By Hassen Lorgat
This week in South Africa the issue of platforming and deplatforming raises its head once again.Two conferences will be hosted in South Africa – one after the other. The first is a Discovery convened health practitioners conference kicks off on 19 November in Capetown and the other a gathering of civil society organisations from the 20th onwards for 3 days in Gauteng. This conference is underwritten by the National Endowment for Democracy and despite calls for a total boycott still has a number of good people and organisations attending. They will have to meandre the founding objectives of the NED as being a soft US power that has allied with the CIA in perpetrating regime change.
Whilst they are distinct in some ways they have two things in common: they are hosted by powerful groups with agenda’s overt and covert but well endowed with lots of funds and political clout. Secondly, they convene here but are seemingly oblivious about the genocide against Palestinians and the case lodged South Africa at the International Court of Justice: demanding an end to the genocide.
Future of Health ?
The first conference is organised by Discovery Health called Future of Health Summit 2024 takes place on November 19, 2024 Cape Town, South Africa.
If it was a conference that I was organising it would entitled it: The Future of Health in the time of Genocide in the Trump era. But this is not to be.
Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) is the largest private medical scheme in South Africa, with a market share of 57.6% and covering 2 810 992 beneficiaries at 31 December 2022. They have clout and they have decided not to use it to highlight injustices in global health but rather become complicit in the genocide of Palestinians by inviting Israeli doctors to speak at the conference.
Far from the joining the international campaign to isolate Israel for its racist occupation, as per directive of the ICJ ruling 19 July 2024, Discovery Health has invited: Prof. Eyal Zimlichman, FOH Co-Chairman Chief Transformation Officer, Chief Innovation Officer,Founder & Director of ARC, Sheba Medical Center. The other Israeli guest that will be platformed is Dr. Noya Shilo Deputy Head of Internal Medicine Sheba Medical Center.
If there was a story we should not tire of hearing – it must be the Gaza doctors and the Health Department who have gone beyond the call of duty and the hippocratic oath to deliver health care under conditions of occupation and war of attrition. Ths conference could have profiled them and raise funds for them as we solidarity with them whilst they endure the most recorded Genocide. Three months (Dec 2023) into this phase of the war on Gaza, the horrors of the annihilation of medical teams and the infrastructure was so stark that it compelled Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health to say:The healthcare infrastructure in the Gaza strip has been completely obliterated,” “We are in the darkest time for the right to health in our lifetimes”
Matters only went from bad to worse, since.
Figures produced by Relief Web, to mark one year of the genocide on 1 October 2024, reported that more than 900: Number of Palestinian medical workers killed by the Israeli military, including at least 165 doctors (including more than 50 highly specialised doctors), and 260 nurses. In addition, the number of hospitals and other health care facilities destroyed in Gaza number at least 512: Number of Israeli military attacks on hospitals and other health care facilities in Gaza, which killed at least 759 Palestinians and wounded 1,000 others.
Because of the attack on doctors, nurses and auxiliary stuff and the institutions it was estimated that 26 percent of ¨Palestinians who have fallen severely ill from easily preventable diseases because of a lack of clean water and sanitation due to Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s water, sanitation, and health care systems, and blocking entry of humanitarian aid. The numbers of people dying from acute respiratory illness, acute watery diarrhoea, jaundice, bloody diarrhoea is far higher than a million of the 2.3 million population. Hepatitis A and polio are reportedly on the increase, the latter because of poor sewage because of the bombing of water and sanitation supplies.
Endowment for Democracy?
The second de-platforming conference is sponsored by the US and is billed as the 12th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy! The organisers boast that “under the theme “Revitalising Democracy: Reflection, Resilience, and Innovation as the Global Assembly hopes to bring over 500 hundred democracy advocates from around the world “to engage in dynamic conversations, interactive workshops, and unique networking opportunities”. The Assembly, they say, is a platform “to build cross-border communities, facilitate learning, and inspire innovation in our fight for freedom.” It is organised here to coincide with South Africa’s 30 th anniversary as a democracy.
Whilst the conference commits to proactively assess and confront challenges, such as rising authoritarianism, increased repression, deeply rooted corruption, disinformation these symptoms of a failing democracies – which seem to be not the problems of the Global North and the US in particular.
Sadly the US’s internal politics will not be under the microscope as the empire’s challenges with democracy have much to teach us in the Third World.
The influence of powerful lobbying groups in the U.S. has tarnished the integrity of the country’s democratic processes. Organisations like AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the NRA (National Rifle Association) wield significant clout, shaping policies and elections through substantial financial contributions and advocacy efforts. American democracy is at the mercy of private power interest groups that have bought American democracy and to use the phrase of one author, America is the best democracy money will buy.
Externally, or in foreign affairs the US stands accused of killing thousands in drone attacks in places like Pakistan, and elsewhere. The Grayzone has done stirling work exposing the NED over the years and more recently. They have highlighted the destabilising effects of NED’s meddling in places like Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Haiti, where the Endowment has systematically undermined elected governments which undertook policies seen as violating the Washington Consensus. These items as well as the genocide in Palestine and the plunder of the Congo and the foreign powers meddling in Sudan and Libya… must be on the agenda and platformed. But I fear they have been kept out.
Closer to our home, let us discuss the international human rights law and the commitment to multilateralism. The U.S. has historically maintained a strong support for Israel in international forums, often opposing actions deemed hostile to the country, such as cases brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Criminal Court (ICC). Whilst not a member of the ICC, the US cannot stop themselves from pressuring these bodies to stop international bodies from attempting to hold Israel (and the US ) to account. These pressures include diplomatic pressure, threats of sanctions, funding considerations, and public statements aimed at delegitimizing legal actions taken against Israel. These pressures are overt and covert.
A Healthy Future for some and Democracy of a Special Type for our friends is not for me, largely because these are not genuinely level playing fields. They do not seek liberation and autonomy for those who have come out of colonialism and apartheid. Our concerns will not truly be addressed and will not be on the table. BUT we will be on the menu: the other or as an adversary or enemy.
“Othering” is a concept that refers to the act of excluding or marginalising people based on their differences. We cannot be othered because they say we are keeping Bad Company, some in Brics and so on…with good friends like those who need enemies? I recall Madiba’s famous words after decades on Robben Island said in an interview on 18 Jul 2017, “one of the mistakes which some political analysts make is to think their enemies should be our enemies.” To be truly free and independent means having the right to choose our own developmental paths and allying with whoever agrees with us.
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There will be no chance of putting these issues on the agenda and as I write the attempts at critique, boycott and outrange are gaining ground.
Various groups have withdrawn but a few of significance such as the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the Bishop Tutu have not pulled out….
History will judge us all how we deal with these immediate challenges as we go forward to carving our own path.
- *Churchill reading history* or *For empire – against the dog without a manger* - November 27, 2024
- Two conference one subtext: Ignore the genocide… - November 18, 2024
- Poetic doubts A-Poem - November 17, 2024