I’m scratching my head over The Guardian.
How can the same people who blew up innocent civilians in cafes and buses have the gall to claim Nelson Mandela’s legacy?
As the Christian Science Monitor aptly pointed out, the Palestinians embrace of Mandela’s mantle is very, very limited.
But much of Palestinians’ praise is for how Mandela pushed back against an apartheid regime, rather than on how he embraced the language, literature, and leaders of that regime in a search for national reconciliation.
After the 1995 Rugby World Cup, Mandela famously donned Springbok gear to present a trophy to the Afrikaaner team. South Africans still talk about it as a big moment in national reconciliation.
In contrast, just getting Israelis and Palestinians onto the same soccer field today means overcoming the powerful Palestinian anti–normalization campaign.
Reconciliation? Mandela would’ve been run out of Ramallah for using that dirty word.
