It’s extraordinary to think it’s been 25 years since millions of us sat transfixed by live footage of Nelson Mandela walking to freedom.

As a teenager, I’d marched against apartheid, raised funds for the South African opposition and stood in the cold at Trafalgar Square to support the Non-Stop Picket outside the South African Embassy.

As some students take part in so-called “Israeli Apartheid Week”, it sadly seems worth remembering exactly what it was so many of us were campaigning against.

Apartheid was a systematic and strictly enforced system of racial segregation. It divided people into racial groups and then kept them apart. Black people were not even allowed to vote, still less stand for election. Universities, hospitals, places of work and public services were all segregated on the basis of race. People of different races were prevented from marrying each other or living together. Political opposition was prevented by law. The ANC and the South African Communist Party which supported it were banned for decades.

Compare that with the multi-ethnic democracy that is Israel. Every citizen is guaranteed equal rights under the law, all citizens have freedom of movement, assembly and speech. They can work where they want and they can have a relationship with and marry whoever they want.

In Israel, the judiciary counters discrimination. In South Africa, it enforced it.

Read the article in full at Labourlist.