The Development of the “apartheid analogy” among South African radicals

• In Event: Diaspora-Israel Dialectics

Abstract

My presentation will tell the history of how South African anti-apartheid activists developed an analogical discourse that drew parallels between apartheid South Africa and the State of Israel. I will cover the first three decades of Israel’s existence and show how South African liberation discourse shifted considerably, yet gradually and nonlinearly, during this time. Notably, some early analogies often juxtaposed the African plight with Jewish historical struggles. Nevertheless, by the 1970s, South African radicals largely saw the Israeli state as an apartheid-like state. My analysis will differentiate between four types of anti-apartheid discourse: communist, African-nationalist, Trotskyist, and Liberal. I will also address the way that the Jewish identity of certain radical individuals shaped their view of Israel. By examining the historical trajectory of apartheid in South Africa, the fluctuations of the Global Cold War, and key events in the Arab-Israeli conflict, I will demonstrate the complex interplay that shaped these discursive transformations. This presentation draws extensively from my doctoral dissertation, that was completed at Indiana University in 2023.

Author

• Asher Lubotzky, University of Houston