Is James Myburgh's review of 'From the river to the sea: A colouring book' by Nathi Ngubane, off the mark?

His review or treatise was a vent against resistance against oppression, in particular armed resistance on the part of the oppressed. Yet the idea of resisting oppression is contained in all documents on human rights throughout history.

The right to resist is contained in the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789), which was approved by the French parliament and others. A few decades later, on August 3 1857, the revolutionary freed slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass delivered a “West India Emancipation” speech at Canandaigua, New York, on the twenty-third anniversary of the event. In his speech, he spoke of the philosophy of reform thus:

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favour freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress…

…We must do this by labour, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if need be, by our lives and the lives of others.

But I fear that I have run ahead of myself. Let me first turn to a brief synopsis of Myburgh’ review.

James Myburgh writing on 15 August under the headline From the river to the sea - the river runs red was informative as it was disturbing. The analogies of water reminds me of how Israel has over the years blockaded Gaza and stolen the water supplies of Palestinians.

Here I invite readers to read Amnesty International's The Occupation of Water: What is clear of Gaza's water supplies, it must be noted, is that some 90-95 per cent of the water supply is not fit for human consumption. These comments provide a good backdrop to what makes ordinary people revolt against their oppressors. It is this resistance that has troubled the mind and the pen of Myburgh. It would appear that the author had a hit list which he wanted to address and this is my take.

Firstly, Myburgh sets out to critique “From the River to the Sea: A colouring book” and, related to that, takes a shot at the illustrator Nathi Ngubane and those who employ him and have given the book exposure. 

With the above as backdrop, he critiques the central characters of the book, revolutionary icons and martyrs Ghassan Kanafani and Refaat Alareer.

Finally, I must warn that Myburgh may be using his dog whistle against the young cartoonist, which can potentially harm his continued employment at Germany's Friedrich Naumann Foundation and also the Daily Maverick. It seems to be particularly piqued that Maverickids was complimentary about the educational value of the book. It seems that  Exclusive Books - or some branches, I might add - may be criticised for not bowing to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies objections that this book was offensive. 

To be fair, Myburgh does note in passing that the book came out in February, and seeks to “tap into the outpouring of sympathy for the Palestinian people, fuelled by the horrendous death and destruction the world has witnessed in Gaza since October 7th 2023.”

In fact, the Israeli response came two days after the Hamas led attacks on October 7, 2023, was to use starvation as a weapon of war as their Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Energy Minister Israel Katz stated that Palestinians living in Gaza would be deprived of food, water and fuel – statements that helped shape the arguments that a genocide was in the making.

It was on 13 October when the supposedly most moral army in the world, but today widely known as Israeli Occupying Forces, began its ground operations in Gaza, and some twenty days later on 27 October that a full-scale invasion was launched which continues as I write.

It is worth pointing out that Ngubane’s book includes themes on other aspects of knowledge such as journalism and the search for truth and accuracy and so on. It also includes other stories of individuals such as Wael Al Dahdouh, Moaz Azaiza, Lama bu Jamous (child journalist) and the martyred Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed by an Israeli sniper in 2022 (yet again, a targeted killing of an intellectual).  

Edward Said, Palestinian academic and writer, is also featured for colour-in as is Nelson Mandela, alongside the martyred George Floyd. However, Myburgh’s substantive criticisms or flak centres around the two martyrs Kanafani and Alareer.

His treatise is one that is opposed to resistance against oppression, particularly armed struggle. On Ghassan Kanafani and Refaat Alareer, Myburgh writes: "It is in the fate of the two men that one can find the “resistance” worldview fully revealed in all its tragic, disturbing, and sanguinary dimensions.”

James Myburgh sees blood only when there is resistance to the violent rule of the oppressor, not when oppressors impose their rule. Yet the right to resist is a universal right of all people.

Palestinian Ghassan Kanafani was not only a journalist. He fought misinformation and untruths and is sorely missed today where these confound the various publics he touched since his untimely passing. In “Ghassan Kanafani and the era of revolutionary Palestinian media” produced by Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post, media integrity is in the spotlight. That is, accuracy, justice, fairness, and courage to report unpopular truths. Kanafani centred the Palestinian narrative in simple and clear language and with humour. The truth is always revolutionary was more than a slogan for the paper.

Not long before Kanafani was killed, one journalist asked the writer what death meant to him. Kanafani answered: “Of course, death means a lot. The important thing is to know why. Self-sacrifice, within the context of revolutionary action, is an expression of the very highest understanding of life, and of the struggle to make life worthy of a human being.”

The Beirut Newspaper DAILY STAR’S obituary written by Barbara Harlow reveals that Ghassan was the "commando who never fired a gun" and went on to say that "his weapon was a ballpoint pen and his arena newspaper pages. And he hurt the enemy more than a column of commandos.” Ghassan was a leader of the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP). He also published and edited the PLFP journal Al-Hadaf (The Target). 

Kanafani was killed for his ideas. The famous writer John Berger read Kanafani’s “Letter from Gaza” in this address to the inaugural Palestine Festival of Literature in 2008. Berger (1926 – 2017) was an English art critic, novelist, painter, and poet. His famous essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing propelled him into public imagination and in this moving reading of this 1956 text brings to life Ghassan for us today. His body may be no more… but everyday his soul drives us to learn more about Palestinian struggles to better the human condition.

