.

How it started?

On March 27, 2001, Thomas Friedman wrote a column in the style of a 'mock memo' entitled Bush's First Memo. In this 'mock memo' Thomas Friedman writes in the name of U.S. President George W. Bush a memo to Palestinian President Yasir Arafat.

This 'mock memo' -- Thomas Friedman had published a number of them in the New York Times, for example, a 'mock memo' he wished Secretary of State Colin Powell would have sent to President George W. Bush was published on February 20, 2001 -- triggered me to write to the New York Times' Readers Opinions in the the 'mock memo' style that Friedman himself liked to use and offered Nelson Mandela responding to Friedman's Bush's First Memo to Arafat.

Mandela's first memo to Thomas Friedman (30 March 2001)

Since Thomas Friedman tells his readers that Palestinians should forget about 1948 and forget about returning to their homes, I wanted to show that any opposition against the implementation of the right of return is a form of
racism, that Israel's policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians in 1948-occupied Palestine as well as in 1967-occupied Palestine can no otherwise be described as apartheid. Since Nelson Mandela has become the personification of the struggle against apartheid, I thought a 'mock memo' including Mandela was the logical thing to do. I could also have taken Steven Biko who has said that "the most potential weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" or Oliver Tambo or others anti-apartheid activists.

The confusion

On 27 March 2001, after reading Friedman's 'mock memo' I wrote a letter entitled Mandela's first memo to Thomas Friedman to the op-ed editor of The New York Times and I posted the memo on the Thomas Friedman Discussion Board of the New York Times, hoping that Thomas Friedman would read it and that the New York Times would publish it. However, after two days, I came to the conclusion that the New York Times would not dare publishing this piece and I sent it on March 30, 2001 to Media Monitors, "a Platform for Serious Media Contributors", an online daily, which regularly published my contributions.

Soon, however, I found the 'mock memo' I wrote and which clearly indicated that I wrote it, on various listservers and websites. For example, I found my 'mock memo' on the website of Houston Peace and Justice Center, Progressive Activism in Austin, TX, and listservers such as soc.culture and Indymedia and in different languages, for example German (in which it was claimed that the author is from South Africa) or Spanish. Later, I even found it on the website of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information. Again, without mentioning the original author.

The main purpose of the Mandela-memo was to respond in a satirical way to Thomas Friedman using the exact same style and even phrases he uses in his columns. Obviously, the 'mock memo' had been forwarded to several e-mail lists containing the memo, which originally included the title "Mandela's First Memo to Thomas Friedman" and a byline "by Arjan El Fassed", but eventually was forwarded without my name and sometimes without title.

I posted the 'mock memo' myself on 30 March on the list of Al-Awda. Despite this, I've seen it several times being posted on the same list, something that gives you an idea of the lack of attention many people give to material they forward. In various posts I read, the subject title was changed for example, "Mandela supports...", "must read", etc. Perhaps it was wishful thinking. If Nelson Mandela would seriously have written to the New York Times, wouldn't the New York Times just publish it? Moreover, I believe Nelson Mandela has better things to do then responding to columns written by Thomas Friedman.

How things got worse

On April 24, 2001, Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist and editorial writer for the Israeli national daily Ha'aretz wrote in his Strong Quote from Mandela that the Palestinian daily Al Quds published a letter that Nelson Mandela sent to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in response to a March 27 Frideman column, dubbed "Memo to President Bush."

Immediately, I wrote a letter to Ha'aretz explaining what happened. Most probably, someone translated the memo (without byline) into Arabic and which was taken up by the Palestinian daily and printed on April 16, 2001, however, without verifying the source. The editor of Al Quds, Marwan Abu Zalaf, said that he had no idea it was a fake, and that one of his reporters found it on the Internet.

On Friday, April 18, the Lebanese daily As-Safir re-published the 'mock memo' in Arabic based on the article as printed by the Palestinian daily Al-Quds. On Monday, April 21, The Daily Star had an op-ed entitled "Sharon: Why does the world ignore me?" and at the top of the 'memo', they had the following boxed introduction:

"New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has recently popularized the idea of writing opinion pieces framed as "memos" from world leaders to various recipients, prompting various other writers to mimic the practice.

For the byline, at the bottom, the Star wrote in italics: Arjan El Fassed wrote this commentary for MediaMonitors, a website dedicated to providing a platform for all political opinions (NB. The Daily Star's archive is currently not working).

The Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen published a commentary in which it quoted The Jerusalem Times which published the 'mock memo' on April 6, 2001, again without source, byline, or author, in its publication.

