Monessa Shapiro responds to Solly Mapaila in Politicsweb

Israel Apartheid Week is upon us and in its wake new experts on the Israel-Palestine question are creeping out of the woodwork on a daily basis, unschooled, uninformed and quite ignorant.  One such new arrival on the scene is Solly Mapaila.   His article: “Israel’s ‘South Africa’ moment is here” is replete with gross distortions of the truth and blatant lies.

 

Mapaila has the audacity to suggest that somewhere on the Israeli statute books, reminiscent of Apartheid South Africa, there exist hideous, evil laws like the Group Areas Act, the Mixed Marriages Law, Pass Laws and Bantu Education.   But he does not actually list such laws.  He cannot.   He simply cannot name those that do not exist.  It is for this reason that he cites the South African laws. Laws that he knows will evoke emotions of hatred and repulsion.  And it is because these laws do not exist that Arabs and Jews can and do swim on the same beaches, can and do attend the same hospitals, can and do vote in the same elections for the same government (no tri-cameral parliament), can and do, should they so wish, attend the same schools.   And, by the way, Mr. Mapaila, there is no law prohibiting a Jew from marrying a non-Jew, any non-Jew  – Christian, Moslem, Bahai, black or white, Indian or Chinese.   Neither is there a law that dictates to what race or religion one’s neighbours may belong. 

 

Mockingly Mapaila continually alludes to Israel’s ‘security’ and seems to suggest that this is but an excuse, a fabrication of the minds of the Israeli people.   I envy your good fortune, Mr. Mapaila, that as a non-Jew, you have never had to consider such security questions.  I envy you because there is no country in the world that calls for your annihilation and for that of your fellow-citizens.  I envy you that none of your neighbours have as part of their charter your destruction and the destruction of all your people, wherever they may live in the world.   I envy you that your children may ride a bus or eat in a pizzeria without fear of being blown to smithereens.  And incidentally,  Mr. Mapaila, ethnicity does not determine which roads you use in the West Bank but rather Israeli citizenship.    Any Israeli, Jew or Arab, black or white is permitted to drive on certain roads.  These roads are closed only to the Palestinians living on the West Bank, and yes, Mr. Mapaila, it is for security reasons.  Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, have in the past been repeatedly shot at by Palestinian terrorists, with the intention of killing as many of them as possible.  Hence the Israeli government built new roads, safe roads for her citizens.  Is it not a government’s duty to protect her citizens?

 

Among his sweeping, unsubstantiated fabrications, Mapaila says that Israel ‘even executes citizens.’  Come now, Mr. Mapaila, have you really not kept abreast of what has taken place in Israel since the start of the latest peace negotiations?  Are you not aware that as a gesture of goodwill and to show a desire for peace Israel will soon have released some 104 prisoners, all who have been found guilty of murdering her citizens in the most dastardly and brutal manner?   Do you not realize that if Israel had the death penalty, or as you put it ‘simply executed her citizens’ such murderers would long have been dead and not there to be released? 

 

Israel is a vibrant democracy and Jews throughout the world are raised on a diet of debate and discussion.   We welcome debate, even debate on the Israel-Palestine question. What we do not welcome, Mr. Mapaila, are lies, nefarious lies that do nothing but feed hatred and ferment violence.    Such mendacity will never create peace, but rest assured, nor will it ever elicit the downfall of Israel, so desired by you and your cohorts from the BDS.

Victor Gordon to the Jewish Report: Shin Bet heads conceded that time’s not on Israel’s side”

While at first glance the arguments presented by Allan Horwitz and Shereen Usdin in favour of BDS seem reasonable, they  raise some pertinent  questions.

How, for example,  does the isolation of Israel encourage her people to accept a drastic change of  policy in the face of the realties that exist in and around the country;  and how does weakening Israel to a point that threatens its very existence  help in bringing about a peaceful resolution to what has proven to be an intractable problem ?

If this is the solution offered by Horwitz and Usdin (and by extension, BDS,) it fails to take into account anything other than the latter’s discomfort at some of Israel’s shortcomings, of which there are undeniably many.

Also, what places a question mark over Horwitz’s and Usdin’s credibility is their failure to demand any measure of accountability from,  nor apportion any form of responsibility to the Palestinians in securing the new deal  they so fervently seek. It all depends solely on Israel with respect to fault, concessions and,  ultimately, solutions.

