The Palestinian struggle today embodies the same fight for justice and freedom once waged against apartheid.

At the 23rd Nelson Mandela Foundation Annual Conference in Johannesburg, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, drew parallels between the situation in Gaza and Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid. She emphasized that the injustices born of colonialism remain a global moral failure, asserting that the Palestinian cause today symbolizes the universal struggle for justice.

South Africa, which has taken the matter to the International Court of Justice to denounce alleged genocide by Israel, views Gaza as a powerful reminder of the fight for human dignity. Albanese concluded that the images of the war, broadcast in real time, are awakening the conscience and solidarity of new generations around the world.

Just as South Africans once lived behind the invisible walls of segregation, Palestinians today live behind very real walls dividing their land and their lives. Under apartheid, an entire people were deprived of freedom, movement, and dignity — a pain Nelson Mandela carried for 27 years. Today, in Gaza, entire families experience the same sense of imprisonment, the same struggle to exist in the face of a system of oppression.

South Africa was liberated through global solidarity; Palestine, in turn, embodies that same call for justice and universal humanity.