Weaving a tapestry of alternatives is the hope-filled work of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. But often we see and know each other first through our struggles, our pain and trauma. In this short piece, I want to reflect on this weaving from pain and in particularly, how we live through the genocide in Gaza. As I write this at the end of March 2024, every night and every morning I go onto my social media and bear witness to the atrocities happening to the people of Palestine. Privately run corporate media has shown itself to be a biased source of news. And there is something authentic and raw to shed my tears looking into the faces and hearing the voices of civilians trapped in Gaza.

I try to use my social media to amplify the voices, I donate money, I join millions of people on the streets demanding more from our governments. As individuals, we can offer what little we have. But I want to reflect here on how as social movements, as political struggles and as transnational solidarity there are pathways to action that are founded in the weaving we do across movements.
I would like to reflect on what that means in the context of South Africa and Palestine. Both countries have been described as existing under apartheid conditions. In South Africa it was a legally defined policy of segregation and racial discrimination perpetrated by white settler colonialists against the non-white population, including immigrants such as my ancestors who came as indentured labourers from India but affected the so-called black population the most. Apartheid in South Africa began in 1948 and ended in 1994 with the first democratic election. In the intermediate years, the fight for liberation was continuous. The international community played a role in supporting the struggles through sanctions; financial and other support to movements such as the African National Congress. It has been suggested that the movement against apartheid is one of the most influential global social movements of the 20th century. Palestine has always been an ally to the liberation struggle in South Africa throughout those years. Even as it fought its own apartheid. In 1947 a UN resolution led to the partition of Palestinian land and the creation of the state of Israel. This led to the first Nakba in 1948 and leads us to where we are today. – a genocide happening live before our eyes. As I write, at least 32,845 people have been killed, including more than 13,000 children and 8,400 women. Many more are injured and missing while countless others are facing starvation due to blockades of aid into Gaza, by the Israeli government.

These long and shared histories tie our two countries together. During the worst years of my country, the Palestinian people stood in solidarity and offered moral and political backing. More than that, we have also been inspired by their commitment to freedom and justice. As the Palestinian poet, Rafeef Ziadah, reminds us in her heartbreaking poem, “we teach life, sir”. Within the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, we have been privileged to learn from Abdelfattah Abusrour, Founder & General Director of Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society about the constant work of creating art, play and joy in the midst of the beautiful resistance for peace and life (see the webinar: https://globaltapestryofalternatives.org/webinars:2021:05).

Nelson Mandela spoke for many South Africans in 1997 when he said, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” Those words and commitment has been brought to life now as the South African took the historic step of taking the State of Israel to the International Court of Justice in a case on the application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip. These days, I have truly felt proud to be South African when our government has stood firm in our support for Gaza.

The momentous step that the government of South Africa has taken must also be seen in the light of the military and political support that Israel has enjoyed from countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany and many colonial and imperial states. There is something important in the geopolitics of the world when one sees which nations have stood in support of South Africa in the ICJ case. Additionally, we cannot overlook the importance of Namibia’s public rebuke of Germany’s stance, highlighting Germany’s own genocidal history in Namibia. I would like to think that when we connect our struggles, we open up to recognize our common humanity and learn how to value life.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said at the UN climate summit COP28 that ‘What we see in Gaza is the rehearsal of the future.’ There is so much more to the story of Gaza that stretches into the past for many peoples; the presents of Sudan, Congo, Somalia, Syria (and the list goes on) but also our future. As we count each day and every life lost in Gaza, the lesson I take for the theme of this periodical is that we weave for life everywhere, we weave from our struggles and we weave through our solidarity.

I stand with the people of Palestine in their ongoing struggle for justice and freedom. Most immediately, I join the call for action by the international community to ensure an immediate ceasefire and end to the genocide of Palestinian people.

About the author

I am a scholar-activist currently based in Scandinavia. I was born and raised in South Africa, a dynamic country, where I learnt important lessons of freedoms, people’s roles in nature and about inequality. I am most interested in trying to understand the big picture of how human and more-than human life comes together, the complexity of these interactions and implications for justice from a feminist and decolonial perspective. I do so to support a resistance to the destructive hegemonic system and for the creation of radical alternatives. It is a pleasure to be a founding member of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives.