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Deflecting attention from Isarael

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MISGUIDED VIEWS ON IRAN AIM TO DEFLECT ATTENTION FROM ISRAEL

By: Iqbal Jassat

The attempt by Rolene Marks to divert attention away from Israel in her response to Ronnie Kasrils, "What about Iran?" [Cape Times, July 7] is futile and entirely misguided.

Its seems to be informed more by desperation than any genuine desire to understand36in the Islamic Republic of Iran.Her comments on Iran reveal a great deal of prejudice and given that she seeks to silence Kasrils’ bold and courageous critique of the Zionist regime, one can assume that she is yet another victim of anti-Iran propaganda emanating from Israel.

Those that are calling for an end to tyranny, fear and oppression are the besieged Palestinians. They have also called for an end to detention without trial – more than 11,000 Palestinians have been incarcerated in Israeli jails, subject to horrendous torture as documented by respectable human rights ngos. The victims of ethnic cleansing, Palestinian refugees numbering 5million or more are demanding right of return to their original homes and farms, looted by Jewish immigrants from Europe, America, Russia and South Africa over the last six decades.
 
Perhaps Rolene Marks and her colleagues from the pro-Israeli lobby in SA will dare to venture into probing the reasons why Israel refuses to allow inspections at a secret prison dubbed as "Israel’s Guantanamo Bay". In a report published in May 2009, the Committee Against Torture requested that Israel indentify the location of the camp officially referred to as "Facility 1391" and allow the International Red Cross access to it.

While I am pleased though that she had the courage, unlike David Saks, to concede that Kasrils’ role in fighting apartheid injustice has been exemplary, perhaps she will also agree that the struggle to end Palestinian suffering is long overdue.

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Ihrc alert

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US – Campaigners are requested to write letters of support to Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman Islamic Human Rights Commission Contents:… Read More »Ihrc alert

Eyewitness accounts

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Israeli soldiers testify to rights violations in Gaza

CAPE TIMES:July 17, 2009

Nathan Geffen and Doron Isaacs

Breaking the Silence (BtS) is an organisation of Israeli soldiers that records testimony from soldiers about human rights abuses they have witnessed or been involved in. On Wednesday, BtS released testimonies by Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers about their actions in Operation Cast Lead, the attack on Gaza initiated in December 2008.

The testimonies provide evidence of Palestinians used by the IDF as human shields, changed rules of engagement that reduce the risk to soldiers at the expense of civilians, systematic mass destruction of property including mosques, orchards and livestock, displacement of Palestinian civilians from their homes, bombardment of populated areas, vandalism and the use of white phosphorus in populated areas. The role of the IDF’s rabbinate is also highlighted, with its use of religious rhetoric to demonise Palestinians and justify and encourage war crimes.

In the introduction to the testimonies BtS explains: "In the past few months, the IDF spokesperson has gone to great lengths to prove that if there were any moral problems with the war at all, they were merely on the level of the ‘delinquent soldier’, rather than a widespread, systemic issue.

"The stories of this publication prove that we are not dealing with the failures of individual soldiers, and attest instead to failures in the application of values primarily on a systemic level. … The testimonies of the soldiers in this collection expose that the massive and unprecedented blow to the infrastructure and civilians of the Gaza strip were a direct result of IDF policy …"

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Gaza and the language of power

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Gaza and the Language of Power
By Ramzy Baroud

Nearly six months have passed since the Israeli army ceased pounding the tiny stretch of land that is the Gaza Strip. Since then, Gaza continues to appear on the news once in a while, as a recurring subject of human misery.

The tireless efforts of British MP George Galloway, and the courageous endeavors of the Free Gaza movement have managed to push Gaza back into the spotlight, even if momentarily and with political context which is lacking at best.

Aside from that, the three-week Israeli onslaught in Gaza, starting December 27 – and the catastrophic conditions endured there – have served the purpose of a footnote in many news reports. The event is generally cited as such: "Israel moved against Hamas in Gaza to quell the firing of militants’ rockets, resulting in the death of such and such number." Hamas, according to media conventional wisdom, is the "militant group that ousted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ forces in a bloody coup in mid 2007."

Sadly, ones worse fears have actualized, where the post-Gaza massacre world and the one which existed prior are exactly the same. Israel is trying to prove that political and military might overpower all human rights reports combined, and that public opinion – which turned against Israel as it wantonly killed and wounded thousands – will eventually turn back in Israel’s favor. One does not need to be an expert in the art of propaganda to predict the public relations model that would allow Israel to deceive millions into believing that the belligerent state is in fact a victim in a sea of hostile Arabs hell-bent on subjugating the Jewish State. Thus it was hardly a deviation from the script when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a most shrewd term to depict his governments’ refusal to respect international law regarding the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, all considered illegal under international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention. He said during his recent trip to Germany that the West Bank will never be "Judenrein" a Nazi term meaning "cleansed of Jews".

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