MRN

The aspiration of the Media Review Network is to dispel the myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and to foster bridges of understanding among the diverse people of our country. The Media Review Network believes that Muslim perspectives on issues impacting on South Africans are a prerequisite to a better appreciation of Islam.

South Africas legal war over Gaza

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

South Africans ‘fought in Gaza war’

Efforts to prosecute those who may have committed war crimes in Israel’s war on Gaza have spread beyond the Middle East.

A lawyer in South Africa has identified 75 South African nationals who he says were fighting with the Israeli army in the war earlier this year.

Feroze Boda, based in Johannesburg and working on behalf of two local pro-Palestinian organisations, says the soldiers should face court action for their involvement.

Imran Garda reports from Johannesburg

(source: Al-Jazeera)

The Goldstone report on last winter’s Gaza war has become something of a fixture in the media since its publication in September.

But for South Africans, it is another investigation carried out by the distinguished judge Richard Goldstone – a commission that exposed the brutality of Apartheid security forces in the early 1990s – that looms large in their minds.
That investigation, which came as South Africa moved towards democracy, gave Goldstone hero status in the country.

Now a group of South African lawyers are confident that his recent Gaza report has paved the way for a legal case that could see uncomfortable questions about the conflict asked much closer to home.

They want to investigate South African citizens who may have fought for the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in December and January, with a view to prosecuting them on South African soil for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Us drops demand for Isaraeli settlement freeze

by MRN
January 1, 2013January 6, 2014

US credibility in the Arab world has suffered a serious setback after Hillary Clinton dropped demands for a halt to Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.

By Adrian Blomfield in Jerusalem

(source: telegraph.co.uk)

Signalling an end to the brief flirtation with the Palestinian cause, the US secretary of state flew to Jerusalem to voice full American support for Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an effort to repair badly strained US-Israeli relations, she heaped praise on Mr Netanyahu, lauding his offer to limit settlement construction – even though it falls well short of President Obama’s original demands.

Hillary Clinton dropped demands for a halt to Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank Photo: AFP

She said: "What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy of settlements… is unprecedented in the context of prior to negotiations."

Its not easy being racist

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

(source: Ma’an News Agency)

student

Berlanty Azzam, the Bethlehem University

student who was detained,blindfolded and

deported to Gaza overnight Wednesday

It is not easy to remain a racist oppressor and it is getting harder to keep deflecting the critics by asking them to focus on nonexistent threats (like Iran).

The Human Rights Council accuses Israel of war crimes in Gaza and the Israeli government panics and deals with it as a public relations challenge. Israeli human rights groups challenge Israeli home demolitions in Jerusalem and a UN expert panel names Israel as profiting from Ivory Coast blood diamonds.

Heads are buried in the sand. Israeli leaders are either foregoing trips (to Europe where they may be arrested for war crimes) or going to speak and heckled and challenged by human rights activists (e.g. Olmert’s tour of the US).

Israeli official jewish terrorists still at large

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Press TV)

A senior Israeli internal security service official has said that there are still ‘Jewish terrorists’ at large in Israel, who may be planning future attacks.

The comments by the Shin Bet follow the announcement on Sunday that settler Yaakov Tytell was arrested last month for allegedly killing two Palestinians and carrying out a string of bomb attacks.

"The Jewish settler is an extremist, who firmly believes in his ideology and who acted carefully, decisively and with sophistication," Haaretz quoted the Shin Bet official as saying on Monday.