A Stain on the Conscience of Humanity: The Enduring Betrayal of Palestine

By Mafa Kwanisai Mafa –  The National Chairperson, Zimbabwe Palestine Solidarity Council (ZPSC)

29 November 2025

A Year of Pain, Betrayal, and Renewed Defiance

The United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, commemorated annually on 29 November, is not a ceremonial date on the global calendar.

It is a moral checkpoint. It is a moment for humanity to pause, reflect, and measure how far or how shamefully short we have fallen in defending a people whose existence has been systematically targeted, displaced, occupied, and brutalised for more than seven decades.

In 2025, this day arrives at a time of unprecedented suffering in Gaza and the West Bank; at a time when international law and humanitarian conventions are being openly trampled with impunity; at a time when powerful nations preach human rights but bankroll apartheid.

And, regrettably, it arrives at a time when even some African governments, once torchbearers of liberation and solidarity, have abandoned the principles on which our continent’s freedom struggles were built.

As the Zimbabwe Palestine Solidarity Council, the umbrella body uniting all Palestine solidarity organisations across Zimbabwe, we raise our voice in outrage, in remembrance, in conviction, and in unshakable solidarity.

Our message is clear: Palestine is the unfinished struggle of global decolonisation, and Africa must once again take its rightful place on the frontlines of justice.

The year 2025 has been another bleak chapter for the Palestinian people. The genocidal bombardment of Gaza continued before the world’s eyes, with entire neighbourhoods erased, children orphaned or killed in the thousands, hospitals bombed, and humanitarian corridors attacked.

The West Bank has witnessed escalating settler violence, mass arrests, land seizures, and the suffocation of Palestinian life through checkpoints and economic strangulation. This is not a conflict; it is colonial domination enforced by military might.

Yet instead of decisive action, the international community has offered statements. The UN has issued resolutions that it refuses to enforce. Human rights bodies have produced reports gathering dust while Palestinian blood waters the soil of Gaza and Rafah.

The International Criminal Court, armed with mountains of evidence, moves at a pace so slow that victims die long before the perpetrators ever face the threat of accountability.

In 2025, the world has witnessed the most glaring example of international hypocrisy: the same nations that weaponise human rights discourse against geopolitical rivals fall silent when the violator is Israel. The same powers that impose sanctions overnight on countries in the Global South suddenly lose their appetite for punitive action when the victims are Palestinian.

This selective morality has emboldened Israel’s apartheid system and embittered millions who still believed in the promise of the UN Charter.

South Africa: A Beacon in a Darkened International System

Amid this global betrayal, one African nation has stood tall: South Africa. The South African government has demonstrated extraordinary moral courage in leading legal action at the International Court of Justice, calling for an end to Israel’s genocidal acts in Gaza and demanding full accountability under international law.

South Africa has carried the torch once held by Algeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, and other liberation movements that unapologetically defended the oppressed wherever they stood.

South Africa’s bravery is not only a legal stance, but it is also a historical duty. Having endured apartheid, South Africa recognises apartheid. Having confronted settler colonialism, South Africa recognises settler colonialism. And having defeated a powerful racist state through unity, sacrifice, and global solidarity, South Africa refuses to betray its own freedom legacy by remaining silent.

As the Zimbabwe Palestine Solidarity Council, we salute the people of South Africa. Its actions remind the world that Africa was, and must remain, the continent that confronts injustice with clarity and conviction.

Africa’s Contradiction: Liberation Rhetoric vs Normalisation with Apartheid

Unfortunately, the stance of some African governments has been nothing short of a slap in the face of Palestine and a betrayal of the continent’s liberation heritage.

The reckless rush to normalise relations with Israel, whether through diplomatic re-engagements, trade agreements, or covert security cooperation, undermines not only the Palestinian struggle but the very dignity of Africa.

Normalisation is political amnesia, it is ideological bankruptcy, and it is surrendering to imperial pressure for crumbs of economic aid.

