I find it astonishing that the leader of the ACDP, Rev Kenneth Meshoe, defends and justifies his visit to Israel without any regard to the dispossession and occupation of indigenous Palestinians.
While he correctly lauds the freedoms we enjoy as South Africans and proudly cites the rights enshrined in our constitution, he omits to mention that these are denied to Palestinians and thus lies at the heart of their freedom struggle.
Palestine, since being colonised, dismembered and divided by foreign invaders who subsequently ghettoised it, is not free. These external elements, who subscribe to a racist ideology known as Zionism, and apply apartheid policies to enforce Jewish supremacy, should be facing boycott and sanctions not divinity, as Meshoe shamelessly invokes.
Take the example of Israel’s American-born envoy to South Africa Arthur Lenk. He has more rights than native Palestinians. He can own land which is forcefully, immorally and illegally confiscated from the original owners. His rights as a Jewish citizen supersedes those of the original inhabitants who are either Muslim or Christian Palestinians.
Of course, neither Meshoe nor Lenk will acknowledge the fact that Israel is the last apartheid outpost. On the contrary, as their propaganda pieces demonstrates, their efforts to market Israel as a tourist destination is intended to conceal this reality.
Iqbal Jassat
Media Review Network
Johannesburg
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