Cape Town - Veteran social justice activist, Zackie Achmat, protested the presence and inclusion of German ambassador, Andreas Peschke, at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Centre for Social Justice’s 6th International Social Justice Conference, which focused on “Social Justice and Sustainable Development Goal on Zero Hunger”.
Achmat, a Palestine solidarity activist, confronted the ambassador over Germany’s support of Israel, particularly in providing arms.
Before the session, moderated by director-general of the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco), Zane Dangor, Achmat approached the stage on which Peschke was seated as a panellist, at the conference held at the Artscape, on Thursday.
@capeargus_news Veteran social justice activist, Zackie Achmat, protested the presence and inclusion of German ambassador, Andreas Peschke, at Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Social Justice’s 6th International Social Justice Conference, which focused on “Social Justice and Sustainable Development Goal on Zero Hunger”. Achmat, a Palestine solidarity activist, confronted the ambassador over Germany’s support of Israel, particularly in providing arms. Video: Shakirah Thebus/Cape Argus #Palestine #Germany #Ambassador ♬ original sound - The Cape Argus
The conference was hosted by the centre’s director professor, Thuli Madonsela, in collaboration with partners such as the United Nations and the South African government.
Achmat said: “We want to say this, many Jewish people including Rosa Luxemburg supported justice and equality for every person and she supported free speech, yet this representative of the Reich is a representative of Jewish people and Palestinian people, who as we speak, when they protest are jailed, are beaten up including children, at the least that look no different from the Nazis. Sir, have you no shame. You are one of the largest arms suppliers to the State of Israel…”
He further asked all those supporting the people of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, to join him in leaving.
“You are not welcomed in our midst,” Achmat said.
In response to this, Peschke said ahead of his official remarks: “As a diplomat, I firmly believe in dialogue. So I think it's important to talk to each other. I don’t think it's useful to shout at each other. We need to sit down and we need to have a dialogue and to find joint solutions.”
Achmat later added: “If I look at the whole of Europe and North America, with the exceptions of Spain, Ireland, Belgium, what all of them are doing is allowing the destruction of human beings and destruction of international law. And it's deeply painful.”
Achmat was a panellist on a different session later on, focused on Hunger and Poverty.
@weekendargus After veteran social justice activist Zackie Achmat protested the presence and inclusion of German ambassador, Andreas Peschke, over Germany’s support of Israel - particularly in providing arms - at Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Social Justice’s 6th International Social Justice Conference (seen on @capeargus_news), he later explained the reasoning behind why. Video: Shakirah Thebus/Independent Newspaper #Palestine #Germany #Ambassador ♬ original sound - WeekendArgus
Prior to the plenary sessions, the keynote address was delivered by SU chancellor and former Constitutional Court Justice, Edwin Cameron.
“Hunger is a political state and an intolerable state. It's an impediment to growth and resilience amongst children,” Cameron said.
Cameron said the right of access to sufficient food must be realised by the government, and that governments have failed to do this.
He said protracted conflicts, insecurity and violence were also the causes of hunger.
“And let us pause a moment to think of two terrible conflicts, one on our continent and the one in Palestine-Israel, the Gaza conflict.
“And I want us to pause and to think about both of them, that in Sudan, hunger is being used as a weapon of war in violation of international human rights laws and that is being done right now, as we sit here this morning by the State of Israel and the Israeli Defence Force against the children of Gaza, that are using hunger as a weapon to achieve their war goals.
“It is a breach of international humanitarian law and at the moment the conflict agents in both Sudan and in Palestine-Israel are getting away with it.”
“Despite the fact that we are a middle-income country, we have a wretchedly high rate of hunger in our country and childhood malnutrition and stunting are particularly devastating.”
Cameron said climate change and natural disasters also added to food insecurity. He also raised ethical issues, such as the exploitation of agricultural workers across the country.
“In this very province, what a beautiful province, a province of great natural beauty, of fecundity, of fertile hills and plains, agricultural workers suffer undue burdens in their work conditions.”
“The key to reforming our food production is to respect those hands, mostly black and dark skinned hands that produce the food that you eat.”
In addition, he also spoke of the inhumane treatment of animals, specifically intended for human consumption.
“Mass production of animals for humans to eat their flesh is unspeakably cruel in addition it is damaging to our body and to the world, it is also staggeringly inefficient.”
Madonsela said: “Is it possible that we’ve normalised the suffering of certain groups in society.... I believe in certain countries, in certain tribes that have historically been marginalised and when we see them hungry, it's normal. In virtually all societies, it's the poor.”