Days after his release from 27 years in prison in February 1990, anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela gave Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a bear hug, symbolising his embrace of a cause his country’s governing African National Congress continues to champion.

According to Reuters, it was a gesture as controversial then as South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause is today, but Mandela brushed off criticism.

Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation had been an unwavering supporter of Mandela’s struggle against white minority rule and many South Africans saw parallels between it and the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation.

“We were fortunate that with their support, we were able to achieve our freedom … My grandfather … said our freedom is incomplete without the Palestinian struggle,” his grandson Mandla Mandela recalled in an interview ahead of the 10th commemoration of Mandela’s death.