Granted, there are elements amongst the settler community who need serious lessons in rudimentary behaviour and good neighbourliness ,  while certain policies of the present as well as past governments have raised vehement criticism from even the nation’s  staunchest supporters.  But in a country as complex and challenged as is Israel  with its heterogeneous  mix of over 70 ethnic elements while faced  for the past 65 years with continual threats to its very existence,  it is both surprising and to its credit that democracy and respect for “the other” has been upheld to the extent that it has.  Nowhere else would this have occurred to the same degree.

We are all aware of the internal tensions that exist between religious and secular Jews;  Arab and Jewish Israeli citizens;  differing  nationalist ideologies and, of course,  Jews and Palestinians. None of this is remotely new.  But Howitz and Usdin are yet to explain how any of this can be cured by the application of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions.  What exactly would they expect Israel to do to satisfy their demand for “Palestinian justice”? While they list a bevy of accusations and criticisms, predictably they offer no solutions.

With the tendency nowadays to dismiss Israel’s security concerns as a smokescreen behind which she seemingly continues to carry out her alleged policies of “suppression” and “occupation”,  Horwitz and Usdin can provide no greater assurance than anyone else that withdrawal from the West Bank and Golan would result in the establishment of a peace-loving neighbour.  In fact past experience suggests that the reality is somewhat otherwise.

In conclusion,  while claiming “to stand for non-violent and principled opposition … against anti-Semitism”, when faced with the organization they so passionately support (BDS) chanting “Kill the Jew” ( led by one of its senior officials), the best they could do was “issue a statement of condemnation” which must have had BDS shivering in its boots.  What does this say about self pride?

Perhaps, in their naiveté,  Horwitz and Usdin fail to realize that ultimately, despite their best efforts  to curry favour amongst their BDS brothers, they are inseparable from the ‘other’ Jews to which the chant refers.  The chant did not specifically exclude BDS’s  Jewish members.

Horwitz and Usdin  are no different from other past  Jewish “useful idiots” who were also successfully manipulated to do the bidding of their masters.

BDS has made it clear that ultimately, its efforts are directed at the eventual elimination of the Jewish state.  Horwitz and Usdin should have the integrity to admit that by aligning themselves to this anti-Semitic organization they are pursuing the very same goal.

Bev Goldman: Against unimaginable odds, life goes on in Gaza” by Sally Idwedar (The Star, 13 March

“Against unimaginable odds, life goes on in Gaza” by Sally Idwedar (The Star, 13 March) refers.

 

The writer paints an extremely depressing and tragic picture, one with which everyone who reads it will empathise.  The situation there is indeed dire; women and children in particular, as happens in all situations of conflict, are the victims most affected; life is tough, traumatic and almost unbearable.

 

Around the world governments have a responsibility to provide decent living standards for citizens – schools, roads, hospitals, food supplies, power.  Gaza is run by Hamas, a democratically elected body which has been ruling the area since 2007.  In that time the international community has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas.  But the reality is that Hamas, rather than paying wages to its employees, rather than creating and maintaining any kind of infrastructure in the area, rather than building schools, roads and hospitals, rather than making every effort to ensure that the people of Gaza live a decent life, has instead chosen to spend it on weapons and missiles with the explicit purpose of attacking Israel and “driving the Jews into the sea”.  

 

When Israel withdrew its citizens from Gaza in 2006, what was left behind was a sophisticated and functional infrastructure which the international community assumed would be taken over and extended by the newly elected government in the area.  To the contrary, whatever had been standing was gleefully destroyed, and the people of Gaza were faced with rebuilding their world from nothing.  Had Hamas done an about-turn and encouraged its people to do so, rather than concentrating all its efforts on the destruction of Israel, Sally Idwedar would not have needed to write her article. 

Gill Katz to News 24

Dear Archbishop Tutu

 On several visits to Israel , I have been present either at borders, 

check-points or crossings, manned by heavily armed Israeli soldiers. I have  fleeting

 bad memories of the ' dompa'  nightmare of apartheid day South Africa, as I watched men, women and children checked and examined, whilst their documents were scrutinised. 

Yes- I saw some harassment by checkpoint soldiers and some behavior that made me recoil in revulsion, and I empathised with the Palestinians who stood quietly and waited to be allowed to pass.

