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.

I saw ariel sharon murder 2 palestinian toddlers in Lebanon

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Israel officials call report by Dutch director George Sluizer a ‘modern blood libel’ after he director claimed to have seen then Defense Minster shooting children from close range near the Sabra-Shatilla refugee camp in 1982.

By Cnaan Liphshiz

(source: Haaretz)

Dutch media this month published articles accusing Ariel Sharon of murdering Palestinian children in Lebanon. Former officials who worked with Sharon said the publications were false. The Israeli foreign ministry called the claim “a modern blood libel.”

The claim first appeared in the Volkskrant, the third largest paper in the Netherlands, in an interview with the well-known Dutch-Jewish director George Sluizer. According to Sluizer, 78, he witnessed Sharon killing two Palestinian toddlers with a pistol in 1982 near the refugee camp Sabra-Shatilla while filming a documentary there.

“I met Sharon and saw him kill two children before my eyes,” said Sluizer, who lives in Amsterdam. Sluizer has made several documentaries about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but is best known for directing The Vanishing with Jeff Bridges and Kiefer Sutherland in 1992.

Sluizer repeated the accusation in an interview for Vrij Nederland, an intellectual magazine, published on November 13 ahead of a screening of his film at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. “Sharon shot two children like you shoot rabbits, in front of my eyes,” he said.

The children, according to Sluizer, “were toddlers, two or three years old. He shot them from a distance of 10 meters with a pistol that he carried. I was very close to him.” Sluizer added he thought this happened in November, when Sharon was Israel’s minister of defense, but he was not sure of the month.

Police state in the making

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Samah Jabr

(source: Ma’an News Agency)

Although United States-sponsored security coordination with the Palestinian Authority started in the nineties, the scale and nature of US intervention in Palestinian affairs intensified through the program headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton that was launched by the Bush administration in 2005.

When Hamas ousted Fateh from the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the atmosphere then became ripe to escalate the growth of this political mutation that transformed former “national heroes” into “terrorists”. While Hamas security forces in Gaza are considered illegal, governments in Europe and North America provide generous financial support to the PA and its security forces.

In an address at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Dayton said (as if this were a compliment) that his program had created a “new kind of Palestinian man.” Three battalions of 500 men each have graduated from the program, and more are currently in training to engage in a series of offensives against members of the resistance groups in the West Bank.

One sided negotiation

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Aayesha Soni – Brixton

(source: BusinessDay – Published: 2010/11/24)

The latest turn of36regarding the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks has prompted this letter. The US and President Barack Obama are trying to fulfil the role of impartial mediator. However, I find it difficult to believe that the US really is the “man for the job”, with its obvious tendency to favour Israeli politics.

It would seem natural that the Palestinians are demanding a freeze in the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. One cannot expect them to enter into peace talks on the one hand, while on the other the land they are fighting for is being seized under the pretence of “natural expansion”.

To any logical mind this would seem preposterous. And yet, in order to attempt to get Israel to stop the building of illegal settlements so that peace talks may resume, the US has offered Israel a deal encompassing some rather unbelievable concessions.

It is as if the US is offering Israel a reward to stop actions that have already been deemed illegal by the United Nations and several other international bodies.

As reported by Reuters, this includes 20 F-35 stealth jets worth 3bn and a promise to use Washington’s veto in the United Nations Security Council to block anti-Israeli resolutions — essentially the deal would confirm the loyalty of the American veto.

With the supposed mediator having such an obvious inclination to a single party, and that party taking full advantage of the leverage it apparently wields, it is no wonder the peace talks have not seen success yet.

More than a bribe Obama surrenders palestinian rights

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Ramzy Baroud

(source: Palestine Chronicle)

The Middle East policies of US President Barack Obama may well prove the most detrimental in history so far, surpassing even the rightwing policies of President George W. Bush. Even those who warned against the overt optimism which accompanied Obama’s arrival to the White House must now be stunned to see how low the US president will go to appease Israel – all under the dangerous logic of needing to keep the peace process moving forward.

Former Middle East peace diplomat Aaron David Miller argued in Foreign Policy that “any advance in the excruciatingly painful world of Arab-Israeli negotiations is significant.” He further claimed: “The Obama administration deserves much credit for keeping the Israelis, Palestinians, and key Arab states on board during some very tough times. The U.S. president has seized on this issue and isn’t giving up — a central requirement for success.”

But at what price, Mr. Miller? And wouldn’t you agree that one party’s success can also mean another’s utter and miserable failure?

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton reportedly spent eight hours with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu only to persuade him to accept
one of the most generous bribes ever bestowed by the United States on
any foreign power. The agreement includes the sale of $3 billion worth
of US military aircrafts (in addition to the billions in annual aid
packages), a blanket veto of any UN Security Council resolution deemed
unfavorable to Israel, and the removal of East Jerusalem from any
settlement freeze equation (thus condoning the illegal occupation of the
city and the undergoing ethnic cleansing). But even more dangerous than
all of these is “a written American promise that this will be the last
time President Obama asks the Israelis to halt settlement construction
through official channels.”