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Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com/dore-gold-south-africa-ready-to-hear-israels-arguments/
South Africa "Ready to Hear" Israel's Arguments
(Times of Israel) Raphael Ahren - Israel and South Africa are taking slow but steady steps to improve bilateral cooperation, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold said Sunday after he returned from a three-day visit to the country. "There was a readiness to hear our arguments," Gold said. In his meetings, he emphasized that many Jews were involved in the ANC's fight against the apartheid regime. Gold said he deliberately visited places to pay homage to the country's struggle against apartheid, like the Liliesleaf Farm, where Mandela hid from South African authorities. "It's important that I went there. It was to break the ice, to acknowledge that they were freedom fighters in that period. And it was important for me to try and search for common ground." "We Jews understand implicitly the struggle for freedom which Nelson Mandela led here. For us, Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people," he wrote in the guestbook at the Mandela House in Soweto.