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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.

During war there are no civilians

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Sitting in on the Rachel Corrie trial alarmingly reveals an open Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians.

By Nora Barrows-Friedman

(source: Al Jazeera)

"During war there are no civilians," that’s what “Yossi,” an Israeli military (IDF) training unit leader simply stated during a round of questioning on day two of the Rachel Corrie trials, held in Haifa’s District Court earlier this week. “When you write a [protocol] manual, that manual is for war,” he added.

For the human rights activists and friends and family of Rachel Corrie sitting in the courtroom, this open admission of an Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians — Palestinian or foreign — created an audible gasp.

Yet, put into context, this policy comes as no surprise. The Israeli military’s track record of insouciance towards the killings of Palestinians, from the 1948 massacre of Deir Yassin in Jerusalem to the 2008-2009 attacks on Gaza that killed upwards of 1400 men, women and children, has illustrated that not only is this an entrenched operational framework but rarely has it been challenged until recently.

Rachel Corrie, the young American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by a Caterpillar D9-R bulldozer, as she and other members of the nonviolent International Solidarity Movement attempted to protect a Palestinian home from imminent demolition on March 16, 2003 in Rafah, Gaza Strip. Corrie has since become a symbol of Palestinian solidarity as her family continues to fight for justice in her name.

Her parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, filed a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel for Rachel’s unlawful killing — what they allege was an intentional act — and this round of testimonies called by the State’s defense team follows the Corries’ witness testimonies last March. The Corries’ lawsuit charges the State with recklessness and a failure to take appropriate measures to protect human life, actions that violate both Israeli and international laws.

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Press statement

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Burning Of the Quraan Not an Isolated Event

By Anver Suliman – Executive Member, Media Review Network

The Media Review Network takes note that although various Governments and high profile politicians have voiced their opposition to the proposed burning of the Holy Quraan by Pastor Terry Jones, we find the hypocrisy of their utterances more disturbing than Terry Jones’s intentions.

During the various invasions of Muslim countries, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Beirut, by Israel, America and the NATO countries, Mosques and Muslim homes have been deliberately targeted and bombed. Every mosque and home would have had copies of the Holy Quraan. It has been widely reported that American forces were found desecrating the Holy Quraan during their attack on Iraq. Now to distance themselves from Terry Jones is a pretence and insincerity of the highest order.

It is disillusioning to think that Jones is acting on his own. The banning of Minarets in Sweden, scarves and burkas in France and Belgium and the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in Denmark as well as the prohibition of charitable funds to Palestine are an indication of the deep and intense hate for Muslims by some western governments.  These are coordinated efforts of governments to demonise Islam and to fuel the flames of Islamophobia.

The Media Review Network calls on all Muslims to practise restraint and in the spirit of the Holy Month of Ramadaan, to exercise tolerance, and patience.

“And to be firm and patient, in pain and adversity and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the people of Truth, the God fearing.” (2:177)

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Israeli intransigence is the only hope

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While Palestinian negotiators are weak and prone to sign any peace deal, Israel’s current leaders look set to reject every solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

By Ghada Karmi

(source: Al-Ahram Weekly)

What an irony that the Palestinians’ archenemy, Israel, should also be their saviour. There is a real danger that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks due to start 2 September in Washington could yield a botched deal that falls far short of the requirements of international law or elemental justice, and sets back the cause of Palestine for decades if not forever. Fortunately, this will not happen as long as Israel’s obduracy can be relied on to save the Palestinians from such a dreadful outcome.

Time and again, when Israel was thrown a lifeline by its Arab neighbours that could have ensured its legitimacy and security, its folly and greed lost it those opportunities. But, since those same opportunities came at great cost to Palestinian rights, Israel’s obduracy had the perverse effect of safeguarding them. All peace proposals after 1967 were based on maintaining Israel as a regional power and forcing the Palestinians to settle for less than they were entitled to. They were repeatedly offered paltry settlements that in effect legitimised Israel’s hold on a majority of their land and undermined their right of return. Had Israel agreed, the Palestinian cause would have been lost long ago.

But it never happened. Israel foiled each proposal and, though robbing the Palestinians of ever more land and resources, the basics of the Palestinian case remained intact. When in the 1979 Camp David negotiations Egypt sought to give the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza a basis for a future independent state, Israel refused. As it also spurned a succession of Arab peace proposals, most recently the Saudi plan of 2002, offering Israel peace and recognition in return for a Palestinian state. And when, in the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestine Liberation Organisation finally capitulated and accepted Israel’s occupation of Palestine’s remnants so long as it would end and enable the establishment of an independent state on this morsel, Israel responded by taking more land.

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Negotiating peace not surrender

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By Dr Firoz Osman – Media Review Network

There is widespread scepticism in the Arab and Muslims world that the charade of negotiations in Washington between Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah and the PLO, and right-wing hardliner Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, will lead to any substantive agreements.

 US president Barack Obama has his eyes on the mid-term November elections, hoping to curry favour with the powerful Israeli Lobby, AIPAC.

Netanyahu, with his eyes on his wobbly coalition, rejects any permanent freeze on settlement activity, insisting on a “Jewish” state, rejects any sovereignty to any independent Palestinian state, rejects the Right of Return, and is uncompromising on sharing Jerusalem.

 Israel’s strategy was formulated by former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir before the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, which was to engage in negotiations with the Arabs for the next 20 years or more without offering them any concession over an inch of the territory of Greater Israel. Significantly, Shamir’s right-hand man at the Madrid Conference was Netanyahu.
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