Two former anti-Israel activists from South Africa are touring US college campuses on a mission to reclaim a part of their country’s history they claim has been “hijacked” by the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to further its own political agenda.
As college students, Klaas Mokgomole and Yolanda Makhasi had both fallen victim to the rampant lie that Israel is an “apartheid state”—a trigger term they believe sways many to “support BDS without knowing all the facts.” They recently completed a trip to four West Coast college campuses as part of the “Reclaiming Your Story” tour sponsored by StandWithUs and Africans for Peace.
“Over time, what I was hearing from [BDS operatives] about Israel didn’t add up, and I realized I was being lied to,” said Mokgomole, a former member of Witwatersrand University’s BDS movement, a chapter notorious for violent anti-Israel activity. “I decided to research the issue myself, eventually visited Israel, and concluded that BDS will tell you whatever you want to win you over.”