In South Africa, student-council presidents praise Hitler and call on their universities to expel Jewish students, while major political parties endorse BDS, cutting diplomatic ties with Israel, and prosecuting South African Jews who have served in the IDF. R. W. Johnson discusses the roots of this shift:
Thabo Mbeki, who became president [of South Africa] in 1999, suffered badly from paranoia and a grandiosity complex. He wanted to be president not just of South Africa but of all Africa and even of the whole Third World. Thus he pumped life and money into the long-defunct Non-Aligned Movement so that he could preside over it. And like so many who have spent their life in the struggle, he wanted the struggle to go on. If Africa’s liberation was now complete, where else should the struggle move? Obviously, to Israel—another mainly white implant in the Third World. . . .
Mbeki [worked to lay] the groundwork for an international anti-Israel campaign closely modeled on the old anti-apartheid model, with mounting pressure for boycotts, disinvestment, and sanctions. The African National Congress was still well connected to the old international anti-apartheid network and was able to use this array of generally left-wing organizations to popularize the new cause. The result has been the mushrooming growth of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
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