AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

The Gaza solidarity encampments on college campuses, that have now spread worldwide, are calling for schools to divest from companies profiting from Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism, in much the same way a global movement by student activists in the ’80s and the ’70s called for their universities to divest from companies that profited from apartheid South Africa.

This week, I spoke about both divest movements with South African-born novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo. Her parents were the legendary South African anti-apartheid activists, her father Joe Slovo, a leader of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress, who went back to South Africa and served in President Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet as minister of housing, her mother Ruth First, tragically assassinated in Mozambique when South African police sent her a letter bomb.

I asked Gillian Slovo her thoughts on the Gaza encampments today and comparing them to what happened in the anti-apartheid movement of the ’70s and ’80s.

GILLIAN SLOVO: I just think what the students are doing is absolutely wonderful, to draw to the world’s attention and to the authorities’ attention that we don’t have to tolerate what we’re seeing without actually saying something should be done about it.

And I’ve never been to Gaza, but I have been to the West Bank. And I had a childhood in South Africa. I knew what apartheid looked like. And I can tell you, when I went to the West Bank, what I saw was apartheid in action, in the fact that people have different rights and different right to be on the land that is theirs.

And during the ’80s, I was part of the anti-apartheid movement and part of the call for disinvestment and sanctions and boycotts. And I think it was one peaceful way of trying to reverse what was happening in South Africa. It certainly made white South Africans think, “Why is the world doing this to us?” and to examine what was happening. And in a situation like South Africa was, and like, I think, Israel is now, where the news is filtered so badly for the people there, where they only see what their government wants them to see, I think that made a difference to how people were in South Africa. And I think it will make a difference to how people are in Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: And you’re not only South African-born, your parents leading anti-apartheid activists. You’re also Jewish. And I’m wondering if you can comment on those who equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism?

GILLIAN SLOVO: Yeah, I mean, I think there is — there’s no equation between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. But I think antisemitism is being weaponized by people to try and drown out voices of people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who are saying that we should not be having what is happening, what we can see happening on our screens, despite much of the killing of journalists in order to prevent it being on our screens, that we should not — we should stand together to call out against our governments who are arming this barbarity that we are seeing happen unfold in front of us.

AMY GOODMAN: And the whole issue of using divestment as a way to put pressure on a government, how effective you think that global movement was when it came to South Africa?

GILLIAN SLOVO: It definitely had impact. It had impact economically on South Africa, perhaps not as much as we wanted it to, but it certainly did have an impact. And it had an impact on the government, the then-government, in facing the fact that if this continued and if they continued in the way that they were, they might not be any longer economically viable. And the thing about those campaigns is they are a peaceful attempt to change the situation.

AMY GOODMAN: And the media, how important it is in covering these voices?

GILLIAN SLOVO: Absolutely crucial. And I think there has been a move in all our countries, and certainly by Israel, to stop the media from covering this in a fair way, to use the accusation of antisemitism to silence critics of what is happening. And what I think is so amazing about the students who are camping out and protesting against what is happening, and calling for divestment, is they don’t seem to feel guilt-tripped by this. They are Jews, they are Muslims, they are Christians, and they’re all together in a conviction that we should not be seeing what is happening. We should not be allowing what is happening to happen, and that we need to put pressure on our governments to stop it.

AMY GOODMAN: That was South African-born novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo, whose parents Joe Slovo and Ruth First were the legendary South African anti-apartheid activists, her mother assassinated by the South African police. She was speaking to us from London.