Similarly, in more internet connectedness with its nefarious communications surveillance and technologies of repression, we find Alareer, picking up the spear from Kanafani, for which he was martyred.

Refaat, the poet and professor

Refaat Alareer too was martyred for his ideas on December 6, 2023. Forty days after his killing, many civil society groups organised readings of his poems. Activists refused to be silent and organised to defend those who received pressure from Zionist supporting elites for speaking out against the genocide and occupation through censorship and other means. #LetItBeATale was their hashtag. Activists were encouraged to recite one of Refaat’s poems in public thus: Read in your workplace, at your school, in the mall, on the bus, or out on the street. Read with a group or as a demo. Disrupt business as usual. Record and share your reading on social media. Amplify Palestinian voices as we work to end the genocide, end the occupation, and free Palestine.

His poem “If I Must Die” is now read in many languages and both the poor and famous read it as an act of solidarity. Listen to Scottish Actor Brian Cox’s reading of the poem. 

Madiba, president and founder of ANC’s military wing

What about Nelson Mandela? Far from being the daddy of our nation, he was among the founders of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. He did not deny his involvement in planning sabotage: "I did not plan it in a spirit of recklessness, nor because I have any love for violence. I planned it as a result of a calm and sober assessment of the political situation that had arisen after many years of tyranny, exploitation, and oppression of my people by the whites."

Mandela argued that all nonviolent means had been tried and that they had resulted only in mounting restrictions and reduced freedom for the African people. Referring to the Sharpeville shootings and a number of other instances of government violence against protesters, he stated that "the government which uses force to support its rule teaches the oppressed to use force to oppose it".

The decision to adopt selective use of violent means was "not because we desire such a course”, but “solely because the government left us no other choice." Those who fought for liberation - intellectuals like Ruth First and hundreds of combatants in the field - fell in the struggle. First was parcelled bombed at the university where she taught in Maputo, Mozambique in August 1982. Ruth First, like Refaat and Kanafani, was killed for her ideas and support for total liberation of humans from oppression and exploitation.

Hasbara on the ropes?

What is clear is that October 7 shifted the sands firmly into the hearts and minds of ordinary citizens of the world, and debunked the power of the Zionist lobbies and hasbara. The court cases affirmed that all states must answer for their policies, particular murderous and genocidal ones. No more can victory be won from the jaws of defeat. A year later in the killing fields of Gaza, they have not managed to kill off their self-stated enemy Hamas. 

Whilst hasbara appeals to elites in government power and corporations, those who cherish freedom appeal to the ordinary folk, the poor and working people, the multitudes. 

In his autobiography Bibi, Netanyahu tells the world how he learnt hasbara from his dad and how the strategy has been the same since. Win public opinion and appeal to justice. The mass rallies and protest marches and other activities against the killing of Palestinians emboldened many governments to boycott, disinvest and sanction Israel.

In addition, the Zionist regime has been hauled over the UN and the International Court of Justice where it stands accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide and, more recently, of colonialism and occupying unlawfully lands that are Palestinian.

In a separate case brought by South Africa, the ICJ is considering allegations that Israel is committing genocide in its war on Gaza. In their preliminary ruling, the court ordered the regime to prevent and punish those inciting genocide and to increase the urgently needed aid. That Israel did not comply is obvious because the statements dehumanising Palestinians include the Prime Minister, the president, the head of the army, as well as the usual suspects Gvir et al. There was yet another appeal at the  ICJ which ordered Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah because of the immense risk of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter there.

More recently the ICJ ruled, in an unambiguous decision, that Israel’s 56-year long rule in “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” is “illegal,” and that it is obligated to bring its presence in that territory to an end “as rapidly as possible.” The  decision confirmed what NGOs and civil society organisations have said for as long as I know, that Israel’s policy of settlement was illegal. The occupation in the West Bank contravened international law, and Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank — along with East Jerusalem, which was formally annexed and designated as sovereign Israeli territory in 1980 — due to some of the apparently permanent aspects of Israeli rule there.

A year after Oct 7, Netanyahu, one of the greatest aggressors in history, has failed as he has tried over and over again to portray himself and his clique as just, and their victims as unjust. Hasbara is on the ropes… their cause is unjust and has been exposed as such.

If the allegations against Refaat and Ghassan are applied to all in this war of resistance and occupation, I fear many writers would be in the dock. Essentially, Myburgh regarded these intellectuals as fellow travellers and therefore, to put it crudely, deserved to be killed for their ideas. I do not subscribe to that perilous notion as it underwrites that humans cannot be persuaded to rise above the maiming and senseless killings and arrive at just and justice enhancing agreements.  

Take for instance the South African Zionist Federation, whose work includes lobbying and contesting ideas and manufacturing hasbara. The SAZF does not pretend to have any autonomy, intellectual or otherwise. They rarely (or never) criticise the human rights violations of the state of israel and remain committed as they state unashamedly that:The SAZF looks after matters relating to Israel and its image in South Africa. As advocates for Israel in this country, our mission is to build strong support and love for the Land and State of Israel.

As intellectuals of a cause - am I wrong to assume that they could be victims of the logic as espoused by Myburgh in his polemic?

Hassen Lorgat is a social justice activist having worked in union, sports movement, civic associations and NGOs.