Letter from Nelson Mandella to Thomas Friedman »
Posted By dissent 8 months, 2 weeks ago in Political NewsMarch 30, 2001
To: Thomas L. Friedman (columnist New York Times)
From: Nelson Mandela (former President South Africa)
Dear Thomas,
I know that you and I long for peace in the Middle East, but before you continue to talk about necessary conditions from an Israeli perspective, you need to know what's on my mind. Where to begin? How about 1964. Let me quote my own words during my trial. They are true today as they were then:
"I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."
Today the world, black and white, recognise that apartheid has no future. In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. That mass campaign of defiance and other actions could only culminate in the establishment of democracy.
Perhaps it is strange for you to observe the situation in Palestine or more specifically, the structure of political and cultural relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, as an apartheid system.
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dissent
we live in a culture of war.
let's make it a culture of peace.
"my country is the world. and my religion is to ...
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dissent8 months, 2 weeks ago
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one state, two state.... let's face it, whatever solution is offered israel kicks and screams regardless
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mandella's closing paragraph to friedman applies equally to israel
"Thomas, I'm not abandoning Mideast diplomacy. But I'm not going to indulge you the way your supporters do. If you want peace and democracy, I will support you. If you want formal apartheid, we will not support you. If you want to support racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing, we will oppose you. When you figure out what you're about, give me a call." -
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rimbaud8 months, 2 weeks ago
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The Mandela memo you linked and quoted was not written by Nelson Mandela.
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It was written by Arjan El Fassed, a co-founder of The Electronic Intifada
http://arjansweblog.blogspirit.com/mandela_memo /
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On 27 March 2001, after reading Friedman's 'mock memo' I wrote a letter entitled Mandela's first memo to Thomas Friedman to the op-ed editor of The New York Times and I posted the memo on the Thomas Friedman Discussion Board of the New York Times, hoping that Thomas Friedman would read it and that the New York Times would publish it. However, after two days, I came to the conclusion that the New York Times would not dare publishing this piece and I sent it on March 30, 2001 to Media Monitors, "a Platform for Serious Media Contributors", an online daily, which regularly published my contributions.
Soon, however, I found the 'mock memo' I wrote and which clearly indicated that I wrote it, on various listservers and websites. For example, I found my 'mock memo' on the website of Houston Peace and Justice Center, Progressive Activism in Austin, TX, and listservers such as soc.culture and Indymedia and in different languages, for example German (in which it was claimed that the author is from South Africa) or Spanish. Later, I even found it on the website of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information. Again, without mentioning the original author.
The main purpose of the Mandela-memo was to respond in a satirical way to Thomas Friedman using the exact same style and even phrases he uses in his columns. Obviously, the 'mock memo' had been forwarded to several e-mail lists containing the memo, which originally included the title "Mandela's First Memo to Thomas Friedman" and a byline "by Arjan El Fassed", but eventually was forwarded without my name and sometimes without title.
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The original piece can be found here:
http://www.mediamonitors.net/arjan28.html-
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dissent8 months, 2 weeks ago
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thank you for pointing this out rimbaud. it appears my enthusiam has made me careless and stupid. something i have had a tendency for of late.
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i wish i could say, by way of some feeble defense, that i was taken in by what has been omitted. but arjan el fassed's name and the source, media monitors, are both stated clearly at the top.
my apologies for posting this article on a misleading assumption. i will strive to be more careful and thorough before posting in future
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