South Africa’s ambassador to Israel, Fumanekile Gqiba (pictured) shared his thoughts on “Israeli apartheid” with Joel Pollak:
And when I arrived here, I started to grapple with the reality on the ground, and then I said, “Gee, I have to make a paradigm shift. I have to be objective.” I know even some of my comrades don’t believe when I say this is one, two and three, they say, “No, no, you are wrong on that.” But for me, that has been the reality. Firstly, let’s deal with one issue. Where people would say, you know, my belief was that Israel is the extension of the racist, white South Africa. Because that was my understanding before I came here. I regarded Jews as whites. Purely whites. But when I came here I discovered that, no, these guys are not purely whites. They are mixed. It’s some kind of a, shall we say, a melting pot. You’ve got people from all over the world. You’ve got Indian Jews, you’ve got African Jews, you’ve got even Chinese Jews, right?
(Hat tip: IAS)