On April 24, 2001, someone wrote to Akiva Eldar the following:

----- Original Message -----
From: ******* <********@yahoo.com>
To: eldar@haaretz.co.il
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2001 7:26 PM
Subject: Strong quote from Mandela

For the record, I have received the original messages containing each of Arjan El Fassed's "memos," sent directly from him (via an e-group). Mr. El Fassed's byline is clearly present on each article, the articles come from his own e-mail address, and the more recent ones contain an explicit warning against forwarding the article without the byline. There is no possible basis for arguing that Mr. El Fassed intends for people to believe the memos were written by anyone other than himself.

It is hard to imagine that anyone would accuse Tom Friedman of impersonating a world leader if one of his "memos" was forwarded, sans byline, and then re-printed in another newspaper (though the newspaper re-printing the story would be a legitimate target for criticism).

To claim that Mr. El Fassed "tends to sign various missives he sends out to the world signed with the names of famous people" is, if not an intentional lie, than an inadvertent gross misstatement of fact. Whether you like Mr. El Fassed's writing or not, you have a responsibility to correct what you wrote.

The next day, Akiva Eldar, replied:

--- haaretz eldar@haaretz.co.il wrote:
From: "haaretz"
To: "*******" <*******@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Strong quote from Mandela
Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 09:15:42 +0200

Mr El Fassed has give me a full account of his position and it will be reported in my next column.

However, instead of being reported in his next column, Ha'aretz published my own response instead.

Worse, however, Toronto Star columnist, Michele Landsberg wrote on May 20, 2001, Forged letter slights dignity of Nelson Mandela, in which she claimed that she checked with Mandela's office in South Africa and that she heard from his assistant:

"You enquired about the infamous article that has been doing the rounds across the globe. We've received numerous enquiries. . . . Mr. Mandela did not write the article/letter, and this matter has been referred to his lawyers for further action."

Nigel Parry responded to that column by writing a letter to the Toronto Star editor:

"Regarding Michele Landsberg's column, "Forged letter slights dignity of Nelson Mandela", there was no "rat". Someone obviously forwarded her the memo without its byline and she failed to seek out its source.

The memo was a clearly signed spoof that was first published on the Media Monitors Network.

Landsberg's assertion that the letter was a "forgery" is as baseless as her claim that the political philosophy of Zionism -- which directly resulted in the establishment of an Israeli state on the ruins of 415 Palestinian villages ethnically cleansed of nearly one million Arabs, with a legal system that still discriminates between "Jewish" and "Non Jewish" citizens in areas such as property ownership -- is somehow not racist.

The Toronto Star chose not to publish Nigel's letter.

On May 26, 2001, the Lebanese newspaper an-Nahar published a clarification in Arabic which is similar to my own response in Ha'aretz.

Even now, some emails are still circulating with the 'mock memo'. For example, the Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace circulated the 'mock memo' and sent a message to their own list on 14 February 2002, saying that

"We sent you a letter, which was supposedly written by Nelson Mandela and addressed to Thomas Friedman. As we received it by email from a friend who was excited about a good answer to Friedman’s latest article in the New York Times, we misread the address, and thought it was in fact written in the New York Times. Thanks to the queries of some of you, we went to the source, and now we know for certain that Mandela did not write the article. It is still a good response, but we have no clue so far as to the author."

What other readers said

In a message posted on April 13, 2002 on a listserver called Ecunews, Rick Mitchell wrote that the 'mock memo':

"reinforces [my] claim that Israel is maintaining a system of Apartheid by keeping Palestinians in captivity (the current occupation dates back to June, 1967) and subject to second-class status. One need not agree with all of his statements, but it is illuminating to recognize that we see and hear very little of this argument in the U.S., as the policy of our government and of the mainstream media has been consistently pro-Israeli. Politics is, of course, politics, but the important point to consider is El Fassed's (and others') contention that Zionism is inherently racist and un-democratic, resulting quite logically in an apartheid system of discrimination. It is also the policy of the U.S. government."

What's interesting is that some even argued, "but there is also a sense in which the 'true' or original author does not matter -- and that sense is related to the question, 'Is it true?'"

Others wrote on various lists, "If this is authentic, it is truly a moral bombshell in the present level of discussion..." and "[It may have been written] as a statement about what perhaps Nelson Mandela would say to someone such as journalist Thomas Friedman."

"For those of you who are concerned about the authenticity of the Mandela memo, I have researched the matter with the help of others. Apparently Thomas Friedman often writes as though he were someone else and this piece is written with this understanding. I do not question the content because from my own personal experience, I can attest to an apartheid situation."

