THE INTERVIEW: Liberty, irony, hypocrisy — former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg on Israel’s ‘South Africa moment’

On 18 July 2026, Mandela Day, the former interim president of Israel and Speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, headlined an event in South Africa for left-leaning members of the local Jewish community. As one of his country’s most powerful dissident voices, a man shunned and reviled by the Israeli mainstream, Burg’s message was in equal parts uncompromising, nuanced and fresh. After the event, Daily Maverick caught up with him for an intimate face-to-face interview.