loving individuals, religious bodies, the Alliance movement and youth organisations should back the Palestinian campaign. "It is only when this movement is much broader that it will be difficult for anyone to ignore," he said.

"We in South Africa, in the name of our father, Nelson Mandela, (say) our freedom amounts to nothing when we continue to see what is happening to the Palestinian people," Makhura stated. He added that the "Palestinian struggle and the South African struggle was cast in blood" and that these ties should be strengthened. "We want to cast that relationship again, it must be cast in stone," he said.

Makhura also termed Israel an apartheid state, urging people to stand up to injustice at all times. "If we don't, it shall return. If you allow a monster to eat your neighbour, and think you are safe, that monster will one day come into your own house. We don't want a state in any part of the world that is a monster.  If that is allowed in any part of the world, it is a threat to our own freedom, it is a threat to our own democracy, it is threat to world peace."

Last year, a global campaign for the release of Barghouthi and all Palestinian political prisoners was launched on Robben Island in South Africa. Struggle veterans Ahmed Kathrada and Kwedie Mkalipi, together with Barghouthi's wife Fadwa, were the first signatories of the Robben Island Declaration.

Considered to be the Nelson Mandela of Palestine, Barghouthi is being held in an Israeli prison after he was abducted by the occupation forces on April 15, 2002.

Following what international observers described as a "political show-trial", Barghouthi was sentenced to five life sentences in prison after being convicted on five counts of murder. Barghouthi refused to recognise the legitimacy of the occupation court.

Photograph: Director of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Neeshan Balton, Premier David Makhura, and struggle stalwart Ahmed Kathrada with the Robben Island Declaration, signed by Makhura.

Text of the The Robben Island Declaration for the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian political prisoners

We, the signatories, affirm our conviction that freedom and dignity are the essence of civilization. People around the globe, and throughout history, have risen to defend their freedom and dignity against colonial rule, oppression, apartheid and segregation. Generations of men and women have made great sacrifices to forge universal values, uphold fundamental freedoms and advance international law and human rights. There is no greater risk to our civilization than to relinquish these principles and to allow for their breach and denial without accountability.

The Palestinian people have been struggling for decades for justice and the realisation of their inalienable rights. These rights have beenrepeatedly reaffirmed by countless United Nations resolutions. Universal values, international legality and human rights cannot stop at borders, nor admit double standards, and must be applied in Palestine. This is the way forward to a just and lasting peace in the region, for the benefit of all its peoples.

The realisation of these rights entails the release of Marwan Barghouthi and allPalestinian political prisoners whose ongoing captivity is a reflection of the decades-long deprivation of freedom that the Palestinian people have, and continues, to endure. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned at some point in their lives[1], in one of the most striking examples of mass detention aiming at destroying the national and social fabric of the occupied people, and to break its will to achieve freedom. Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners still languish today in Israeli jails. Some Palestinian prisoners have spent over 30 years in Israeli prisons, making Israel, the Occupying power, responsible for the longest periods of political detention in recent history.

The treatment of Palestinian prisoners, from the moment of their arrest, during interrogation and trial, if one is held, and during their detention, violates the norms and standards prescribed by international law. These violations, including the absence of the most fundamental guarantees of a fair trial, the use of arbitrary detention, the ill-treatment of the prisoners, including the use of torture, the disregard for children rights, the lack of health care for sick prisoners, the transfer of prisoners into the territory of the Occupying State and the violations of the right to receive visits, as well as the arrest of elected representatives, require our attention and intervention.

Among these prisoners, a name has emerged, both nationally and internationally, as central for unity, freedom and peace.  Marwan Barghouthi has spent a total of nearly two decades of his life in Israeli prisons, including the last 11 years. He is the most prominent and renowned Palestinian political prisoner, a symbol of the Palestinian people's quest for freedom, a uniting figure and an advocate of peace based on international law. As international efforts led to the release of Nelson Mandela and of all the anti-apartheid prisoners, we believe that the international community's moral, legal and political responsibility to assist the Palestinian people in the realization of their rights, must help to secure the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners.

We therefore call, and pledge to act, for the release of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners. Until their release, the rights of the Palestinian prisoners, as enshrined in international humanitarian law and human rights law, must be upheld, and the arrest campaigns must cease.

 One of the most important indicators of the readiness to make peace with your adversary is the release of all political prisoners, a powerful signal of the recognition of a people's rights and just demands for freedom. It is the marker of a new era, where freedom will pave the way to peace. Occupation and peace are incompatible. Occupation, in all its manifestations, must end, so that freedom and dignity can prevail. Freedom must prevail for the conflict to end and for the peoples of the region to live in peace and security.

[1] These include 800 000 Palestinians having experienced imprisonment since 1967, according to the data made available by the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and ex-detainees.

Statement issued by Zaakirah Vadi, Ahmed Kathrada Foundation Communications Officer, September 30 2014

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