In a recent press release, the ANC pointed to the fact that the DA’s choice of Member of Mayoral Committee for Finance, Rabelani Dagada, recently returned from Military Zionist Israel after completing an all-expenses paid Hasbara (propaganda) trip.
Some of the DA’s coalition partners in Tshwane and Johannesburg also benefited from a similar trip. They included Mossiuoa Lekota of Cope, Kenneth Meshoe (ACDP), Mangosutho Buthelezi (IFP) and Connie Mulder (FF+). All experienced the injustices and human rights violations of the Apartheid system of governance. On their return, they declared that Israel was not an Apartheid state.
Did Dagada and the others not see the extremes of humiliation, poverty and suffering that govern the daily lives of the occupied Palestinians? For the Palestinians “normality” means the continued brutality of the Zionist occupation. It means the 10 meter high apartheid wall that dominates the landscape and a ten minute walk turned into a two hour ordeal, the countless checkpoints which they have to navigate daily to earn a living and where they are interrogated, harassed and abused.“ Normality” means dispossession of land and homes without compensation and legalised by the Zionists Absentees’ Property Law of 1950. A “normal” school for Palestinian children is severely underfunded, their parents are denied government employment and routinely arrested for participating in peaceful protests.
Administrative detention is the norm. Palestinians are subjected to military rule and the illegal settlers are governed by civilian rule. Migrants and refugees from Africa are frowned upon. They are referred to as “infiltrators” and when arrested are held at the Holot detention center without legal recourse, sometimes for years. The list of human rights violations is endless.
Dagada et al can only be described as pathetic apologists for “Zionist Apartheid”.
These apologists should know better than claim that Israel is not an Apartheid State. Failing to recognise this, raises questions about their integrity and honesty.
In the final analysis he who pays the piper calls the tune.This is reflected in the Anti-Palestinian stance of the Jo’burg City Council when it denied the Palestine Solidarity group, South African Jews For Palestine (SAJFP), permission to carry out a symbolic tree planting ceremony. The pro-Israeli partisan politics is likely to be pursued by Herman Mashaba’s Johannesburg City Council.
Issued by:
Ibrahim Vawda
Media Review Network
+27 72 295 0088
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