Giant Mandela statue unveiled in Palestine

A six-metre statue of former South African president Nelson Mandela has been unveiled in Palestine, the first such sculpture of the anti-apartheid icon outside the country.
The statue was unveiled by Parks Tau, the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, which sponsored it as part of a twin city arrangement signed two years ago.
The unveiling took place yesterday, a day before South Africa celebrates the annual public holiday of Freedom Day on April 27 to mark Mandela's installation in 1994 as the first democratically-elected president of the country after decades of white minority apartheid rule.
Palestine also declared April 26 a national day as large crowds gathered at a square in Ramallah named after Mandela, who had repeatedly compared the struggle against apartheid in South Africa to that of the Palestinian fight against oppression by Israel.

In 1997, Mandela declared: "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians".
"The statue produced in South Africa and recently shipped to the Palestinian shores is a donation from Johannesburg to Ramallah as a symbol of solidarity with the people of Palestine amidst their ongoing struggles," the City of Johannesburg said in a statement.

But the project was not without controversy as Israeli customs authority allegedly delayed its delivery for several weeks, demanding huge customs duties before intervention by high-level government officials led to its release, according to informed sources who wished to remain anonymous.
Speaking from Ramallah, Tau told the South African media: "We see the statue as a symbol of friendship, as a symbol of demonstrating our solidarity but also hopefully as an inspiration to the people of Palestine that they indeed would be able to achieve their freedom."

Ramallah Mayor Musa Hadid, was quoted in the Jerusalem Post as saying: "The erection of Mandela's sculpture in Ramallah carries a symbolic significance, since he was an international symbol of peace and a torch to people striving for freedom and liberty".