Was Nelson Mandela on US Terror Watchlist Until 2008?

On Oct. 10, 2023, writer Fatima Bhutto shared a post on X stating, “Nelson Mandela was on the United States Terrorist Watch List until 2008, in case you’re wondering how neutral the U.S. is with regard to apartheid.” 

The above post is accurate in that Mandela was indeed on the U.S. terror watch list until 2008. 

The post was in response to the ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine, and sought to criticize the United States for its support of Israeli policies, many of which human rights organizations say amount to “crimes of apartheid.” Many online expressed outrage over the crisis, with numerous posts online comparing Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation of Gaza to Mandela’s fight against apartheid in South Africa in the 1950s and onwards, pinpointing the historic ties between Black South African and Palestinian activists.