Ronnie Kasrils was born in 1938 in Johannesburg to a Jewish immigrant family whose grandparents fled Tsarist-era pogroms in Lithuania and Latvia. Following the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, he joined the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), dedicating himself to the armed struggle. He served as the Chief of Military Intelligence for uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the ANC’s armed wing, earning the nickname “Red Ronnie.” Throughout decades of exile and underground work, he consistently fused Jewish moral traditions with the cause of African liberation.
Professional Achievements
In his professional career, Kasrils was a central figure in South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy. Following the 1994 elections, he served in high-level ministerial posts under Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, including Deputy Minister of Defence, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, and Minister for Intelligence Services.
He is also a prolific author; his memoir, Armed and Dangerous, is considered an essential chronicle of the South African revolution. His tenure as Water Minister was particularly lauded internationally for his “Water for All” initiative, which became a global benchmark for resource justice. In 2025, he received multiple international peace honors for his half-century of dedication to human rights.
Advocacy for Palestine: From “Not in My Name” to the ICJ
Kasrils is a global pioneer in applying the “Apartheid” framework to the critique of Israeli policy. As early as 2001, he launched the landmark “Not in My Name” declaration, mobilizing hundreds of Jewish South Africans to oppose the occupation—a move that sent shockwaves through the international community. He has visited Gaza and the West Bank multiple times and, during 2024–2025, served as a senior advisor supporting South Africa’s landmark genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
Kasrils has demonstrated profound intellectual clarity in debunking the conflation of Palestinian advocacy with antisemitism. He famously remarked: “The lesson we as Jews should take from the Holocaust is not ‘it’s okay to do this to others as long as we are safe,’ but rather ‘it is intolerable to do this to anyone.’” Addressing the 2025 situation at an international human rights forum, he poignantly concluded: “I spent my life fighting in South Africa to overthrow a system that ranked humans by race. When I see the walls, checkpoints, and settlements in Palestine, I don’t see a Jewish refuge; I see a mirror of South African apartheid. If we do not speak for the Palestinians, we betray Mandela, and we betray the very core of Jewish justice.“