Victor Gordon to the Pretoria news:UN victory for leaders of Palestine”

PRETORIA NEWS

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Ref:  “UN victory for leaders of Palestine”

Mazeltov to the Palestinians on their pyrrhic “victory” at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).  Four resolutions were passed against Israel (in tune with what happens at each and every council meeting), with one of them adopted by 32 votes to 0.

If that alone doesn’t make one question the so-called impartiality of the Council when it comes to Israel, nothing will. How is it possible that not a single vote was registered against this on-going insanity which has Israel alone as a permanent feature on the agenda at every session, whether worthy of discussion or not.

Since its inception in 2006, the UNHRC has passed 66 resolutions against Israel and just 60 against the rest of the world combined, despite the horrific atrocities that have, and still are, occurring as we speak. Despite the highly regarded Human Rights Watch urging the Council to look into the atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups against both Israelis and their own people, the HRC has deliberately steered away from doing so.

Why?

Could it be that the 47 members who constitute the HRC are dominated by traditionally anti-Israel regions, being Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, with just seven for Western Europe and “Others” who historically vote as dictated by expediency. What chance, therefore,  does Israel ever have of a fair hearing?

Since 2001, two Special Rapporteurs on the question of Palestine have been appointed, being South Africa’s  John Dugard and Prof. Richard Falk. Both admit to having received a mandate to “investigate human rights violations by Israel only, not by Palestinians”. Such is the impartiality of the HRC.

The assumedly impartial Falk has compared “Israel’s treatment of Palestinians” with the Nazis’ treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. Ironically, the Palestinian Authority has informally asked Falk to resign, for, among other reasons, being “too partisan towards Hamas”. This did not stop Falk from posting a clearly anti-Semitic cartoon on his blog in 2011. The United States has called Falk’s behavior “shameful and outrageous” and “an embarrassment to the United Nations.”

The article by Maan News (as published) makes it appear that, as usual, Israel is the villain, perpetually guilty of the most atrocious crimes against humanity, while the Palestinians and the rest of the world have either little or nothing to answer for.  How can this possibly reconcile with the points as listed?

Don Krausz to The Star: RE: TAPPING INTO THE ROOT OF TERRORISM by Frank Barat – 24/3/2016.

Dear Sir,

RE: TAPPING INTO THE ROOT OF TERRORISM by Frank Barat – 24/3/2016.

Interesting and very descriptive article by Frank Barat on the bombings in Belgium.

He then proceeds to condemn the atrocities and point fingers at the society and government where they occurred. He as much as says: “It is all our fault,” citing negligence on the part of the Belgian Security Apparatus.

But nowhere in his article do I find condemnation of those that influenced the perpetrators. We know from the Israeli experience that hatred is preached from the pulpit, taught to little children at schools, encouraged in the media and by the leadership.

Murderers of infants and suicide bombers are venerated and lauded. The religion promises them rewards in heaven, not the hell that they fully deserve.

Does Frank Barat not know this? He makes no mention thereof. Is it because he approves? Just who is Frank Barat?

We read that he is a co-ordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and co-author with Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe on books critical of Israel. Pappe has become notorious for his statement that  “The only truth that is important is that which conforms to his ideas.” According to Constitutional Court Judge Richard Goldstone, the Russell is not even a tribunal.

It was created to “investigate Israeli crimes in Gaza.” That very statement presupposes that Israel committed crimes in Gaza. It also implies that the members of that tribunal did not come to seek the truth but to find evidence of the supposed Israeli crimes. So just how balanced and open-minded a judicial commission did they form?

When one examines some of their other investigations such as the US army actions during or after the Vietnam war, one finds that this kangaroo court sat on eleven enquiries and issued ten unanimous verdicts of guilty. Everyone was of the same opinion? Not one of the many prominent and distinguished members had his own interpretation of what occurred and what the findings ought to be? I call it a kangaroo court, because they all jump at the same time and in the same way!

Their latest appearance was in Cape Town where they produced a trump card, a Jewish concentration camp survivor, who, one assumes, was there to testify against Israel.

A little investigation found that this individual was a total fraud. He had assumed the name and identity of a Christian who had died in the camp. Shades of Ilan Pappe: The only truth of any importance is that which supports his arguments. Now which of the  honourable and distinguished Russell members came up with this stunt?

And these are some of the individuals that were to sit in judgement on Israel?

