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ANC seems to turn blind eye to SA Zionists fighting in Israeli army

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WHEN South African security services recently prevented a Cape Town girl from boarding a plane allegedly to join IS, many South Africans were pleased but at the same time surprised at how swift the reaction of our security services were. How come the same reaction is not applied to SA Zionist Jews serving in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)?

The swift action of the SA security services was carried out in terms of the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act (RFMA), enacted by the new democratically elected SA Government in 1997. The legislation aims to prevent South African companies and citizens from rendering military or militaryrelated services abroad without the government’s authority – particularly those services which may fall within the ambit of the new style of mercenary activity.

This act states that it is illegal, as a SA, to go into a conflict zone and render assistance to any side. As a South African you are not allowed to fight for another country in any conflict. This curbing of mercenary and individual activity is surely welcomed by peaceloving South Africans everywhere.

But how has it come to pass that not a single SA Zionist Jew has ever been investigated nor prosecuted in terms of transgressing the RFMA? Why is the ANC government so swift in dealing with alleged IS supporters and not those of the state of Israel that flagrantly violates international law?

Last year a member of Runners for Palestine opened a case against Dean Goodson for serving in the IDF. The opening of a docket was confirmed by the Western Cape police spokesperson Lt Col Andre Traut. It is not the first time that such cases have been brought before the relevant authorities.

In 2009, in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead, the Palestinian Solidarity Alliance and Media Review Network, approached SA’s National Prosecution Authority with a list of some 75 South Africans who allegedly fought in Gaza. In the process these South Africans, killed, maimed, destroyed and violated several international laws and human rights of Palestinians who live under the brutal colonial occupation of Israel.

Furthermore, according to Al-Jazeera ( November 1, 2009), Luis Morenoocampo, chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said he was considering an investigation against Lt Col David Benjamin, a Saborn IDF officer, for war crimes committed during Cast Lead, as SA is a signatory of the court’s 1998 Rome Statute establishing the international court. But bizarrely, among all these efforts to prosecute South Africans serving in the Israeli military nothing has come of it. The Jerusalem Post (September 8, 2014) reporting on the Goodson case, SA’s Defence Department indicated that it had not granted permission to any South African to participate in the Gaza conflict and was aware that some may be serving in the IDF without clearance.

However, the lack of action on the part of the ANC both in relation to prosecution of Zionist Jews serving in the IDF and in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign have left a deep concern of the moral compass of government. There is a growing sentiment among the Palestinian solidarity groups and civil society organisations that the ANC is selling out the Palestinian struggle in favour of an elitist agenda of the leadership’s business interests and wealth accumulation.

During the Gaza massacre and after calls by hundreds of thousands of South Africans for Zuma to cut diplomatic and business relations with Israel, as Latin American countries were doing, he announced to a standing ovation at a Washington press conference there would be no expulsion of its ambassador, Arthur Lenk.

The leading countervailing force in relation to the ANC government’s complicity is said to be Zionist, Ivor Ichikowitz of the Paramount Group, the largest private arms dealer in Africa, who flew Zuma to a United Nations meeting. A Mail & Guardian probe (March 13, 2009) of Ichikowitz’s relations with the ANC and prominent Zuma backers indicated a man who has made it his business to get close to key power-brokers.

Ichikowitz not only flew Mandela to a Zuma elections rally in Transkei, but also flew Zuma in his luxuriously converted Boeing 727 to Lebanon and Kazakhstan for ANC fundraising and business meetings.

Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of the former president, opened doors for Ichikowitz into Africa and Mathews Phosa, shared a number of company directorships with Ichikowitz before his elevation to ANC treasurer.

These are just a few known direct business and political links by top ANC leaders to leading Zionist businessmen and Israel supporters. What do we not know about? This reality goes a long way to explaining the ANC leaders pro-Palestinian rhetoric but no concrete action against the Israeli regime, despite all its atrocities against the Palestinians.

With the incremental genocide under way in Palestine, according to Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, world action is most urgent. The time has come for the ANC government to prosecute South Africans serving in the Israeli Defence force or has the ANC lost its moral compass completely? – Sacsis

Written by:

EDDIE COTTLE

Eddie Cottle writes on behalf of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. This article is published courtesy of The South African Civil Society Information Service.

 

Article Retrieved from:

  • The New Age (Western Cape)

  • 2 Jun 2015

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