Page 29 - Issue 25

Wits University in 1966 we felt that in a way he
was challenging us when he said:”This struggle will
not be won by standing aloof and pointing a
finger; it will be won by action. In the midst of this
controversy and difficulty and risk it is you who
have to decide”.

But in spite of feeling that we were part of the
Sixties revolution, we decided not to take that risk.
Our inability to facilitate change in S.A. and the
realization that this could not and should not really
become our struggle, perhaps combined with the
element of fear and insecurity made aliyah to
Israel and in particular to the kibbutz the only
realistic option to implement both our Jewish and
our universal values. So as much as we opposed
apartheid this was not seen as our cause and
Israel offered the challenge of building a new
society: “a light unto the nations.”

Today’s South Africa has changed dramatically
without the bloody revolution and upheaval that
we thought was inevitable. Present day Israel is
certainly no longer a “light unto the nations” and is
no longer the country we envisaged when we
moved here in the Sixties.

As we fondly remember the Sixties, those of us
living in Israel today are faced with a feeling of
Déjà Vu as the ghost of Apartheid revisits us, many
of the old dilemmas resurface and Robert
Kennedy’s challenge faces us once again.