These governments must be reminded that Israel supported apartheid South Africa militarily and economically, that it trained repressive regimes across Africa that terrorised their own people, that it still exploits African resources, markets, and political vulnerabilities, and that it continues to uphold a system of domination, dispossession, and racial supremacy that mirrors the darkest chapters of African history.

To normalise relations with Israel today is to spit on the graves of our liberation heroes. It is to betray the blood of Chitepo, Tongogara, Nkomo, Mandela, Sobukwe, Luthuli, Neto, Sankara, and Biko, leaders who taught us that freedom is indivisible.

Zimbabwe’s Historical and Unbroken Solidarity with Palestine

Zimbabwe, however, has never wavered. From the days of the liberation struggle, the Palestinian cause was embraced as a shared fight against settler colonialism. ZANU and ZAPU cadres trained alongside the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Our diplomatic tradition, rooted in Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism, has consistently defended Palestine at the UN, the African Union, and global fora.

In 2025, Zimbabwe reaffirmed this position in a powerful and symbolic way when, in a deeply moving ceremony, the Palestinian flag was raised at the Museum of African Liberation in Harare, side by side with the flags of African liberation movements.

Alongside it, a tree of Palestine was planted at the museum grounds. This was not a mere gesture. It was a declaration.

The Palestinian flag represents resistance, identity, and the dream of self-determination, while the Palestine tree symbolises rootedness, permanence, and the unbroken continuity of a people whose land has been targeted for erasure.

The inclusion of these symbols at the Museum of African Liberation is historic because it acknowledges Palestine as part of Africa’s extended family of liberation struggles; it immortalises Palestinian resistance in the heart of Africa’s liberation memory; and it signals to the world that Africa refuses to forget.

The museum stands as a continent-wide statement that there is no legitimate African liberation narrative that excludes Palestine. Zimbabwe’s unwavering support reflects a consistent national ethos rooted in solidarity, justice, and resistance to imperialism. For us, standing with Palestine is not merely diplomacy; it is identity.

The UN and Human Rights Bodies Have Failed Palestine

While we commend those who have stood firm, we must be brutally honest that global institutions have failed Palestine. The UN Security Council remains paralysed by the veto power of nations complicit in the occupation.

The UN Human Rights Council has issued countless condemnations, none of which have changed Israel’s behaviour. Powerful states continue to block or dilute resolutions demanding accountability.

Human rights organisations produce detailed reports, but without enforcement mechanisms, they risk becoming nothing more than archives of human suffering. This is not a procedural failure; it is a political one, representing the collapse of the international community’s moral backbone.

If the UN cannot protect a besieged civilian population, then the world must question the relevance of the institution’s founding principles.

A Call to the Progressive World: Boycott, Sanction, and Divest

The Palestinian people cannot wait for the United Nations to grow a conscience or for Western governments to rediscover morality. They cannot continue relying on empty promises and dormant resolutions. The responsibility now lies with progressive forces across the world, from civil society and trade unions to churches, universities, students, workers, artists, and all people of conscience.

We must intensify the global movement for justice by embracing the strategy of boycotting, sanctioning, and divesting from Israel.

This means refusing to purchase goods and services from institutions linked to apartheid, intensifying pressure on governments to impose meaningful sanctions, and withdrawing investments from corporations profiting from occupation, surveillance, arms supply, and illegal settlements.

The world witnessed the effectiveness of such measures against apartheid South Africa; they can, and must, work again.

Stand Firm, Stand Tall, Stand With Palestine

As we mark the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in 2025, we do so with clear eyes and a resolute heart. We recognise the betrayal, the suffering, and the hypocrisy that dominate global governance today.

Yet we also recognise the unbreakable spirit of the Palestinian people, the growing global resistance to apartheid, and the moral courage of nations like South Africa and Zimbabwe. Above all, we recognise our duty.

Palestine is the heartbeat of global justice, the mirror through which the world reveals its true values, and the struggle that will define the integrity of our generation.

On this day, we reaffirm with conviction that from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free. We reaffirm the urgent need to boycott, to sanction, and to divest; to escalate solidarity; to defend the oppressed; and to ensure that Africa once again stands on the right side of history.