As part of an article I was writing at the time, I  found myself accompanying a Palestinian doctor from his workplace at the famous Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to his home in the West Bank city of Hebron.  I saw him respected and treated courteously by all the young personel in Israeli

 Uniform, and  I was relieved.  However, as our Palestinian-driven cab passed the last checkpoint, he told me that very often he is humiliated and treated disrespectfully by brash teenage soldiers.

I felt uncomfortable, and I felt  sad.

 In the comfort of his home, Dr Jameer discussed this erratic behavior with me 

And after a wonderful meal, and talk of the struggles of both the Palestinian people and the Israeli people,  we agreed that there are disciplined, polite people as well as really badly

 brought up people in our  world . With a shrug and a smile he confirmed that ultimately,  as long

 as he could get to work, perform his life altering plastic surgeries in a hospital open to every race creed and religion - he was content and would leave the business of politics to the politicians.

I was overcome with respect.

 Archbishop Tutu.

 Israel is a tiny land fraught with many many problems. Wars have brought about the status quo and you know well that every war in the past 65 years at least,  has been a response war and not a war of aggression. In other words, Archbishop, these horrible wars and their consequences are not a bloody conflict started by Israel, but a response to utterly murderous attacks

by a population raised in homes, schools and mosques to hate Jews and seek their demise.

Many thousands of innocent people in Israel have died – many of them Arab Israelis. Every soldier and border guard will tell you of the tragic loss of a family member or friend at the hands of a  person or persons on the other side of a very ugly, but necessary security fence,  who seek

 their demise. 

With these memories etched in these young minds, can one really ignore the fear of these young Israelis who are charged with guarding the Israeli population at large?

Will the next person in line have explosives taped to his body? 

Is that  togbag really full of tools? Is that woman really pregnant? Or is she carrying a bomb?

Do I forgive rotten behavior at borders and checkpoints at the hands of these nervous men and women in IDF uniform?

 No.

 But like Dr. Jameer I understand it.

Gill Katz

Monessa Shapiro to Politicsweb

 Uri Davis, author of ‘Israel: An apartheid State’ has become the legal expert.  I am unsure though how a doctorate in Philosophical Anthropology entitles one to comment on the legal system of a country.  I am however certain that Uri Davis has, as his primary intention, the demise of Israel.  In the words of Iqbal Jassat of the Media Review Network, Uri Davis is ‘ best known for articulating the vision….(of) …the dismantling of Zionist Israel towards its replacement with a democratic Palestine.’

 

There we have it Mr Vawda.  Before I go any further let’s just admit that your aim, the aim of that of your organization, that of IAW and the BDS has nothing to do with the Israel/Palestine conflict but rather the eradication of the State of Israel.  Once we have reached consensus on that, let me put the following to you.

 

Israel is a democracy with every single citizen fully enfranchised.  This means that every citizen, irrespective of race, colour or religion has recourse to an independent judiciary.   In 2002, in an Israel Supreme Court ruling Chief Justice Aharon Barak said: “ The principle of equality prohibits the state from distinguishing between its citizens on the basis of religion or nationality.”  He said farther: “The principle also applies to the allocation of state land….The Jewish character of the state does not permit Israel to discriminate between its citizens.” 

 

This recourse to law includes Palestinians living in the West Bank who are not Israeli citizens.   In actual fact Palestinians from the West Bank are governed by the Palestinian Authority who has set laws and regulations for the 98% of the Palestinians living under its jurisdiction, and who has ironically stated that no Jew will be welcome in a future Palestinian state.  So much for Apartheid.  With reference to the five laws mentioned as an example of Israel’s racism I suggest that the short comment following each precludes any form of context.  Among others, you fail to mention that the ‘Land Acquisition Law’ allows for compensation (monetary or other) upon acquisition.  Land is not simply seized as you suggest.   If however Israel does something that is seen to infringe on the rights of an individual or group then there is recourse to the Israeli Supreme Court.  In 2004, Israeli Supreme Court judges ruled that the route of the security fence should be moved and spoke as follows:  “We are aware that this decision does not make it easier to deal with that reality (terrorism).  This is the destiny of a democracy: she does not see all means as acceptable and the ways of her enemies are not always open before her.  A democracy must sometimes fight with one arm tied behind her back.”