Someone else posted this question:

"How could I find an email for Nelson Mandela to alert him to the efforts of us in the Jewish world who oppose Israel's current treatment of Palestinians - and to discuss with him strategies for having an impact?"

"My husband (among other people) forwarded the 'Nelson Mandela memo' to me. I checked up on it through my sources in Palestine and found that it was not written by Nelson Mandela but by someone else using the style of Friedman's articles. The name of the person is in some email in my file but the name doesn't really matter. Someone was trying to do good but left the rest of us with egg on our faces. You may want to pass this information on to those from whom you got it and to those to whom you sent it."

Another reader made this observation, "The existential reality of injustice witnessed first-hand...is a far more powerful teaching tool than injustice heard or read about."

What Nelson Mandela indeed has said

"It is completely wrong that the United States must be the mediator in this conflict. Everybody knows the United States is a friend of Israel."

"As far as we are concerned what is being done to the Palestinians is a matter of grave concern. We are the friends of Yasser Arafat. We are the friends of the Palestinians. We support their struggle" (Reuters, 1 June 2001, Mandela, speaking at a news conference after talks with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin).

"Israel should withdraw from the areas which it won from the Arabs -- the Golan Heights, south Lebanon and the West Bank -- that is the price of peace" (Dispatch, 20 October 1999)

"Our men and women with vision choose peace rather than confrontation, except in cases where we cannot get, where we cannot proceed, where we cannot move forward. Then, if the only alternative is violence, we will use violence" (Associated Press, 20 October 1999)

"The histories of our two peoples, Palestinian and South African, correspond in such painful and poignant ways, that I intensely feel myself being at home amongst compatriots" (Associated Press, 20 October 1999)

"The long-standing fraternal bonds between our two liberation movements are now translating into the relations between two governments" (Associated Press, 20 October 1999)

Ha'aretz, Letters to the Editor, 30 April 2001

Regarding "Strong quote from Mandela" by Akiva Eldar (Ha'aretz, April 24, 2001)

I am the "Palestinian living in Holland" mentioned in Akiva Eldar's piece and I would like to clarify what happened.

[Eldar reported that a letter purportedly sent by Nelson Mandela to Thomas Friedman was "the initiative of a Palestinian living in Holland who tends to sign various missives he sends out to the world with the names of famous people."]

On 27 March 2001, Thomas L. Friedman published his column "Bush's First Memo" in the New York Times. As a response I adapted Friedman's style and wrote him a response. If you compare Friedman's "Bush's First Memo" and "Mandela's First Memo," then you'll see that I used the same style (and nobody ever blamed Friedman for using this style of writing).

However, the New York Times did not publish my response and so I sent it to MediaMonitorsNetwork which published my response on March 30, 2001.

Then it was posted, including the title "Mandela's First Memo to Thomas Friedman" and a byline saying "by Arjan El Fassed", on several mailing lists. However, and this is where the problems started, it was forwarded by someone, who deleted the byline (which stated that it was written by me), and so those who read it without the byline believed it was written by Mandela himself. Immediately, I sent an explanation and explicitly wrote that it was written by me. It was never my intention to make a fake or pretend it actually was written by Nelson Mandela. Not a lot of people seem to understand that it was a complete copy of the style Friedman uses.

Also the memo was posted on the Website "the Electronic Intifada" and it clearly states that it was written by me "in the 'mock memo' style that Friedman himself likes to use" and it was highlighted that it was "satire".

Moreover, on April 11, 2001, I wrote a second response to the New York Times, and again they didn't publish, and this time I wrote a memo from Mahatma Gandhi.

I intentionally choose Mahatma Gandhi, not in the first place, because he is no longer living. However, the problem with the whole thing is that some people have forwarded an email without source, without stating where they got it from, who was the author and where it was published.

People start forwarding and then it appeared translated in Arabic on the Internet, and then it was published by a newspaper, which didn't verified its source, and then today I see it again in Ha'aretz. As you can see, the problem is with the person who forwarded it without the byline and without stating that I was the author. I didn't have any ill intention with it, especially not causing harm to anyone.

What I intended with it, was to show Thomas Friedman that he was wrong with the contents of his column.

Arjan El Fassed
De Bilt, The Netherlands

by Akiva Eldar, Ha'aretz, April 24, 2001

Two weeks ago, the Palestinian daily Al Quds published a letter that Nelson Mandela sent to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, in response to a March 27 Frideman column, dubbed "Memo to President Bush," which was particularly critical of Yasser Arafat.

