In Partnership with the Mossawa Center and the South African Embassy, Middle School Students in Haifa and Nazareth learn about the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa

The Mossawa Center: 
On Tuesday June 11th and Wednesday June 12th, over 120 students from governmental  and private schools in Haifa and Nazareth participated in workshops conducted by Professor Thomas van der Walt on the struggle against colonialism and  the apartheid regime in South Africa, and the current post-apartheid reality.  The workshops were jointly coordinated by the Mossawa Center and the South African Embassy as part of the UNISA project.

Professor van der Walt spoke about apartheid in South Africa and its end in 1994, when the first elections ruled out the laws of apartheid and ethnic division in South Africa between the blacks, whites, �colored,� and Asians.  The students learnt about the racial segregation in services such as education and health care which led to the boycott of South Africa by neighboring states as well as countries worldwide.  The students also learned about the landscape and the wild animals native to South Africa.  As part of this experience, the professor had brought with him letters and drawings made by South African students, as part of an exchange with local Arab students.

As a result of the lively discussion between the professor and the students, they were able to identify with the situation of South Africa pre-1994 which echoed the reality of their own lives.  As part of their participation in the exchange with the South African students, the Arab students wrote their own letters and drew their own illustrations depicting their lives as a minority in Israel to send back to South African students.