 

In an attempt to prove racism Vawda sites the ancient Jewish Orthodox burial practice of not allowing non-Jews to be buried with Jews.  Mr Vawda I will not lower myself to apologise to you for, or to explain to you about, our ancient Jewish traditions.  Traditions that have kept us a people for 5000 years, traditions that allowed us to survive the Holocaust and traditions that have allowed us to build a vibrant democracy amidst a sea of death and destruction.  Traditions that ensure that we open field hospitals to care for the Syrian wounded in a war that has seen close on 200,000 killed by their own people.  Traditions that ensure that we treat the granddaughter of Hamas Prime-Minister, Ismael Haniyeh.  Nor will I apologise to you for the fact that Israel is a Jewish state, the only Jewish state in the world, 1/6^th of 1% the land mass of the Arab world.   

 

In 2008, the Harvard Kennedy School conducted a study entitled: ‘Co-existence in Israel: A National Study.’  Respondents were interviewed in either Hebrew or Arabic.   The study found that 77% of the Arabs living in Israel would rather live in Israel than any other country in the world.  Need I say more, Mr Vawda?

Victor Gordon responds to “Palestinian Christian will become israel’s coloureds” (Cape Argus)

If ever a view point vis-à-vis Israel was offered devoid of any context, it is “Palestinian Christians will become Israel’s ‘coloureds’” by Heidi-Jane Esakov, designed solely  to bolster support for Israel Apartheid Week (IAW).

However, Esakov is so far off the mark that she does no more than display her own ignorance and known bias against anything and everything to do with the Jewish state.

While admitting that the new law exists to assist minorities disadvantaged in the labour market, she puts an inevitable spin on the law’s real purpose in suggesting that its adoption places Israel on the slippery slope towards racial discrimination and inevitable apartheid.

Simply put, what the new law is designed to achieve is to create a chair for Christian Arabs on the advisory committee for equal opportunities in the workplace alongside representatives from all sectors of the population. These include Muslim Arabs,  Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Druze, Christians, Circassians, reserve duty soldiers, women, immigrants and the elderly.

What the law achieves is the recognition that each sector has special needs of its own which membership of the committee will cater for. The Utopian suggestion that Muslim and Christian Arabs are one and the same is far removed from reality as revealed by the many instances of persecution in the Middle East of the latter by the former. One has only to consider the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt and the overall demise of the Christian population throughout the region from 20% to 4% in the past 100 years.

For Esakov to suggest that this is in any way racist is like ignoring essential context and  accusing the South African government of practicing racism and apartheid by the adoption of affirmative action policies aimed at the exclusion of Whites in deference to Blacks and Coloureds.

Ironically, Esakov bemoans the likelihood of articles such as hers generating less engagement and providing fodder to “polemicists to justify their positions”. She obviously misses the point that she is guilty of doing exactly that with her misleading and hypocritical diatribe.

If ever a view point vis-à-vis Israel was offered devoid of any context, it is “Palestinian Christians will become Israel’s ‘coloureds’” by Heidi-Jane Esakov, designed solely  to bolster support for Israel Apartheid Week (IAW).

However, Esakov is so far off the mark that she does no more than display her own ignorance and known bias against anything and everything to do with the Jewish state.

While admitting that the new law exists to assist minorities disadvantaged in the labour market, she puts an inevitable spin on the law’s real purpose in suggesting that its adoption places Israel on the slippery slope towards racial discrimination and inevitable apartheid.

Simply put, what the new law is designed to achieve is to create a chair for Christian Arabs on the advisory committee for equal opportunities in the workplace alongside representatives from all sectors of the population. These include Muslim Arabs,  Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Druze, Christians, Circassians, reserve duty soldiers, women, immigrants and the elderly.

What the law achieves is the recognition that each sector has special needs of its own which membership of the committee will cater for. The Utopian suggestion that Muslim and Christian Arabs are one and the same is far removed from reality as revealed by the many instances of persecution in the Middle East of the latter by the former. One has only to consider the plight of Coptic Christians in Egypt and the overall demise of the Christian population throughout the region from 20% to 4% in the past 100 years.

For Esakov to suggest that this is in any way racist is like ignoring essential context and  accusing the South African government of practicing racism and apartheid by the adoption of affirmative action policies aimed at the exclusion of Whites in deference to Blacks and Coloureds.

