Good evening to all our friends.
Thank you to Senator Bernie Sanders for that warm introduction and for reminding us that the pursuit of social justice and freedom is an intergenerational and lifelong calling.
To our companions in the movement to defend principle – the Hague Group and the Progressive International.
To my fellow speakers – friends and comrades – Aber Kawas, Mahmoud Khalil, Winnie Byanyima, Nadia Tannous and Chris Rubb.
Our masters of ceremonies – Varsha Gandikota and David Adler.
Zane Dangor – Director General of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.
To all activists present here today.
To Riverside Church, home to all who are searching for freedom in dangerous times.
Thank you and good evening!
I can’t imagine a better place to declare: We Shall Not Be Moved in our determination to defend the principles of the UN Charter: The sovereign equality of all nations, the right to self-determination and dialogue as the only path to lasting peace.
There is no better occasion to reaffirm our conviction that might doesn’t make right.
And there is no better moment to renew our resolve to challenge those who live by the creed that the mighty must do as they can and the weak must suffer what they must.
Comrades and friends,
Tonight we are on sacred ground.
On 4 April 1967, Martin Luther King stood right here and delivered his Beyond Vietnam speech.
In that speech, Dr King challenged congregants to confront the system that produces obscene wealth next to grinding poverty and war instead of peace.
He reminded those gathered that the struggle to create a new world would be long and daunting, but unavoidable.
Exactly a year later, his life was cut short by the merciless bullets of his assassin.
Today, we gather to say: Long Live the spirit of Martin Luther King!
Long live the fight for peace and justice!
Another towering figure of the freedom struggle, Nelson Mandela, also stood in this space.
A little over four months after his release from long incarceration, Nelson Mandela leaned on this very podium and spoke before a roaring crowd that gathered to celebrate South Africa’s imminent freedom.
In his address to the crowd, President Mandela said:
“When our cause was not a popular cause in the corridors of power in Western nations, it was religious communities, college and university campuses, and anti-apartheid organisations in the United States and elsewhere that stood firm on economic sanctions.”
Mandela carried a message from the South African people, which he delivered in two parts.
First, he conveyed gratitude to all those who never forgot our struggle and never abandoned our people in their quest for justice and peace.
Second, he reminded his audience that although the structures of the old order were already caving in, freedom had not yet dawned.
He called for an intensification of the measures against the apartheid regime until total victory was secured.
Comrades and friends,
Would it not be wonderful to recall these two events – Dr King’s address and Mandela’s message – only as entries in the historical ledger?
Would it not be wonderful to sing the anthem of the downtrodden, We Shall Not Be Moved, only as a tribute to a bygone era?
Sadly, as we gather here today, the words of Dr King and President Mandela speak to our times with renewed urgency.
In the years since MLK and Madiba stood on this pulpit, many people and nations across the world have joined the festival of liberty. Many have won independence and self-determination.
But many others are still in bondage.
For Palestinians, the age of freedom is yet to dawn.
The hour of peace is yet to strike.
And every day, Israel’s actions – the annexation of Palestinian land, the destruction of their means of life, and wanton violence in Gaza and the West Bank – threaten to crush all prospects for a two-state solution.
As we gather here today, the death toll is so high that we have simply stopped counting.
Thousands more have been maimed.
Palestinian life is marked by trauma and suffering, arbitrary arrests, and lack of access to bread and shelter.
Despite the purported ceasefire, the violence of occupation and genocide continues.
Hospitals, schools, sanitation and water infrastructure have been bombed and bulldozed to the ground.
Thanks to technology, the evidence of Palestinian destruction is right on our fingertips, yet the World chooses to look the other way. Thank for staying the cause and fighting against injustice and refusing to look the other way despite tremendous challenges.
Nearly three years into this genocide, death has become an integral part of playtime rhymes and childhood games.
So distressed are the children of Gaza that 96% of them feel that death is always knocking at the door.
This is why we cannot afford to bury international law.
Dear friends,
Our own struggle is a testament to the UN Charter’s great promise and to the possibilities of a multilateral system with the UN at its centre.
After years of pushing and marching, ordinary people across the world compelled the international community to declare apartheid a crime against humanity.
More than 80 years since its adoption, the UN Charter’s principles of fundamental human rights, the dignity and worth of every person, and the equal rights of nations, large and small, are more important than ever.
When we approached the ICJ, the UN’s principal judicial organ, to challenge Israel’s violation of the Genocide Convention, we did so as part of our commitment to upholding and defending international law and multilateral institutions.
We acted because we know what global solidarity can do.
In so doing, we summoned the same global solidarity that broke apartheid in South Africa to help dismantle the apartheid under which Palestinians continue to live.
We chose to act because democratic South Africa was made possible by multitudes of ordinary people who heard and answered our call for freedom in our lifetime.
We acted to stop Israel’s impunity and to secure justice for a people suffering a live-streamed genocide.
This has not been a solitary journey.
Many countries, some of whose representatives are here today, have joined this effort to put a stop to the destruction of Palestinian life.
The Hague Group embodies that solidarity, camaraderie and shared conviction that concrete action is needed to uphold an international order based on the rule of law.
Together we continue to act because we take to heart Martin Luther King’s words when he warned:
“If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.”
Dear friends,
We also act because we know that the current attacks on international law and multilateralism are part of a bigger crisis confronting humanity.
Today, run-away inequality is eroding faith in democracy and opening the door to populists who set the poor against each other.
The global financial architecture remains tilted in favour of wealthy nations, while developing countries bear the heaviest burden of climate shocks.
African countries are under-represented in institutions where decisions affecting our future are made.
And at a time when the world needs stronger international cooperation, the institutions created to protect peace and advance development are struggling to meet the moment.
With less than four years until 2030, the Sustainable Development Goals remain out of reach.
Global military spending is now almost 800 times the UN’s regular budget.
We can see the consequences clearly across today’s major conflicts.
The Sudanese people are enduring the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement crisis.
Wars in the Middle East and the eastern DRC continue to visit untold suffering on those caught in the crosshairs and millions more beyond them.
And four years into the Russia-Ukraine war, the UN has been unable to bring that conflict to an end.
Comrades and friends,
Our resolve and our refusal have not gone unchallenged.
Just as Dr King faced difficult questions for his stance on Vietnam, we too face a litany of questions:
Should you not reserve this energy for addressing the social and economic problems in your country?
Are you not acting against your national interest by going against such powerful states and all those who back them?
Should you not rather make cold calculations based on your national balance sheet and trade?
But we choose to act because silence is not golden. In the face of grave injustice, silence is complicity.
As one of the 20th century’s greatest beneficiaries of international solidarity, we have no choice but to act despite trial and challenges we face as a result of our choice to act in defence of humanity.
Today we declare that indeed we are many.
Our numbers are growing.
We will not move.
We shall not be moved.
We continue to sing this anthem of resistance and solidarity because we know that nothing is more unsettling to injustice than collective voices that refuse to be silenced.
Let me conclude by borrowing another rallying cry from the people of Sophiatown, South Africa, who, a little over 70 years ago, took racial segregation head-on and declared in the face of apartheid’s bulldozers:
We will not move.
Ons Dak Nie. Ons Phola Hier.
Amandla!
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