The death of Nelson Mandela has inevitably led to an outpouring of articles which have searched for lessons from his life for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. The problem with these reports is that only too often they are based on an imperfect knowledge of Mandela and of history. Combined with the personal prejudices of writers, this has resulted in views and claims divorced from reality.

A favorite theme is that Israel was either the only country, or virtually the only one, which traded with apartheid South Africa. As one writer put it, “We were practically the only country that traded and supported and sold and bought and built and conducted experiments with… the department of evil” (Gideon Levy, “Time to ask South Africa for forgiveness,” December 15, 2013.)

That is 100 percent inaccurate. With sanctions building up the apartheid government increasingly concealed its trade statistics, but the South African Institute for Race Relations estimates that in 1986, trade with Israel was about $214 million, with arms sales a further $272 million to $544 million. That is a total of $480-$788 million.

In contrast, two-way trade with the United States at that time was about $3.32 billion – repeat, billion – with Japan at $3.27 billion and Britain $2.52 billion. South Africa’s total exports were estimated at $19.14 billion and imports $12.2 billion.

Read the article in full at Haaretz