Take, perhaps above all else, Israel and its treatment of the occupied Palestinian people. Mandela referred to Yasser Arafat as a "comrade in arms"; in February 1990, just 16 days after being released from prison, Mandela embraced Arafat in Lusaka, Zambia, comparing the Palestinian struggle against Israel to the black struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa. In the same year, on a trip to Australia in October 1990, he angered the country's Jewish community by referring to Israel as a "terrorist state" which was "slaughtering defenseless and innocent Arabs in the occupied territories, and we don't regard that as acceptable". Does anyone dare smear Mandela as an anti-Semite for making such comments? He would of course later moderate his rhetoric, upon becoming president of South Africa, and confirm his support for Israeli security - "I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel within secure borders," he once said - but he never dropped his unconditional support for the Palestinians.

Lest We Forget, on Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, Mandela Was a Radical | Mehdi Hasan Friday, December 6, 2013 @ 5:52pm