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Benjamin Pogrund, who spent 26 years as a journalist in South Africa investigating apartheid and who has been living in Israel for the past 15 years, investigates the accusation that Israel is practicing apartheid and the motives of those who make it. His study is founded on a belief in Israel, combined with frank criticism, to provide a balanced view of Israel’s strengths and problems. To understand Israel today, one must first look at the past and so the book first outlines key foundational events to explain current attitudes. It then explores the contradictions found in the region, including discrimination against Israeli Arabs and among Jews, before concluding that it is wrong to affix the apartheid label to Israel inside the Green Line of 1948/1967. It also deconstructs the criticisms of Israel and the boycott movement before arguing for two states, Israeli and Palestinian, as the only way forward for Jews and Arabs. This detailed and balanced study offers a unique comparison between South Africa a
Benjamin Pogrund, who spent 26 years as a journalist in South Africa investigating apartheid and who has been living in Israel for the past 15 years, investigates the accusation that Israel is practicing apartheid and the motives of those who make it. His study is founded on a belief in Israel, combined with frank criticism, to provide a balanced view of Israel’s strengths and problems. To understand Israel today, one must first look at the past and so the book first outlines key foundational events to explain current attitudes. It then explores the contradictions found in the region, including discrimination against Israeli Arabs and among Jews, before concluding that it is wrong to affix the apartheid label to Israel inside the Green Line of 1948/1967. It also deconstructs the criticisms of Israel and the boycott movement before arguing for two states, Israeli and Palestinian, as the only way forward for Jews and Arabs. This detailed and balanced study offers a unique comparison between South Africa a
When Benjamin Pogrund, one of South Africa's most distinguished journalists, first began his career as a young reporter in the 1950s, "There had been little reason at that stage to believe that anything revolutionary was about to start." As the "African affairs reporter," and then deputy editor, it was Pogrund who first brought the words of black leaders like Robert Sobukwe and Nelson Mandela to the pages of South Africa's leading newspaper, the Rand Daily Mail. This was the period of apartheid in South Africa and for most of the next thirty years, the Rand Daily Mail was the country's liberal white voice against the tyranny of the Afrikaner Nationalist government. A riveting memoir and a complex commentary on apartheid and freedom of the press, War of Words offers an insider's perspective on one of the most turbulent, and arguably one of the most significant, periods in modern history.
On 21 March 1960, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), led a mass defiance of South Africa's pass laws. He urged blacks to go the nearest police station and demand arrest. When police opened fire on a peaceful crowd in the township of Sharpeville, 68 people were killed. The protest changed the course of South Africa's history. Afrikaner rule stiffened and black resistance to apartheid went underground. Sobukwe was jailed for three years on charges of incitement, but the government, fearful of his power, rushed through the 'Sobukwe Clause' to keep him in prison without trial. For the next six years, Sobukwe was kept in solitary confinement on Robben Island, the infamous apartheid prison near Cape Town. How Can Man Die Better is the story of this South African hero, but it also the story of the friendship between Robert Sobukwe and Benjamin Pogrund, former Deputy Editor of the Rand Daily Mail. Their joint experiences and debates chart the course of a tyrannical regime and the growth of black resistance.
A revelatory account of Israel's secret military cooperation with apartheid South Africa. Prior to the Six-Day War, Israel was the darling of the international Left. But after its occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, Israel found itself isolated from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. Sasha Polakow-Suransky tells the full story of how Israel's booming arms industry and South Africa's isolation led to a hidden military alliance that grew deeper after the Likud Party came to power in 1977 and continued even after Israel passed sanctions against South Africa in the late 1980s. Polakow-Suransky has uncovered previously classified details of countless arms deals conducted behind the backs of Israel's diplomatic corps and in violation of the United Nations arms embargo. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with former generals and high-level government officials in both countries, this book tells a troubling story of Cold War paranoia, moral compromises, and Israel's estrangement from the Left.--From publisher description.
This book is the story of a remarkable man. It is also the story of the friendship between Robert Sobukwe and Benjamin Pogrund whose joint experiences and passionate debates chart the course of a tyrannous regime and the development of concerted black resistance. Thirty years ago, Robert Sobukwe led a mass defiance of the pass laws of South Africa. He persuaded blacks to present themselves at police stations and demand arrest. A determinedly non-violent protest turned to tragedy when police opened fire on a crowd, killing 69. It was 21 March 1960 at Sharpeville and Sobukwe's last day of liberty. After nine years of jail Sobukwe was released into banishment and house arrest in the small town of Kimberley. He died there nine years later, in February 1978.
Life of long imprisioned leader.
Selection of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe’s letters from prison in opposition to South African apartheid This book collates nearly 300 prison letters to and from Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, inspirational political leader and first President of the Pan-Africanist Congress. These letters are testimony to the desolate conditions of his imprisonment and to his unbending commitment to the cause of African liberation. The memory of Sobukwe has been sadly neglected in post- apartheid South Africa. With the changing political climate, the decline of the African National Congress’s power, the re- emergence of Black Consciousness, and the growth of student protests, Sobukwe is being looked to once again.
A new account of the social and political background to the notorious Sharpeville Massacre of March 1960, which looks both at the sequence of events that prompted the shootings and also their long-term consequences for South African politics, both domestically and in the country's relationship with the rest of the world.
'THE POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' Tim Shipman A blistering narrative exposé of infighting, skulduggery and chaos in Corbyn's Labour party, now revised and updated. * A Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and i Newspaper Book of the Year * Left Out tells, for the first time, the astonishing full story of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat. Drawing on unrivalled access, this blistering exposé moves from the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer. It reveals a party at war with itself, and puts the reader in the room as tensions boil over, sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking point. This is the ultimate account of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation. 'Gripping... Every bit as good as people say' Guardian 'Reads like a thriller...told with panache and pace' Financial Times 'The definitive post-mortem of the Corbyn project' Sunday Times