Rolene Marks responds to “Israeli calls for JNF ban in SA” Cape Times

To the Editor

 

Israeli wants SA to ban Jewish National Fund by Uri Davis refers.

 

Professor Davis, who is in South Africa as a guest of BDS to support Israel Apartheid Week (a week-long festival of hatred and false invective directed at the Jewish state), has made scurrilous accusations against both the Jewish National Fund and the Women’s International Zionist Organisation in Ebrahim’s op-ed.

 

BDS and their ilk, in this case Davis, would have you believe that they have a lot of concern for the rights of the Palestinian people.  In reality, however,  it is just poorly disguised antisemitism because if their intentions were truly noble, they would advocate for discourse and not import conflict into South Africa as we have seen with their previous comments like “shoot the Jew” and “kill the Jew”. BDS would have you believe that bringing a token Israeli into the mix means that they really have credibility. Except for a few gigantic factual errors.

 

Davis infers that the Jewish National Fund (JNF) expropriated land from the Arabs and used it to build their forests. Incidentally apart from sponsoring projects in South Africa that give sustainability to many rural communities, the JNF throughout its history acquired the land legally from absentee landlords. The Ottoman Empire at the time controlled these deeds.

 

Then in the case of the village of Lubya to which Davis refers, a little history lesson is in order.  During the 1948 War of Independence, heavy battles were fought in and around major cities like Nazareth. After intense battles and the fall of Nazareth, the majority of non-combatants including those in the village of Lubya, fled north or to nearby towns.There was no ethnic cleansing and by the time the Israeli army arrived, they had fled the village. Many Arabs fled their villages because their leaders encouraged them to, claiming that once they had “driven the Jews into the sea” they could return. They never did. 

BDS lies time and again. 

The repugnant claim that the Women’s International Zionist Organisation “give the impression of non-segregation” and that it “veils the crimes against humanity” and the inference that the organisation is complicit in war crimes is a blatant untruth . As an Executive member of this noble women’s organisation, that includes a federation of Druze women, I can with absolute confidence say that every single one of our projects, be they in JNF forests or elsewhere, is fully integrated and inclusive. 

 

Ebrahim also speaks about South African Jews for a free Palestine. May I remind Ebrahim of recent delegations that have included former BDS supporters who have also visited Israel and the territories and drew the conclusions that they had been bamboozled and conned by BDS.

 

I would implore anyone who would like to see a just and negotiated peace, visit Israel and see for yourself.

Monessa Shapiro to Politicsweb

Israel Apartheid Week is once again upon us.  And with it are the fabrications and deceit that we have come to associate with the proponents of IAW, not least of all the BDS.   For to describe Israel as an apartheid state is in itself mendacity of enormous magnitude, a lie that minimizes the pain and degradation that Apartheid South Africa was.   A nefarious untruth that negates the suffering that was Apartheid.  The suffering for which men like Nelson Mandela were willing to die.

Nelson Mandela believed in peace and reconciliation.   He pursued justice and was above all a man of honesty and integrity.  As a result of his deep love for all mankind he was able to lead South Africa from the brink of anarchy to a period of goodwill and prosperity.

In time for IAW the Gauteng ANC tweeted a picture of Madiba, with a supposed quote of his.   A horrific quote in the language of the detractors of Israel, replete with every accusation ever laid against Israel.    Within seconds this same tweet could have and probably was re-tweeted thousands and thousands of times. 

A quick Google search of the quote finds that it was written by Arjan El Fassed in 2001 in a letter he wrote to Thomas Friedman of the New York Times.   Fassed wrote the letter in the name of Mandela, and placed it on the Electronic Intifada, a pro-Palestinian website.   However the Electronic Intifada explains quite openly that the words were not those of Mandela’s but rather Fassed’s.   Why then did the ANC attribute such hateful words to our beloved icon?  Words that are so quickly and easily discovered to be fake.

Probably the quote was never checked.  It has been put out so often and attributed so frequently to Mandela that like all lies put forward in the Israel-Palestine conflict, it has for most become the truth.  And herein rests the problem.   For while there can be no doubt that Mandela was critical of some of Israel’s policies there is also no doubt that he believed in the state of Israel, her right to exist and her right to security.  For it was Madiba who said: “ The Arab leaders must make an unequivocal statement that they recognize the existence of Israel within secure borders.”  And it was he too who said: “As a movement we recognize the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism, just as we recognize the legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalism.”