Journalist at RFI (ex-DW, BBC, CBC, F24...), writer (on art, music, culture...), I work in radio, podcasting, online, on films.
As a writer, I also contributed to the New Arab, Art UK, Byline Times, the i Paper...
Born in Paris, I was based in Prague, Miami, London, Nairobi (covering East Africa), Bangui, and in Bristol, UK. I also reported from Italy, Germany, Haiti, Tunisia, Liberia, Senegal, India, Mexico, Iraq, South Africa...
This blog is to share my work, news and cultural discoveries.
South Africa is holding general and provincial elections on 29 May. In this episode of Spotlight on Africa, we look at young people and the elections and how the country has changed since the end of apartheid in 1994.
Democratic Alliance party's Chris Pappas, municipality mayor and KwaZulu Natal premier candidate, with a potential voter during the DA voter engagement walkabout in Durban on 4 May 2024. AFP - RAJESH JANTILAL
First, I talked to the director of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, Ivor Ichikowitz, who outlines the impact of corruption in South Africa and why the youth vote will be important.
Then I received Mary Paccard and Vincent Jackson, two South Africans living in France, to discuss how and why they campaigned for the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, from abroad.
Snapshot from this morning: with the legendary South African jazz musician Sipho Mabuse of the band Hotstix, here at his house, in Soweto, Johannesburg!!
I'm in South Africa, reporting from Johannesburg ahead of the general elections on 29 May, here is a little tour of the city''s 'CBD', Central Business District...
The Spring Contemporary Art Festival – also known as PAC – showcases emerging and well-known artists around dozens of venues in a three-week festival of creativity across south-east France. This year, with the Olympic Games on the horizon, sport has inspired the program, as well as Marseille's migrant-rich identity.
South Africa asks World Court to order Israel's withdrawal from Rafah
South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah.
The call is part of additional emergency measures over the war in Gaza, the U.N.'s top court said on Friday.
In the ongoing case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians, the World Court in January ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians.
Israel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It has previously said it is acting in accordance with international law in Gaza, and has called South Africa's genocide case baseless and accused Pretoria of acting as "the legal arm of Hamas".
In filings published on Friday, South Africa is seeking additional emergency measures in light of the ongoing military action in Rafah, which it calls the "last refuge" for Palestinians in Gaza.
South Africa asked the court to order that Israel cease the Rafah offensive and allow unimpeded access to Gaza for U.N. officials, organisations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators.
According to South Africa, Israel's military operation is killing the Palestinians of Gaza while at the same time starving them by denying humanitarian aid to enter.
"Those who have survived so far are facing imminent death now, and an order from the Court is needed to ensure their survival," South Africa's filing said.
The war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Hamas-run Gaza, according to health authorities there. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 253 taken hostage on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched the attack that started the war, according Israeli tallies.
The ICJ, also known as the World Court, generally rules within a few weeks on requests for emergency measures. It will likely take years before the court will rule on the merits of the case. While the ICJ's rulings are binding and without appeal the court has no way to enforce them.
The First Global Anti-Apartheid Conference for Palestine is held in South Africa this weekend in an historic move that aims to amplify the urgent need to address Israel’s ongoing genocidal actions against Palestinians – especially in Gaza.
Organised by the South African Anti-Apartheid Steering Committee (SAAASC), the conference is held from 10-12 May to reflect a "collective aspiration to mobilise worldwide action aiming to hold Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people", and "to dismantle Israeli apartheid from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea".
South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor opened the event:
The three-day conference started this Friday at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg.
The event consists of a number of panel discussions and workshops.
Speakers include Declan Kearney, chairperson of Sinn Fein; Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative; Reverend Munther Isaac from Bethlehem; Ronnie Kasrils, a former South Africa Minister of Intelligence, and others.
“We will not forgive what has happened to Palestinians. The dehumanization of Palestinians. They did not allow Palestinians to bury their loved ones,” Mustafa Barghouti said as the conference began.