"Dear Thomas, I know that you and I long for peace in the Middle East," starts Mandela's letter and immediately swings into an attack on Israel, comparing it to the white apartheid regime in South Africa. "The Palestinians are not struggling for a 'state' but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa," it goes on.

Here are some more quotes from the Nobel Prize winner's letter:

"Thomas, if you followed the polls in Israel for the last 30 or 40 years you clearly find a vulgar racism that includes a third of the population who openly declare themselves to be racist ... the so-called 'Palestinian autonomous areas' are bantustans ... restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli apartheid system. The Palestinian state cannot be the by-product of the Jewish state just in order to keep the Jewish purity of Israel."

And so on and so forth.

The editor of Al Quds, Marwan Abu Zalaf, sent a copy of the freedom fighter's letter to Ha'aretz and suggested it be brought to the attention of the newspaper's readers. Just to be sure, we asked the South African Embassy in Tel Aviv check with Mandela's office that he indeed write it. It didn't take long for the truth to come out - the letter was a fake.

Mandela apparently first heard about the letter from a thank you message he received from Arafat, who apparently read his South African friend's "creation" in the Palestinian newspaper. It turns out that the letter was the initiative of a Palestinian living in Holland, who tends to sign various missives he sends out to the world signed with the names of famous people.

Abu Zalaf said yesterday that he had no idea it was a fake, and that one of his reporters found it on the Internet. He doesn't think that it's necessary to let his readers know that the newspaper misled them. He's certain that in any case everyone has already forgotten about the whole thing and there's no need to bring the matter up again.

By Arjan El Fassed

MEMO

To: Thomas L. Friedman (columnist New York Times)
From: Nelson Mandela (former President South Africa)

Dear Thomas,

I know that you and I long for peace in the Middle East, but before you continue to talk about necessary conditions from an Israeli perspective, you need to know what's on my mind. Where to begin? How about 1964. Let me quote my own words during my trial. They are true today as they were then:

"I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It
is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

Today the world, black and white, recognise that apartheid has no future. In South Africa it has been ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. That mass campaign of defiance and other
actions could only culminate in the establishment of democracy.

Perhaps it is strange for you to observe the situation in Palestine or more specifically, the structure of political and cultural relationships between Palestinians and Israelis, as an apartheid system. This is because you
incorrectly think that the problem of Palestine began in 1967. This was demonstrated in your recent column "Bush's First Memo" in the New York Times on March 27, 2001.

You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established "normally" and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling
for a "state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.

In the last few years, and especially during the reign of the Labour Party, Israel showed that it was not even willing to return what it occupied in 1967; that settlements remain, Jerusalem would be under exclusive Israeli
sovereignty, and Palestinians would not have an independent state, but would be under Israeli economic domination with Israeli control of borders, land, air, water and sea.

Israel was not thinking of a "state" but of "separation". The valua of separation is measured in terms of the ability of Israel to keep the Jewish state Jewish, and not to have a Palestinian minority that could have the
opportunity to become a majority at some time in the future. If this takes place, it would force Israel to either become a secular democratic or bi-national state, or to turn into a state of apartheid not only de facto,
but also de jure.

Thomas, if you follow the polls in Israel for the last 30 or 40 years, you clearly find a vulgar racism that includes a third of the population who openly declare themselves to be racist. This racism is of the nature of "I hate Arabs" and "I wish Arabs would be dead". If you also follow the judicial system in Israel you will see there is discrimination against Palestinians, and if you further consider the 1967 occupied territories you will find there are already two judicial systems in operation that represent two different approaches to human life: one for Palestinian life and the other for Jewish life. Additionally there are two different approaches to property and to land. Palestinian property is not recognised as private property because it can be confiscated.

As to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, there is an additional factor. The so-called "Palestinian autonomous areas" are bantustans. These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli apartheid system.

The Palestinian state cannot be the by-product of the Jewish state, just in order to keep the Jewish purity of Israel. Israel's racial discrimination is daily life of most Palestinians. Since Israel is a Jewish state, Israeli Jews are able to accrue special rights which non-Jews cannot do. Palestinian Arabs have no place in a "Jewish" state.

Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children.

The responses made by South Africa to human rights abuses emanating from the removal policies and apartheid policies respectively, shed light on what Israeli society must necessarily go through before one can speak of a
just and lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its apartheid policies.

Thomas, I'm not abandoning Mideast diplomacy. But I'm not going to indulge you the way your supporters do. If you want peace and democracy, I will support you. If you want formal apartheid, we will not support you. If you
want to support racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing, we will oppose you. When you figure out what you're about, give me a call.