The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) joins millions across the world in commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Nakba. The Catastrophe, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in 1948 through massacres, ethnic cleansing, and the violent establishment of the state of Israel on Palestinian land.
The Nakba was not a single historical event confined to 1948. It is an ongoing process of dispossession, occupation, apartheid, siege, forced removals, land theft, military repression, and genocide against the Palestinian people. What the world is witnessing today in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories is the continuation and intensification of that catastrophe.
The 78th commemoration of the Nakba also exposes the false propaganda aggressively promoted by Israel and its allies that the current assault on Gaza began only as a response to the 7 October 2023 attacks and abductions carried out by Hamas militants.
The Nakba reminds the world that Palestinian dispossession, occupation, siege, killings, land theft, and apartheid did not begin on 7 October. They began decades before, with the colonial displacement of Palestinians in 1948 and the sustained denial of their national rights ever since.
While SAFTU mourns the loss of all civilian lives, we reject attempts to erase history and portray Israel merely as a victim defending itself. No occupying power can invoke “self-defence” to justify collective punishment, starvation, forced displacement, and the mass slaughter of an occupied people. International law does not permit genocide, apartheid, and occupation under the guise of security.
Today, Gaza lies in ruins. Tens of thousands have been killed, the overwhelming majority being women and children. Entire families have been wiped out. Hospitals, schools, refugee camps, universities, religious institutions, and basic infrastructure have been systematically destroyed. Millions face starvation, disease, and displacement under a brutal siege that has shocked the conscience of humanity.
The genocide unfolding before the eyes of the world exposes the hypocrisy of imperialist powers who speak of “human rights” and “democracy” while financing, arming, and politically shielding the Israeli apartheid state.
The United States and its Western allies continue to provide military, diplomatic, and economic support to Israel while vetoing meaningful international action to stop the slaughter.
SAFTU reiterates that the Palestinian struggle is not a religious conflict. It is a struggle against settler colonialism, apartheid, racial domination, and occupation. It is fundamentally a struggle for national liberation, human dignity, land, equality, and self-determination.
As South Africans, we recognise these realities because our people experienced the brutality of apartheid colonialism. The pass laws, bantustans, forced removals, military occupation, collective punishment, detention without trial, and massacres inflicted on Palestinians echo the crimes committed against the black majority under apartheid South Africa.
We therefore reject attempts to criminalise solidarity with Palestine or to portray opposition to Zionism and apartheid as anti-Semitism. Criticism of the Israeli state and its policies is not hatred against Jewish people. Many Jewish organisations, activists, and intellectuals across the world are themselves at the forefront of the struggle against Israeli apartheid and genocide.
SAFTU salutes the heroic resistance and resilience of the Palestinian people who, despite unimaginable suffering, continue to refuse surrender. Their courage has inspired a global justice movement that includes workers, students, progressive organisations, and ordinary people across every continent.
We welcome the growing international solidarity movement, including:
- Mass demonstrations across the world demanding an immediate ceasefire and an end to the occupation.
- The courageous stance taken by students and academics who have faced repression for supporting Palestine;
- The increasing calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel;
- The legal action initiated by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which exposed the genocidal conduct of the Israeli state before the world.
SAFTU further welcomes the growing number of governments, legal scholars, international organisations,and human rights bodies that have publicly supported or aligned themselves with South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel. This growing international support reflects the deepening global isolation of the United States and Israel’s imperialist agenda.
Despite enormous political pressure, propaganda campaigns, and threats against countries supporting Palestine, more nations are refusing to remain silent in the face of genocide and apartheid. The moral authority of the Palestinian struggle continues to grow while those defending occupation and mass killing are increasingly exposed before humanity.
SAFTU also believes that genuine solidarity with Palestine requires consistency between words and actions. While the South African government acted with breath-taking courage and principled leadership in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, this stance is seriously undermined by the continued role of South African corporations in trade linked to the Israeli war machine and occupation economy.
It is deeply disturbing that companies such as GENCO and ARM continue to supply coal that ultimately helps sustain the infrastructure and energy systems powering Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. One cannot claim solidarity with Palestine in international courts while sections of capital continue profiting from trade that materially sustains apartheid and war.
The same contradiction is visible globally, including amongst BRICS countries that publicly speak against unilateralism and imperialism while simultaneously expanding trade and economic relations with apartheid Israel. Progressive rhetoric without material action weakens the struggle against occupation and genocide.
SAFTU therefore calls for concrete economic measures, including sanctions, trade restrictions, disinvestment,and the severing of all forms of material support that assist the apartheid Israeli state. Governments cannot occupy the moral high ground publicly while allowing business interests to profit from the suffering and destruction of the Palestinian people.
SAFTU commends the South African people for standing firmly on the side of justice and humanity. We particularly acknowledge workers and progressive organisations that have mobilised consistently in solidarity with Palestine.
However, solidarity cannot end with statements and symbolic gestures. The time has come for decisive international action.
SAFTU therefore calls for:
- An immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and all occupied Palestinian territories.
- The complete withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Palestinian land.
- The lifting of the siege on Gaza and unrestricted humanitarian access.
- The implementation of comprehensive Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel until apartheid and occupation are dismantled.
- An immediate global arms embargo against Israel, including sanctions against corporations profiting from the war and occupation.
- The prosecution of those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity before international courts.
- The recognition of a free and sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
- The right of return for Palestinian refugees in accordance with international law and United Nations resolutions.
SAFTU further calls on trade unions globally to intensify worker solidarity actions against the machinery of war and occupation. Workers must refuse to handle weapons, military cargo, and trade linked to apartheid and genocide. International worker solidarity remains one of the most powerful weapons against oppression and imperialism.
The struggle for Palestinian liberation is inseparable from the global struggle against capitalism, imperialism, colonial domination, and exploitation. The same global system that bombs and starves Palestinians is responsible for austerity, unemployment, poverty, inequality, racism, xenophobia, and the destruction of workers’ rights across the world.
On this 78th commemoration of the Nakba, SAFTU reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people.
We say clearly:
- The Nakba must end.
- The occupation must end.
- Apartheid must end.
- Genocide must end.
From the river to the sea, all people must live in peace, equality, dignity, and freedom.
Long live international solidarity. Long live Palestinian liberation
A statement was issued on behalf of SAFTU by the General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi.
For media inquiries, contact:
National Spokesperson
Newton Masuku
newtonm@saftu.org.za
0661682157
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