Ironically, Esakov bemoans the likelihood of articles such as hers generating less engagement and providing fodder to “polemicists to justify their positions”. She obviously misses the point that she is guilty of doing exactly that with her misleading and hypocritical diatribe.

Debbie Mankowitz responds to Zapiro

Dear Sir

 Zapiro with his latest cartoon (The Times 11/3/2014) joins the rest of the useful idiots of the BDS Campaign against Israel as a ruse to draw attention from the real Apartheid countries of the region. Unfortunately Zapiro appears to have been only exposed to the highly inflammatory and dishonest BDS leaflets for background information, to have enabled the creation of this inaccurate, misrepresented and decontextualized social commentary.

 I challenge Zapiro to produce Israeli legislation (from Israeli law books, and not the BDS) that shows even the slightest whiff of  so-called “Apartheid”.

 In his zealous attempt to lambast Israel for imaginary crimes of “Apartheid”, Zapiro disingenuously overlooks the real Apartheid, religious Apartheid in Saudi Arabia with separate roads for Muslims and non-Muslims. Yemeni-Swiss political scientist Elham Manea gives an outline of Gender Apartheid as practiced in Saudi Arabia and describes this travesty where “women are systematically treated as minors through a system instituted by the state that infringes on their basic human rights.”

 

This needs to be noted, and especially in a country like South Africa, which has at the very least 27 % of its women in leadership roles at all levels of society.

 

Whereas, (and by comparison) Manea adds that “every adult Saudi woman, must obtain permission from her male guardian to work, travel, study, seek medical treatment or marry and is also deprived of making the most trivial decisions on behalf of her children. This system is supported by the imposition of complete sex segregation, which prevents women from participating meaningfully in public life.”  Freedom House calls Saudi Arabia unfree, this includes civil liberties and political rights and gives the country a  rating of 7; (1 = best, 7 = worst). Syria undoubtedly joins this illustrious company, a civil war that has created more than 2 million refugees, 5 million internally displaced persons, and nearly 130,000 fatalities, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

 Egypt too, amongst others in the Middle East, remains unfree. Egypt, where the “new constitution was drafted by an unrepresented committee chosen by a military-backed government and was adopted by a tightly controlled referendum which allowed for expanded power of the military, and military trials for civilians.” As far as religious freedoms go, they are considered absolute in Egypt, but “the military dictate weekly sermon themes in the mosques and Islamic militants continue to target Christian places of worship” (Freedom House). Nonetheless in spite of the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel is considered by Freedom House to be free. Go figure Zapiro!

Monessa Shapiro to the Jewish Report re Village under the forest.

At the outset I must thank both Usdin and Horwitz for the invitation to the screening of “Village Under the Forest”, and for explaining so succinctly the benevolent aims of ‘Stop the JNF’, the BDS campaign, and Israel Apartheid Week.  How could we all have been so very wrong?

 A few questions need to be posed to both Usdin and Horwitz – questions that I really hope they will have the courage to respond to. 

 They say that a just settlement of the conflict would be Israel’s withdrawal to the 1967 armistice line (not borders, guys) so as to ensure the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.   This state was offered the Palestinians in 1948 – they refused and instead chose to wage war on the fledgling Jewish state.  Why?  The West Bank and Gaza were occupied by Jordan and Egypt respectively from 1948 to 1967, and still Israel faced unremitting terrorism and belligerence from her neighbours.  Why?   Barak offered Araffat the whole of Gaza, 95% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, at Camp David in 2000.  Araffat refused.  Why?  At Taba in  2001 Barak again offered 97% of the West Bank.  Once more Araffat refused.  Why?  In 2005 Sharon removed every Jew from Gaza making it Judenfrei for the Palestinians living there, in the hope that this would be the start of the future Palestinian state.  “Hamasstan” and everything associated with it evolved.  Why?   In 2008 Ehud Olmert offered 98% of the West Bank.  The Palestinians refused.  Why?   And today, those of us who genuinely pray for peace for both Israelis and Palestinians, wait with bated breath for Mahmoud Abbas to say he recognizes Israel as the nation-state of the Jews.  Do you not think that you, who so deeply desire a state for the Palestinians, have some responsibility to persuade him and his people to recognize the Jewish right to a land on 1/6^th of 1% the land mass of the Arab world?

 You speak of Israeli laws that entrench discrimination against Israeli Arabs.   For the umpteenth time I ask of you and your co-travellers to list these laws that you so glibly state exist.  

