By KENNETH MOENG MOKGATLHE. Mokgatlhe is a political writer and researcher. He is based at Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
On Saturday night, 13 April, the autocratic and warmonger government of Iran under Ayatollah Khamenei launched more than 300 missiles against Israel. As a South African studying in Israel, I experienced the attack firsthand and can say it was the most horrifying night of my life. Following security guidelines provided by the Israeli authorities, who had been expecting this insane attack by Iran, my fellow students and I all had to take cover by running to the relative safety of bomb shelters. We remained there until the early morning of Sunday. In this first-ever direct attack by Iran on Israeli soil, a young girl from the Bedouin community, which is not far from us in Israel’s south, is reported to have been injured.
As someone who grew up in a Christian environment in a village in South Africa, during Christmas last year I visited the Old City of Jerusalem and Nazareth. The streets were empty, as could be expected due to the Israel-Hamas war. I was struck to see the victims of conflict in Israel, the many hundreds of people who fled their homes near the Lebanon-Israel borders where Hezbollah is continuing to wreak havoc by firing rockets daily into the North of Israel.
I know that many people who have been told to hate Israel do not even know that Israel is as small as South Africa’s Kruger National Park and that all the provinces in South Africa are bigger than it. It has a population of only 9 million. It does not have mineral resources. Despite this, the Israeli people have developed a desert into a place of wonders which is now full of life.
Israel is the only Jewish-majority state in the world. It is a democracy in the sense that you can do whatever you want to do as long as it does not go against the fundamental liberties of others. It is you who chooses whether to be religious or secular, whether to wear a dress or pants. It’s your choice, unlike what is the case among many of Israel’s neighbors.
For those who only see the conflict, on television or in newspapers, war is not something anyone desires. Nations are dragged into wars that they did not choose. In a war, people die, others are injured and still others are displaced. Many lose their livelihoods as the economy suffers and no one produces food leading to famine and death. There will never be a winner in a war, which means that diplomacy and dialogue remain the best ways to establish peace, security, and stability.
The world is not talking about how Iranian proxies such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in the South have been threatening the existence of Israel for so many years. Having been continually dragged into war in the past by its Muslim neighbors, Israel developed advanced technology in its army in an attempt to defend their country against these threats. Part of its success has been the development of its air defense systems such as the popular Iron Dome, David Sling, or Arrow 3. As people who appreciate and embrace life, Israelis invest a lot of money and time in ensuring their security.
Coming from a country so respected for its love for peace over war, I was greatly disappointed to see some of my fellow South Africans supporting and calling for more attacks against Israel by Iran on social media. I was disappointed because I know that the citizens from both Iran and Israel are essentially peace-loving people who do not desire or need a war. It was also sad for me because I know a South African from the same village in the North West Province who is doing her studies in Iran. We are South Africans who came to pursue our future in the foreign world. Yet we are seeing people calling for the two countries to engage in bloody warfare.
Recently Argentina’s highest criminal court ruled that Iran was the mastermind of the gruesome attacks on the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community centre in 1990 and 1994 respectively in Buenos Aires. People tend to have a selective memory where they only choose to focus on the Israeli strike on a building adjoining the Iranian consulate in Syria – a HQ for several high-ranking IRGC generals, one of whom helped mastermind the attacks of 7 October – while refusing to acknowledge the pain and suffering that Iran is inflicting on the Jewish State of Israel.
People should not formulate their ideals or opinions about the world by simply listening to people spewing hate. We should take charge of what we feed our minds by fostering a reading culture and discovering new knowledge that will help us avoid being the subjects of cheap propaganda by those whose narrow personal interests or expectations drive them to take a particular stance.
Peace and stability in the Middle East are prerequisites for global security and development. This cannot be achieved by alienating or hating Israel. Genuine peace will require us to be objective, impartial, and factual. We need to be solution-driven rather than calling for the expansion of violence which places more people in danger, civilians who are generally peace-lovers. It is incumbent upon us all to call for peace in the Middle East, a peace necessitating a political rather than a military outcome, and that requires sober-minded world leaders to come together and confront this long-decade impasse.
This article first appeared in Rapport.
Edited by the Cape Jewish Chronicle.
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