A voice from apartheid: South Africa's Regent Xami’s calls for indigenous support of Israel

Regent Xami, who lived through South Africa’s apartheid, offered invaluable testimony on the misuse of that term against Israel and the deep sense of kinship many indigenous nations feel toward the Jewish people.

Rabbi Daniel Rowe of Aish opened the evening by highlighting the significance of allies such as Regent Xami.

“Jewish people are an indigenous nation constantly under attack,” he said. “To have friends who bravely stand with us is a powerful honor. I remember as a child hearing about boycotts against apartheid South Africa. To now see those same accusations weaponized against us is painful, but evenings like this give hope.”

Ateret Shmuel, executive director of Indigenous Bridges, stressed the urgency of indigenous solidarity at a time of skyrocketing antisemitism worldwide.

“One of the main antisemitic narratives today is the lie that Jews are colonial white settlers who dispossessed indigenous peoples. Regent Xami’s presence here dismantles that falsehood,” she said.

Shmuel explained that around the world, Jews are frightened and often afraid to speak openly. Meanwhile, communities showing up strongest in support are other indigenous peoples.

She also noted that although the United Nations originally included Jews as an indigenous people, the definition was later altered in ways that excludes Jewish sovereignty. “The UN now defines ‘indigenous’ as a minority that is oppressed. That standard is deeply problematic,” Shmuel said. “Regaining stewardship of your ancestral land does not make you any less indigenous.”

Regent Xami, the main speaker, spoke about apartheid as someone who endured its brutality, describing accusations against Israel as “deeply offensive and historically inaccurate.” He emphasized the growing divide between the ANC government and the many South Africans who feel solidarity with Israel.

It is important to note that, similar to attempts worldwide to eradicate the definition of Jewish peoplehood, Regent Xami’s own ethnic group, the Khoi, has historically experienced forced attempts to change the definition of who they are.

Before the Europeans arrived, the Khoi and the San indigenous peoples lived across southern Africa with a distinct culture, land-based spirituality, and a legacy preserved through rock art rather than written texts. The Portuguese were the first Europeans they encountered and were originally defeated in the 1510 Battle of Salt River. A century later, the Dutch arrived as traders, then as conquerors. They seized land, took livestock, pillaged communities, and imposed systems of forced labor that slowly stripped the Khoi of their ancestral rights.

First came the Afrikaners – originally 17th- to 18th-century European colonialists – and then the British, each intensifying the dispossession.

Epidemics such as smallpox, which were brought by European ships, destroyed entire communities, driving many Khoi inland and away from their lands near the port. Under apartheid, the regime encoded the “colored” designation, a derogatory term, in the infamous Population Registration Act, making the designation official state policy.

“God is a tribalist,” Regent Xami said. “We were meant to have our land and identity. But the government wanted us to disappear.” The land that once belonged to the Khoi was seized by force; none of it was freely handed over to settlers.

Freedom finally came with the end of apartheid when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president. The moment was historic and transformative.

Nevertheless, nearly 30 years later, Regent Xami laments that the hopes invested in Mandela’s party, the ANC, have not been realized. Once commanding 80% of the electorate, the ANC has lost more than half its support and recently fell below 50%, forced into its first coalition government in history. Worse still, Mandela did not remove the term “coloreds” from the daily lexicon, and it is used to this day.

“The majority of South Africans are Christians,” Regent Xami noted. “They read in the Bible how God gave the land to the Jewish people. They know Israel has a right to defend itself.” The Khoi leadership, including Regent Xami, publicly distanced themselves from the South African government’s ICJ action, and Regent Xami believes he represents the majority of the grassroots people of South Africa.

Regent Xami spoke with unusual moral authority and emotion as one who has lived history. He is one of the few global voices who can describe apartheid from lived experience. Thus, when he watches activists and governments casually accuse Israel of apartheid, he responds with a clarity that could only be derived from decades of life experience.

“The real apartheid was violent,” he insisted. “It was written into law. It was enforced with murder, with forced removals, with segregation in every aspect of life.”

Below are the symptoms of the real apartheid that he listed, followed by the experience found in Israel:

He sees the appropriation of the term “apartheid” as part of a broader global movement to morally delegitimize Israel. “They want to break down the moral barrier,” using terms devoid of their original meaning, he warned. “If they can paint the Jews as evil, then they believe they can justify destroying them.”

He also spoke about the Christian Arab perspectives, often marginalized in the current conflict: Many Arab Christians he knows side with the Jewish people openly, pointing to the scriptures themselves.

Bethlehem, once majority Christian, is now dominated by forces hostile to Israel, a shift Regent Xami sees as part of a regional trend: Lebanon, too, once a Christian-majority nation, is now controlled by jihadist groups

“When you talk about colonialism, point your finger elsewhere,” he said. “Not at Israel – the only nation living in its original homeland.”

Turning toward his homeland of South Africa, Regent Xami directly addressed President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC government: “If you want to know if God is real, look at the Jews. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out centuries ago.”

From Regent Xami’s religious worldview, Israel is not only a nation but a divine testament. The survival of the Jewish people, he argued, confirms the existence of God. “You are on the wrong path. You must repent. You are not just fighting Israel, you are fighting 3,000 years of testament found in the scriptures.”

Additionally, he called on the current coalition government of South Africa to implement the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) both in regard to the Jewish people and to stop its own internal discrimination practices against the Khoi.

He warned that the ANC’s 40-year period of dominance mirrored biblical cycles, and that its time was ending. The party, he said, had traded integrity for foreign funding and political alliances with Middle Eastern actors who have encouraged its anti-Israel posture. More dangerously, he said he believed that the ANC has opened South Africa’s doors to Hamas-linked networks.

“You are taking the side of the losing team,” he said. “There is real genocide happening in Nigeria and Sudan, yet you accuse Israel, one of the most democratic nations on Earth.”

For Regent Xami, South Africa’s salvation lies not in elite politics but in grassroots education. Many young people, he said, have been indoctrinated by intellectuals and politicians deeply hostile to Israel. But ordinary South Africans, especially Christians, who still make up the majority of its people, are naturally sympathetic to Israel when given the facts.

“Look at what the Jewish people have given the world,” he said. “Even the constitutions of Israel’s enemies contain parts of Mosaic law. Without the Jewish people, our world would be unrecognizable.”

“What stood out was Regent Xami’s call to recognize Israel as a rare success story of indigenous decolonization. He contrasted it with his own tribal nation, where unity and opportunity are far more fragile, and urged Jewish attendees to treasure the strength they have here.”

It is important for Israelis to protect what they built and to stay united against enemies, a key message of the night and the theme. “Coming from someone whose own nation lacks the stability Israel has achieved, it carried real weight,” Watson said.

“We happened to be one of the only peoples to receive liberation at this level. We are clearly a success model for indigenous people around the world, especially those suffering due to colonialism,” he said.