 And finally your invitation to view “Village under the Forest”.  I would take you up on that if you had the integrity to explain the story behind Lubya, the village that was destroyed.  Lubya was the headquarters of the ALA (Arab Liberation Army) in Central Eastern Galilee and therefore a place of major fighting during the 1948 war.   A war, not of Israel’s making, but rather one thrust on her by all her neighbours  hell-bent on driving the Jews into the sea.  And the forest that you are talking about was built some 16 years after the fall of Lubya.  If Israel was trying to hide the fact that the area was once a Palestinian village why wait 16 years?   In all your pleas for justice have you ever considered what happened to the homes of the Jews forced to flee the Arab world during and directly after the 48 war?  Some 850,00 of them.

 And then to add insult to injury you have as your panelist Prof Ran Greenstein who is quoted as having said : “Not a shot was fired by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in 1948.”  Wow, such ignorance and such bias and you truly want us to believe that your motives are benign?

Rolene Marks: responds to Solly Mapaila’s Israel’s South Africa moment is here (Politicsweb)

To the Editor

Solly Mapaila’s article “Israel’s South Africa moment is here” refers.

Mapaila weaves together a wonderful fantasy piece, fraught with accusation and devoid of fact.

Mapaila mentions the presence of “Palestinian Parliamentarians” in the Knesset. Arab Israeli citizens are fully enfranchised and have representation in the Knesset, even some that are virulently anti-Israel. Arab Israelis are citizens of Israel and whike there is always room for improvement, are fully enfranchised.PALESTINIAN parliamentarians have a presence in the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. President Abbas has fanously stated that Jews will not be welcome in a Palestinian state so that puts the kibosh on Jewish parliamentarians in that government. Smacks of Apartheid to me.

It has become cause du jour to level the accusation of Apartheid at Israel. I grew up in South Africa and live in Israel and I am still looking for the evidence of Apartheid I witnessed growing up. Mapaila raises the issue of water so lets look at a fact: according to a recent study published by the Begin-Sadat Institute, the following can be said about water:
•    Israel has fulfilled all of its obligations according to the agreements it signed in 1995 with the Palestinian Authority, and in fact has exceeded them. The PA currently consumes 200 MCM of water every year (with Israel providing about 50 MCM of this) – which, under the accords, is more than Israel is supposed to provide under a final settlement arrangement.
•    In contrast, the Palestinians have violated their part of the agreement drilling over 250 unauthorized wells, which draw about 15 MCM a year of water, and connecting these pirate wells to its electricity grid.
•    PA has illegally connected itself in many places to the water lines of Israel’s Mekorot National Water Company – stealing Israel’s water.
•    Palestinian famers also wildly overwater their crops through old-fashioned, wasteful flooding methods. Gvirtzman says that at least a third of the water being pumped out the ground by the Palestinians (again, in violation of their accords with Israel) is wasted through leakage and mismanagement. No recycling of water takes place and no treated water is used for agriculture.

It is forbidden for Israselis to enter the West bank and therefore there are roads for Palestinians (in their territories) and roads for Israelis. It is a fact that we have reduced the amount of checkpoints from 44 to 12.

The accusation of new laws and bills that restrict Arabs from owning land and criminalize acts of speech againts the government is so ridiculous it is even funny. Perhaps Mapaila should spend a day in the Knesset, watching television in Israel and reading Israeli newspapers and then comment on that. But then Mapaila makes his accusations from the comfort of his armchair, a continent away.

I do agree with Mapaila on one fact – the comparison of Israel to Apartheid South Africa does insult the suffering of millions of South Africans.

I just wonder when we will see Saudi Arabia Apartheid Week, Syrian Apartheid Week or any other Apartheid week which highlights discrimination against minorities in such countries.

Oh thats right, we won’t, because it is a strange coincidence that those that support this odious comparison only focus on the Jewish State. Now that is what I call Apartheid.

Don Krausz responds to ISRAEL’S ‘SOUTH AFRICA’ MOMENT IS HERE – By Comrade Solly Mapaila.

    Mapaila’s article is a Godsend for anyone who enjoys “dashing the cup from perjured lip.”

 

During WW2 I had regular access to one of the main Nazi newspapers and learned to identify their methodology. They would faithfully obey the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’ teaching that a lie repeated often enough would eventually be believed. I found that the communists, the comrades, used the same methods, people to whom the end justifies the means, any means.

