"I am a Zionist. I am a Zionist because I understand that we Africans ‎share a tragic history with the Jews. As they have lived through the ‎Holocaust, we have lived through slavery. They have triumphed against ‎all odds, and so shall we. "‎

His name is Justice. A year ago, he was a leader in the South ‎African boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which made headlines across the world for its ‎aggressive tactics, including the University of Johannesburg ‎academic boycott, the massive boycott campaign against Woolworths ‎department store, the South African Artists Against Apartheid cultural ‎boycott campaign, and the annual Israel Apartheid Week.‎

In 2013, members of BDS South Africa stormed a concert featuring the Israeli jazz saxophonist Daniel ‎Zamir at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. While the activists claimed it was an "anti-Zionist" action, some ‎of its participants began chanting the slogan "Shoot the Jew" ("Dubula e ‎Juda" in Zulu), based on a protest song sung in the 1980s against white ‎oppressors in the apartheid regime. When questioned, Muhammed ‎Desai, coordinator of the protest and leader of BDS South Africa, said the protesters did not mean the slogan literally.

"Just as ‎you would say "Kill the Boer" at a funeral in the '80s, it wasn't about killing white ‎people, it was used as a way of expressing opposition to the apartheid ‎regime," he said, adding that "the whole idea [of] anti-Semitism is blown out ‎of proportion."‎

I heard Justice speak at an event organized by the South Africa Israel ‎Forum, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the South African Zionist ‎Federation. For the past few years, they have organized ‎trips to Israel to combat the growing anti-Zionist sentiment in the South Africa and to inform the young future leaders of the country of what Israel is, ‎and is not. ‎

A dozen youth leaders, ages 20 to 30, visited Israel earlier this year, and ‎they were taken to see everything from Hebron to Tel Aviv, speaking to ‎representatives from the political Left and Right, Israelis as well as ‎Palestinians, and encouraged to ask whatever questions they needed to form their own opinions. ‎

As I meet them in a conference room in downtown Johannesburg, ‎they have just returned from their journey, and they share their stories, ‎having gone from prejudice to knowledge. I'm struck by one young man ‎in particular, Earnest, a member of the African National Congress youth league, and the ‎bravery he has shown in order to stand up for what is right. ‎

‎"They called me a traitor and a sellout," he says. "The moment it got out that I was ‎going on this trip, the hatred from the BDS [movement] flooded us, the entire group, ‎and we were told we were selling out our people. In that moment, I knew ‎something was wrong. How could I be a traitor for simply finding out the ‎facts and seeing for myself? What is it they did not want me to see?" ‎

The BDS movement has latched on to the ANC, using the dark history of South ‎Africa and apartheid to discredit Israel. And it has been effective, and ‎South Africa is becoming a hub for anti-Zionist sentiment. I ask one of the ‎young ANC leaders why that is, and he tells me that his former ‎involvement in BDS was directly tied to Israel's contact with the apartheid ‎regime, and that this has been an open wound for many South Africans ‎to this day. ‎

When I ask if that has changed at all after the trip, he shakes his head in ‎negation. ‎

‎"I still want an apology from Israel for what happened back then, but the ‎difference between now and before the trip is that I see Israel as any ‎other country, with issues as any other state," he says. "They are not apartheid, and ‎I know apartheid, they are a part of a conflict, and every single person I ‎met wanted nothing but peace." ‎

His words stayed with me because they encapsulated that thing I have ‎longed for but never really believed existed. Here was a young man who ‎used to be radically anti-Israel, active in the BDS movement, but education had ‎changed his mind and opened his eyes. He still did not agree with me on ‎most policy issues, but we were finally talking policy, not engaging in ‎punditry or demagoguery based on misinformation or emotion. ‎

There is such cynicism in the BDS movement's strategy of using the ANC ‎to further its anti-Semitic cause. The more I heard of these young ‎people's experiences, the angrier I became at the crassness of the methods ‎being used. In using the word "apartheid," they are evoking anger and ‎salting a wound that is rightly open and still bleeding. As the youth ‎leaders made public their plans to go on the Israel trip, the BDS ‎movement offered them 40,000 rand ($3,200) to publicly decline. ‎When they insisted on going, they were publicly vilified on social media ‎as well as threatened to be ousted from the ANC. ‎

"I may not have a future in the party anymore," Justice tells me, "but at least ‎I live up to my name. They lied to me, and I don't like being lied to. They ‎used me, and I, as a proud black South African, am tired of being used."