The South African Medical Association’s decision to boycott the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) was already an exercise of vast professional conscience. Now, with Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, and other South Africans abducted from the Global Sumud Flotilla, the ethical case has not merely been made more pointed, but acutely personal.
What began as a matter of conscience for South African physicians has now escalated into a national conscience: Israel’s behaviour towards humanitarian workers, reporters and medical personnel is no longer an overseas outrage. It has come home to South African citizens themselves, and with it, the ethical challenge to Pretoria and the world at large is impossible to escape.
Mandela’s taped appeal, of his own kidnapping by the “apartheid state of Israel” and calling on the government of South Africa to act, lays bare the naked hubris with which Israel continues to disregard international law. The flotilla, as part of a civilian humanitarian mission to deliver aid to Gaza, was boarded in international waters. That is not a “security measure”, it is piracy by policy pretence.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s condemnation was unequivocal. He demanded the release of the kidnapped South Africans and denounced Israel’s takeover of the flotilla as another “serious offence” against global solidarity and international law.
It is not merely a humanitarian crisis; it is a deliberate undermining of the norms upon which the international system is based
His appeal draws strength from the International Court of Justice’s very own injunction: humanitarian aid should flow freely into Gaza. But Israel continues to treat international law as optional, and humanitarian missions as provocation.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, 40 vessels on which activists have travelled from across the world, is an unconventional moral resistance: people doing what their governments won’t. But Israel’s blockade of these vessels is a reminder that unarmed civilians are not exempt from its policy of impunity.
It is not merely a humanitarian crisis; it is a deliberate undermining of the norms upon which the international system is based.
In this context, Sama’s suspension of relations with the IMA becomes even more significant. The association has rightly refused to normalise relations with a medical organisation that has been silent while hospitals get bombed and doctors get arrested.
Sama’s appeal to the IMA to condemn such acts and practice medical neutrality is not political; it’s an ethical imperative. And now, as South Africans themselves pay the price for Israel’s aggression, the medical and moral dimensions of this crisis converge.
Foreign policy analyst Sanusha Naidu posed a pragmatic question: by cutting diplomatic ties and closing Israel’s embassy, has South Africa weakened its negotiating hand to extract its citizens? Perhaps. But that very question captures the underlying quandary of our age: do moral principles become inconsequential when faced with the demands of realpolitik? Or do they only matter when demanded in adversity?
Naidu is right to mention that diplomacy involves channels, but the Israeli-South African standoff was never going to be a conventional diplomatic effort. Israel has already spurned UN resolutions, disobeyed ICJ rulings and mocked human rights envoys. To anticipate it to respond to conventional diplomacy is wishful thinking. South Africa’s legal and moral stand needs to be strategic, not symbolic.
The ANC’s Nomvula Mokonyane stated it bluntly: “This is not just about Mandela.” She’s right. It’s about the world community of conscience, activists, doctors and ordinary citizens who won’t sit idly by while Gaza starves.
Mandela’s abduction makes it plain that this struggle is no longer an abstract one; it’s a living, breathing struggle between those who believe in human dignity and those who wish to sully it.
From Sama’s boycott in the name of morality to Ramaphosa’s diplomatic condemnation, South Africa has led the way where others would not — by taking action against Israel, not just talking. But now such moral leadership needs to be supported by pressure from abroad. The UN, the Red Cross and the World Medical Association can no longer stand by as spectators while humanitarian law is ripped apart before their eyes in real time.
Mandela’s kidnapping isn’t a diplomatic crisis; it’s a red flag. If the world allows a state to hijack aid workers at sea and cancel hospitals with impunity, the precedent it sets will outlast Gaza. Sama was correct: medicine and complicity are not compatible. Neither is humanity.
History will be the judge of who stood up when it mattered. South Africa, with all its shortcomings and internecine strife, has again chosen to stand up for justice. The rest of the world must have the courage to do the same.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.