 

And so the Nazis could proclaim nationwide “The Jews are our misfortune!” without offering a shred of proof. And so the Jews were accused of every evil and crime imaginable, of starting both World Wars, of simultaneously being both capitalists and communists and of controlling finances and governments in major countries. They might as well have stated that the earth was flat. The gullible obediently gobbled it all up and we all know that it resulted in the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children plus millions of fellow human beings.

 

Comrade Mapaila sets the tone of his article when he opens with the statement that “No human being deserves the devastation of life and the atrocities experienced by the Palestinian people. Absolutely. But are these horrendous things actually taking place?

 

He lists some of the discriminatory legislation that existed under Apartheid and implies that Israel is equally guilty. NOT ONE SUCH ISRAELI ITEM OF LEGISLATION IS QUOTED AS PROOF. Not surprisingly because in Israel no such legislation exists, only in the minds of people such as comrade Mapaila.

 

Let us be quite clear about the following: The erstwhile territory of Palestine consists of three entities, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel was granted to the Jews as a state in the United Nations proclaimed Partition Plan of 1947. The West Bank is under the control of Palestinians ruled by Mahmoud Abbas. For security reasons there is an Israeli military presence. Gaza was totally evacuated by Israeli military and settlers in 2005 and has its own regime.

 

Mahmoud Abbas has proclaimed that “No Jew will be allowed to settle in his territory.” The same applies to most of the surrounding Arab states. By contrast 20 percent of Israel’s citizens are not Jewish, most of them Palestinians. They enjoy each and every right that Jews have, except obligatory service in Israel’s Defence Force, despite Mapaila’s denials. Anyone remotely familiar with the history of Arab and Palestinian aggression against their own Jews and Israelis will not expect otherwise.

 

Who is practicing Apartheid, comrade Mapaila?

 

Mapaila states, inter alia, that Israel has separated its population along racial lines and introduced security laws and policies “TO MAINTAIN APARTHEID.”  Once again, not a single fact or detail to substantiate his assertions. I invite the reader to judge whether the following were introduced to maintain apartheid: A +/- 700 km security wall of which the vast majority is fence with only a comparatively few kilometers consisting of wall. Israel erected it after suicide bombers, yes, the same ones that are venerated and lauded by the Palestinians as martyrs and heroes, murdered over 1,000 civilians, men, women and children. That wall prevented the heroes from gaining access to population centres, THUS REDUCING THE ISRAELI DEATH RATE BY AT LEAST 90%. Comrade Mapaila and his ilk obviously disapprove thereof.

 

Over the years Israeli motorists have been subjected to drive-by shootings by Palestinians resulting in the loss of many lives. This has been almost totally eliminated by the simple expedient of marking Israeli and Palestinian vehicles with differently coloured number plates and directing such vehicles onto different roads. Definite proof of apartheid, not so comrade Mapaila?

 

Next we are informed that Israel limits the ability of Arab citizens AND THEIR PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIVES to participate in the political life of the country. Heavens! Does the man not see the contradiction in that statement? Perhaps he cannot.

 

Checkpoints are indirectly referred to between Palestinian and Israeli territory. As pointed out above, there are three distinct areas in that territory: Gaza,  the West Bank and Israel, all with their own government, and their own laws and regulations. Where have you heard of a country that allows people from other areas to simply walk across their borders without some kind of control? And when those trying to enter your civilian areas have a nasty habit of bringing in explosives and guns and believe that they have a holy obligation to kill the infidel and have been doing just that, then you need some checkpoints. Apartheid, comrade Mapaila?

 

On one point I am in full agreement with Mapaila. He writes that the Palestinian people have a fundamental right to a viable state in PEACEFUL coexistence with other states. Surely he then believes that the Jews have the same right? But when the United Nations granted Israel their own state and did the same for the Palestinians, the latter refused to accept a state of their own and instead attacked the Jewish state causing the latter to suffer 6.000 dead and far more wounded. Israel was then subjected to unending terror attacks and five major wars, during which it was threatened with massacre and annihilation.

 

When Israel no longer needs to feel threatened by the Palestinians, the surrounding Arabs and their communist supporters, then the Palestinians will also be able to live peaceful lives in prosperity and dignity.