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Rhodes vice chancellor adds weight to ending uj Isarael link

PRESS RELEASE: Rhodes Vice-Chancellor Adds Weight to Ending UJ-Israel link

Issued By Dasantha Pillay on Behalf of the UJ – Petition Coordination Committee

Disseminated By Media Review Network

Today, amidst growing international attention, the Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, Professor Saleem Badat, became signatory to the nationwide academic petition supported by more than 200 of South Africa’s most prominent academics, including Breyten Breytenbach, Antjie Krog and John Dugard (www.ujpetition.com).

Badat is the third Vice-Chancellor who has signed the petition, joining the VC of UNISA, Professor Barney Pityana, and the former Vice Chancellor of Durban University Technology, Prof Dan Ncayiyana, in calling for the termination of an agreement between Ben-Gurion University and the University of Johannesburg (on the grounds of BGU’s direct and indirect support for the Israeli military and occupation). Also announced this morning are two of the most recent significant signatories, Professor of Economics, Sampie Terblanche and Professor Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women.

In response to increasing pressure from the academic community and an open letter of support by Desmond Tutu (http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article675369.ece/Israeli-ties–a-chance-to-do-the-right-thing), it was reported in the Israeli press that BGU’s leadership have come out as “deeply disturbed” by recent developments in Johannesburg. 

Tomorrow, 29 September 2010, UJ’s Senate will meet at its Soweto campus, where one of the most pressing issues to be decided will be whether to terminate its partnership agreement with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University (BGU.

The outcome of UJ Senate’s decision will be announced tomorrow afternoon and representatives can be contacted on the day to give interviews and comment on the decision.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Professor Farid Esack: 083 459 9989; fesack@uj.ac.za

Natasha Vally:  082 660 0723; natasha.vally@gmail.com

Muhammed Desai: 084 211 9988; mdesai.work@gmail.com

www.ujpetition.com

Read More »Rhodes vice chancellor adds weight to ending uj Isarael link

Hiding truth behind euphemisms omissions slanders and lies a reply to rupert murdoch

By William A. Cook

(source: Countercurrents.org)

Rupert Murdoch’s recent speech before the ADL gathering at their dinner gala opened with this flattering observation, “You have championed equal treatment for all races and creeds.” What he omitted from that statement is the ADL’s treatment of the Palestinian people under Abraham Foxman, its national director, who “…uses high-mindedness and unfounded anti-Semitism hysteria as cover for backing Jewish supremacy and the right of Israelis over Arabs, including by occupation and belligerently enforced apartheid” (Steven Lendman, Socio-Economic History Blog). Murdoch omits a needed clause at the end of that statement: “except for the Palestinian people and their beliefs and their rights under international law.” Indeed, Lendman’s article refutes virtually every one of Murdoch’s claims, laying bare the truth behind Murdoch’s talk: see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing against Israel or suffer the condemnation that comes with the label “Anti-Semite.”

“We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews,” intones Murdoch as he castigates all peoples as inherently discriminating against Jews everywhere. “Ongoing war against Jews” not “a rising tide of valid criticism against the Zionist controlled state of Israel with its current government’s defiance of the United Nations’ reports on crimes against humanity as published by the Goldstone Report, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the HRC report on the attack on the Marmara in May, and most recently the UNHRC by Dr. Richard Falk, the UN Representative for the Palestinian people.” No, Murdoch euphemistically conjures up a “war” against Jews, a suffering, weak, victimized people at the mercy of the world’s hate.

But there is no war; there is criticism, valid, righteous criticism that decries the wanton havoc inflicted on the Lebanese with Israel’s invasion of that nation in the fall of 2006; valid, righteous criticism that watched in horror the devastation of the defenseless people of Gaza at Christmastime in 2008/9 as their homes, schools, mosques, food, water, and gas supplies lay devastated under the bombs and missiles dropped upon them from the skies; valid, righteous, humane criticism that lamented the deaths of children and mothers and the old and infirm who had no place to run or hide encircled as they were by the Israeli war machine; valid, righteous, and incredulous criticism of the brutal attack against the humanitarian aid workers on board the Marmara as it made its way to help these very people yet found themselves guilty of interfering somehow with Israeli security as they brought a modicum of relief to a blasted people. None of these people hated the Jews; indeed, Jews joined those criticizing the government’s overbearing slaughter of the innocent including those who joined with me in the aborted ‘Boat Brigade” that was to follow the Marmara to Gaza in June. How convenient to stamp “hate” on all, that by that condemnation they must be silenced.

Read More »Hiding truth behind euphemisms omissions slanders and lies a reply to rupert murdoch

All roads lead to Kashmir

By Basharat Peer & Sasha Polakow-Suransky

(source: Boston.com)

Richard Holbrooke spent the final two years of his life struggling to bring peace to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but officially he was never allowed to touch the issue of Kashmir. In the wake of last week’s WikiLeaks revelations of the Indian government’s use of torture against Kashmiri prisoners, the time has come to put Kashmir back on the map and include it in discussions of a broader regional peace — one that would extend to Afghanistan as well.

The longstanding dispute over Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region, has poisoned relations between Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan for decades; spawned and sustained anti-Indian terrorist groups; prevented Pakistan’s army from fighting extremists along its border with Afghanistan; and proved deadly for the Kashmiris caught in between.

In early July, the bodies of three young laborers killed by Indian troops were discovered in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, unleashing a wave of protests. Police fired tear gas at protesters in Srinagar and killed a 17-year-old student, who was simply passing by. Soon, young Kashmiris armed with stones were battling Indian troops, who responded with bullets. An intense military curfew followed. From July to September, the Kashmiri intifada raged on killing 110 and injuring at least 1,500.

India has long resisted any outside attempt to mediate in Kashmir. The Indian government panicked after Barack Obama’s historic election in November 2008, fearing that Obama might appoint Bill Clinton as a special envoy to Kashmir as he had suggested during the campaign. And even before Holbrooke’s post was announced in January 2009, Indian officials and their allies in Washington lobbied furiously to have the words India and Kashmir excluded from the veteran US diplomat’s portfolio. India did not want to be seen as paying the price for US failures in Afghanistan by being forced to negotiate on Kashmir

Read More »All roads lead to Kashmir

The tale of two tutu petitions

Dan Roodt, Advocate Gcina Malindi (SC) and Dot Cleminshaw

By Zackie Achmat

(source: WritingRights.org)

The Board of the Cape Town Holocaust Centre met with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu this week to discuss the calls by people who support the Israeli Occupation of Palestinians.

On 24 January 2011, Open Shuhada Street activists Dan Kamen and Lungisa Mndende handed over the 5815 signatures that were collected in support of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s role as a patron of the Holocaust Centre to centre director Richard Freedman. The petition also defends Archbishop Tutu’s right to criticise the state of Israel. (See the letter below and the text of the petition here)

Archbishop Tutu has always united people against injustice. The response to the attack by leading supporters of the South African Zionist Federation against him is a striking illustration of his capacity to bring together the most diverse array of people both online and offline. This note focuses on the people in South Africa who signed this petition.

Noluvuyo Peter lives in Nkanini informal settlement in Khayelitsha, Cati Vawda lives in Westville Durban, Alice Krige lives in Hollywood California, Theodora Steele hails from Braamfontein in Johannesburg — they are women with a sense of justice — they signed the petition supporting Archbishop Tutu.

Read More »The tale of two tutu petitions