This Friday, July 18 is Nelson Mandela International Day, in tribute to the former South African President’s contribution to justice, mercy, peace and development. This day of recognition of Mandela’s courage and legacy was declared by the UN General Assembly Dec. 1, 2009, in [Resolution A/RES/64/13]( https://docs.un.org/A/RES/64/13). The resolution acknowledged, “Nelson Mandela’s contribution to the struggle for democracy internationally and the promotion of a culture of peace throughout the world.”
Dr. Naledi Pandor, Chairperson of the Nelson Mandela Foundation of South Africa, in her presentation July 12 on the opening panel of the Schiller Institute-co-sponsored international conference in Berlin, spoke of the importance of people everywhere mobilizing at this time of warfare, and the urgency to stop the genocide in Gaza.
Dr. Pandor, formerly Minister of International Affairs for South Africa (2019-2024), said: “I wish to remind all delegates present in the meeting that the 18th of July is Nelson Mandela International Day. It is the day on which Nelson Mandela asked each one of us to devote one hour to doing something for another person or a need community. So, I hope all of you have plans for the 18th of July when you will honor the request of the late President Nelson Mandela, who asked only this one thing of all of us human beings.”
A special opportunity to take action at this time of honoring Nelson Mandela, comes from the summit in New York City July 28-29 at the UN, to advance a two-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel, and end the mass death. Development must start. France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosts of this event.
A new statement was issued today, headlined, “A Two State Solution—Not a Final Solution,” which presents a status report and action points for what must be done in Palestine and Israel, especially for regional reconstruction and development through the “Oasis Plan” approach, advocated by Lyndon LaRouche for decades. The statement is provided below in full, posted on the Schiller Institute website and other sites.
Plan to circulate the statement, and mobilize in every way.
Other voices are speaking out. Today ended the two-day Bogotá Summit, co-hosted by South Africa and Colombia, of The Hague Group of nations, formed in January this year, which brought together representatives of some 30 countries, to confer on the Palestine-Israel crisis. They issued a joint statement, announcing six “coordinated diplomatic, legal and economic measures,” they all agree to, “to restrain Israel’s Assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and defend international law at large.”
Action for “A Two State Solution, Not a Final Solution” serves as a pivot-point for mobilizing across the board against the military geopolitics now placing the world at the brink of nuclear holocaust over needless warfare in Ukraine, perpetrated against Iran and other places in Southwest Asia.
Speaking alongside Dr. Pandor at the July 12 opening panel of the Berlin conference, veteran Russian analyst Dmitry Trenin warned: “Let me also say that this point we’re going through is more dangerous than almost anything else we’ve seen during the Cold War. I would say that’s more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. One of the predictions that I hope we can still avert, I hope we can still make sure it doesn’t happen, and that this present crisis will not stop until and unless we look into the abyss like they did in 1962 and step back from that….”
This Friday, July 18, at 11 a.m., the International Peace Coalition convenes online for its 111th consecutive meeting since its founding, co-initiated by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute. Join the meeting. Join the mobilization.
