It is with grave concern and apprehension that the Media Review Network (MRN) has learnt that the arch Zionist, Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister and the 9th President of the Zionist State of Israel, will be visiting our shores. His purpose will be to raise funds to continue and promote the oppression and suppression of the Palestinians.
It is fitting to remind his hosts that it is the same Peres that was at the centre of South Africa’s illegal relationship with Israel during our struggle for liberation. In 1974, he was in the forefront to secure military weapons for the Apartheid regime in Pretoria. He was a close ally of Eschel Rhoodie, South Africa’s foremost apartheid propagandist. In 1976, Apartheid Prime Minister John Vorster, was invited to Israel, where he was given the red carpet treatment. In 1974, under Shimon Peres’s term as Defence Minister, a huge document was circulated between South Africa and Israel dealing with a mutual defence pact. The storage of nuclear warheads in South Africa was also discussed in the document.
We find it most distasteful that when we have a serious unemployment problem in our country and millions living below the poverty line, millions of Rands will be filling the coffers of a country that was determined to subvert our liberation struggle.
The self-same Peres was in the Zionist War Cabinet during the recent attacks on the hapless Gazans. Operation Cast Lead (2008-9), Operation Pillar of Defence (2012) and the most recent Operation Protective Edge (2014) led to the deaths of Thousands of Palestinians including women and children and the absolute destruction of the Strip. This war criminal will be visiting our country to raise funds which will be used to further the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians.
The MRN calls upon civil society, human rights activists and Palestine Solidarity structures to mobilize resources to oppose this visit. This proposed visit must thwart the efforts of people like Peres who played a destructive role in ensuring the incarceration of our political leaders thereby delaying our liberation.
Issued by :
Ibrahim Vawda
Researcher, Media Review Network
Tel: (+27) 011 837 3220
Email: webmaster@mediareviewnet.com
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