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 Africa skips Isarael conference

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: VOC fm Online / Sapa)

Cosatu saluted the SA tourism ministry on Thursday for not attending a tourism conference to be hosted by Israel. “By its decision, South Africa now joins Britain, Spain and Turkey who have all refused to attend the conference,” Cosatu’s deputy international relations secretary Zanele Matebula said.

Matebula was referring to the 86th session of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Tourism Committee conference to be hosted by Israel in Jerusalem. The conference is set to take place between October 20 and 22.

Cosatu said the Palestine Liberation Organisation had joined a call by radical Sunni Islamist group Fatah, Palestinian trade unions and civil society groups for countries not to attend, citing Israel’s “illegal occupation”, including that of Jerusalem. Cosatu was informed that neither Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk nor his deputy would be attending, Matebula said. The office of the director general of tourism has indicated, according to Cosatu, that no representative would be attending.

Tourism ministerial spokesperson Trevor Bloem confirmed to Sapa on Thursday night that the ministry would not attend the event for “logistical reasons”. “Since resources and time are limited we have for logistical reasons prioritised and choose to attend some conferences and not others.”

The minister and DG had just returned from a conference in South Korea. The department had recently been to another conference in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, also organised by the OECD. Matebula said: “The momentum for the boycott dramatically increased last week when Israeli Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, said attendance at the conference would be ‘a seal of approval on the fact that we [Israel] have a state whose recognised capital is Jerusalem’.

“No member of the United Nations (nor the organisation itself) recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Even the United States, Israel’s unwavering ally, refuses to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Matebula said the comment by the Israeli tourism minister angered the OECD. However, by holding the conference in the city, the OECD ignored the fact that Jerusalem was under occupation. Matebula said taking part in the conference would be a “tacit acceptance” of Israel’s “illegal annexation” of the city.

Civilians shot at in Gaza buffer zone

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Harriet Sherwood

(source: Mail & Guardian Online – 15/10/2010)

At least 10 Palestinian children have been shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the past three months while collecting rubble in or near the “buffer zone” created by Israel along the Gaza border, in a low-intensity offensive on the fringes of the blockaded Palestinian territory. Israeli soldiers routinely shoot at Gazans well beyond the unmarked boundary of the official 300m-wide no-go area, rights groups say.

According to Bassam Masri, head of orthopaedics at the Kamal Odwan hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of Gaza, about 50 people have been treated for gunshot wounds suffered in or near the buffer zone while collecting rubble in the past three months; about five have been killed. He estimates that 30% of the injured are boys under 18.

Defence for Children International (DCI) has documented 10 cases of children aged 13 to 17 being shot in a three-month period between 50m and 800m from the border. Nine were shot in a leg or arm; one in the stomach. The creation of the no-go area has forced farmers to abandon land and residents to leave homes for fear of coming under fire. Last month a 91-year-old man and two teenage boys were killed while harvesting olives outside the official zone when Israeli troops fired shells. Forty-three goats also died in the attack.

In another case a mother of five was killed by a shell outside her home near the zone in July. Israel declared the buffer zone inside Gaza after the three-week war in 2008 to 2009, saying it was intended to prevent militants firing rockets. It has dropped leaflets from planes several times warning local people not to venture within 300m of the fence that marks the border or risk being shot.

However, the United Nations, aid agencies and rights groups say that Israel has unofficially and without warning extended the zone to up to 1km from the fence, leaving residents and farmers uncertain whether it is safe to access their land or property.

“The army knows the kids are there to collect. They watch them every day and they know they have no weapons,” said Mohammed Abu Rukbi, a fieldworker with DCI.”They usually fire warning shots but the kids don’t take much notice.”

Mohammed Sobboh (17) said he was shot above the knee on August 25 when he was 800m from the border. The 12 people in his family have no other income than rubble collection and are not entitled to aid from the UN because they are not refugees. Israeli soldiers shot dead a horse and a donkey used by Mohammed and his brothers to carry the rubble, he said.

His brother, Adham (22), said children as young as eight collect debris from former settlements and demolished buildings for 30 to 40 shekels (about R20) a day. “The price has gone down because a lot of people are collecting,” said Adham.

According to Masri, the shootings have increased as more impoverished Gazans turn to collecting rubble to sell as construction material, which is still under Israeli embargo. “Every day we have one or two cases. “Some kids are facing permanent disability. Most injuries are to the legs and feet, suggesting the soldiers did not aim to kill. That means they know that the people aren’t militants.”

Tantrums sheeshas but who will care when Isarael self destructs?

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Yvonne Ridley

(source: Ammonnews.net)

After the collapse of the faux Middle East peace talks Israel’s growing isolation in the world is not entirely unexpected. A side-effect is that America has discovered that it cannot force the rest of the international community to embrace the Frankenstein monster it has nurtured.

With the exception of Egypt, and in the absence of financial or military inducements given to Hosni Mubarak, few self-respecting states are willing to embrace the Zionist brat.

In any case, no one takes much notice of Egypt these days, where Mubarak is preparing to crown his son as his successor. His slavish support for Israel prompted by copious amounts of US aid has lost him trust, credibility, respect and international standing. Even the Americans are beginning to realise that their Cairo rent boy is of little value these days.

Of course, the concern now is that the more isolated the Zionist State is, the more dangerous, unpredictable and out of control it becomes. Having such an unstable, failed state in the Middle East is bad, but having one with at least 200 nuclear warheads at its disposal should focus the minds of the powers that be; nowhere more so than in Washington where Barack Obama is cruising towards a bruising in the mid-term elections thanks to the collapse of the peace talks. And now his Zionist aides are jumping ship at an alarming rate, a sure sign that he is in trouble.

Why Isarael only is tired hypocritical

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Professor Farid Essack

(source: Mail & Guardian / City Press – Friday, 15-10-2010)

Robert Fine’s piece “Blame Game won’t lead us to peace” (October 8), commenting on the rather tepid University of Jo’burg senate resolution to the call by (now more than 270) South African academics, including the vice-chancellors of three South African universities to end its apartheid-era relationship with Ben Gurion University, raises some interesting points.

Desmond Tutu is indirectly, but not so subtly, accused of anti-Semitism because he warns that those who support the severance of ties may lose research funding and, at the same time, urges Jews not to forget their own past as victims of discrimination.

Tutu does not say who might withdraw research funding, so he is not trotting out some canard about “Jewish money power”.

He is making the (clearly accurate) statement that opposition to Israeli policies is not popular among those who dole out research money (mostly in Europe and the United States) and that people critical of Israel can be, and often are, penalised. Those who do the penalising are not necessarily Jewish — most are probably not. And to ask Jews to remember their past is hardly anti-Semitic. Jewish activists do this all the time.

During apartheid, it was common for liberal Jews to say that their fellow Jews should empathise with the oppressed because Jews had the same experience: no one except the right-wing fringe accused them of being anti-Semitic or “self-hating”.
Read More »Why Isarael only is tired hypocritical