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started working in 1996. But for Israel and Palestine, this prospect still appears remote, as
Said suggested while the latest Intifada was already months old: ‘It is too early, perhaps, for a
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but something like a Historical Truth and Political
Justice Committee would be appropriate.’ By that he means a forum where Jewish, Palestinian
and other historians and intellectuals could come together and agree on at least some of the
many disputed issues. 749 It would not be much, but it would be a commendable beginning. In
fact, journalists (foreign and local) in South Africa early on sensed that ‘Reconciliation’ is a
very big concept to use in the mass media with regard to the aftermath of apartheid, and they
therefore usually referred to the TRC as the ‘Truth Commission’ rather than by its full name
or by its acronym. 750
A ‘peace process’ on paper can do nothing by itself with regard to raising human
rights violation awareness, especially if that process only involves one outsider, which
happens to be the most powerful country in the world, and which happens to be the closest
ally of one of the parties, which in its turn happens to be the militarily most powerful country
in that part of the world. 751 The Oslo Agreement and its aftermath are in fact more
appropriately referred to as ‘the Oslo War Process.’ It is an agreement imposed on the weak
indigenous majority, which now consists mostly of expelled refugees, by the strong invading
minority and its all-powerful ally. In present-day Israel, the violence and the oppression with
impunity have continued, as have the many other gross human rights violations, including the
building of illegal settlements and roads by the apartheid government. And for now, the only
principle that is being honored, in political and diplomatic negotiations as well as on the
ground, is that ‘might is right’.
One day maybe there will be a Middle East “Truth and Reconciliation
Commission”, à la that in post-apartheid, multi-racial South Africa.
But at the moment, one of the greatest ironies of contemporary times
is that while the Apartheid of South Africa was boycotted by the world
and eventually brought down, the neo-apartheid the Palestinians are
subjected to [in] the Israeli-occupied territories, is not only tolerated,
but in many cases applauded and financed! 752
749 Said December 17, 2000
750 Krog 1998: 32. In addition, the author says that the acronym (TRC), if used by journalists, would ‘conceal the
essence of the Commission behind a meaningless abbreviation’.
751 See also Evans, D.: Arab League Says Wants Mideast Peace, Not ‘Process’, 2001, wherein Arab League
Secretary General Amr Moussa is cited as telling reporters that Arabs would not be ‘duped’ by an artificial
resumption of peace talks between Israel and Palestinians, both pressured by the USA aiming merely at calming
Muslim concern over US airborne attacks on Afghanistan during the fall and winter of 2001/2002.
752 N.N.: Was Hammarskjöld Killed by the West? 1998. The fascinating background to the title of this article:
The TRC uncovered secret South African government documents that appear to prove a plot by the South
African, US and British secret services as well as the Belgian mining company, Union Minière, to assassinate the
United Nations Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld, in 1961. He was in fact killed on September 18 of that
year in a mysterious plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (today’s Zambia) while trying to end the Cold War-related
Congolese civil war. Union Minière was deeply involved in the secession attempt of the mineral-rich Katanga
province from the Congo, which had sparked the civil war. The CIA and the government of Belgium were also
instrumental in that secession attempt as well as in the assassination of the democratically elected Congolese
President, the socialist, African Unionist and anti-apartheid activist, Patrice Lumumba, and in his replacement by
the army chief and subsequent dictator, Sese Seko Mobutu, a few months prior to Hammarskjöld’s ‘accident’.
The brutal and self-enriching rule of Mobutu, hand-picked by the CIA, lasted for 36 years and plunged the
country into further violence, corruption and extreme poverty from which it is still suffering. In fact, the ongoing
war in the Congo is the bloodiest in the world since World War II. The former Belgian Congo has yet to
reverse the callous assassination of democracy by Mobutu and his white ‘western’ friends. The documents
unearthed by the TRC also implicate white South African involvement in Lumumba’s assassination. The TRC
Chairperson, Desmond Tutu, himself announced the recovery of the documents at a press conference in Cape
Town on August 19, 1998. Following Tutu’s revelations, the US and British governmental spy agencies, CIA
and MI5, immediately denied having had anything to do with Hammarskjöld’s death, and the story was
unfortunately soon forgotten. See, however, Burger: UN Chief Killed by the Brits, 1998; Evans, M.: West