The ancestral right to land, which is central to the July 19 International Court of Justice advisory opinion, is an emotive issue. However, the dispossessed are often more willing to seek negotiated solutions to protect lives.
The dominant liberation movement, the ANC, promoted a vision of South Africa belonging to all its inhabitants: indigenous people, colonial settlers and legal immigrants. Therefore, the ANC and its allies fought for a united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. After years of resistance, the apartheid regime finally acceded.
In Palestine, the colonial settlers insist on claiming the land as their ancestral right, disregarding the presence and heritage of the indigenous community. Following independence from British rule, the establishment of the State of Israel led to the systematic displacement of Palestinians, the invasion…