Barghouti added what is happening in Palestine is a global injustice against a people.
“What we face is not only apartheid, it’s an evil plan by the settler Israeli system to destroy Palestine. 70% of the Palestinian population has been displaced,” he said.
He has demanded that the world asks where international law and human rights are amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza and other global conflicts.
He said Palestinians will not leave their land, surrender, or give up.
Barghouti also thanked South Africa for standing with the oppressed Palestinian people by taking Israel to the International Court of Justice, where Israel stands accused of genocide.
An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in the coastal enclave, and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians.
Kearney said the solidarity of ordinary people for Palestine across the world is “unprecedented” and South Africa's ICJ case against Israel is “courageous.”
He added that Israel will never defeat the Palestinian spirit of resistance, adding: “We are with the Palestinian people on their long walk to freedom and will never abandon them.”
The conference intends to lay the groundwork for intensifying global mobilisation, organisation and coordination against Israeli apartheid and “develop comprehensive political, legal, public diplomacy, and media strategies aimed at isolating Israel’s regime of oppression,” organisers said in a statement.
It also aims to “support the struggle of the Palestinian people for all their rights, including the right to self-determination, and the right to return.”
“The conference is a testament to the enduring spirit of international solidarity that helped dismantle apartheid in South Africa, and marks the beginning of a renewed, global movement against apartheid in all its forms. We stand at a watershed moment, ready to translate collective indignation into concrete actions for freedom, justice, and equality in Palestine and beyond,” organisers added.
"Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA."
HIND'S HALL
Written and Produced by Macklemore
Sample: "Ana Le Habiby" by Fairouz
Video by Macklemore
Subtitles by Charles Boonsu
Select Video Footage by:
Omar - @omaronig
Habibi House - @habibihousepodcast
Lyrics:
The people they won’t leave
What is threatening
about divesting and wanting peace?
The problem isn’t the protests
it’s what they’re protesting
Cause it goes against
what our country is funding
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
Block the barricade until Palestine is free
When I was 7 I learned a lesson
from Cube and Eazy E
What was it again?
oh yea
fuck the police
Actors in badges
protecting property
And a system that was designed
by white supremacy
But the people are in the streets
You can pay off meta
you can’t pay off me
Politicians
who serve by any means
AIPAC and the interests
Of the companies
You see puppeteers
behind the land of the free
But this generation here
is about to cut the strings
You can ban tik Tok
take us out the algothim
But it’s too late
we’ve seen the truth we bare witness
We’ve seen the ruble the buildings
the mothers the children
And all the men that you murdered
and then we see how they spin it
Who gets to the right to defend
and who gets the right of resistance
Has always been about dollars
and the color of your pigment
But
White supremacy is finally on blast
Screaming free Palestine
until they’re home at last
We see the lies in them
Claiming it’s anti-semetic
to be anti-zionist
I’ve seen jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding
In solidarity and screaming
free Palestine with em
Organizing, unlearning
and finally cutting ties with a
State
that’s gotta rely on an apartheid system
To uphold an occupying violent
History been repeating for the last 75
The Nakba never ended,
the colonizer lied
If some kids in tents,
posted on the lawn
occupying the quad
is really against the law
And a reason to call
in the police and their squad
where does genocide land
in your definition huh?
destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque
pushing everyone into rafah and dropping bombs
The blood is on your hands Biden,
we can see it all
And fuck no
I’m not voting for you in the fall
Undecided,
you can’t twist the truth
The people out here
united
never be defeated when Freedom’s on the
horizon
Yet the music industry’s quiet
complicit in their platform of silence
What happened to the artist
what do you got to say?
If I was on a label,
you could drop me today
And be fine with it
cause the heart fed my page
I want a ceasefire
fuck a response from drake
What you willing to risk?
What you willing to give?
What if you were Gaza?
what if those were your kids?
If the west was pretending that you didn’t exist
You’d want the world to stand up
And the students finally did
Let’s get it
