Skip to content

‘Horrific apartheid mentality’ is ignored by pro-Israel supporters

Tags:

Comments are closed.

Kathrada speechIN RESPONSE to Rolene Marks’s letter in The Star (October 31), I am neither surprised nor shocked at her reaction to the international campaign to “Free Marwan Barghouti”.

Coming from a person who is a passionate advocate for Israel, one would not expect her to mention the true facts, which would expose Israel’s horrific apartheid mentality that is seeping in gross injustices.

Israel is well known for its heavy-handed, disproportionate use of violence against ordinary Palestinians, let alone high-profile people like Marwan Barghouti and the other prisoners.

Dramatisation minus the truth remains nothing but theatre, at its best meant to sensationalise and entertain rather than inform and educate.

The truth is that Mr Marwan Barghouti was accused of founding the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Based on this, the Zionist government of Israel attempted to assassinate him in 2001. The missile, which was fired in an attempt to murder Mr Barghouti, hit his bodyguard’s car, killing the bodyguard. Mr Barghouti survived, but was arrested by the Israeli army in Ramallah on April 15, 2002, and transferred to the “Russian Compound” police station in Jerusalem. Amos Harel wrote in Haaretz that Mr Barghouti was arrested by soldiers of the “Duchifat Battalion”, who had approached the home hidden in a protected ambulance to avoid detection.

To say that “it’s a painful day for Israelis” is a generalisation, because many Israelis are part of the “free Marwan Barghouti campaign”.

One such group is Gush Shalom, which vehemently condemns Israeli injustices against the Palestinian people.

Not to mention that many members of the European parliament are also part of the Free Marwan Barghouti Campaign.

I would like to remind Rolene and all pro-Israeli supporters of a Talmudic story, which I believe is familiar to many of you. The story is told that a heathen came to Shammai with the request to be accepted as a convert on condition that he was taught the whole of the Torah while he stood on one foot. The rabbi drove him away with the yardstick which he was holding.

He then went to Hillel with the same request and Hillel said: “What is hateful to you yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole of the Torah and the remainder is but commentary. Go, learn it.”

MRN
Latest posts by MRN (see all)