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Zwelinzima vavis address to lenasia rally

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COSATU General Secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi’s address to Lenasia Rally in solidarity with the people of Gaza, 14th January 2009

From our own experience, we know how painful and dehumanising is the system of segregation, otherwise known as apartheid. Apartheid is a system based on the assumption that one group or race is superior to others and therefore has a right to all the privileges and virtues associated with that particular status. It has a right to run and determine the lives of others, excluding them from certain privileges, merely because they do not belong to the “chosen” group.

What other definition would so fittingly define a system based on different rights and privileges for Jews and Arabs in the Middle East? The bantustanisation of Palestine into pieces or strips – West Bank, Ramallah, Gaza strip and so on – run by Israel and with no rights whatsoever for the Palestinians, is definitely an apartheid system.

Israel occupied the land of the Palestinian people and created settler communities of Jews who enjoy a different lifestyle and privileges than those experienced by Palestinians. Palestinians are packed like Sardines in a tin throughout the Bantustans, with Gaza being acknowledged as the world’s biggest open-air prison.

 

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Gaza a pawn in the new great game

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Gaza: A pawn in the new ‘great game’

By Alastair Crooke, Asia Times, January 14, 2009

As Europeans watch the humanitarian disaster in Gaza unfold on nightly news bulletins, many may wonder why this crisis seems to have left their governments groping in such apparent fumbling disarray. The answer is that it is the result of policies pulling in opposite directions – of an acute irreconcilability at the heart of their policy-making.

What has happened in Gaza was all too foreseeable. A few Israelis forewarned about this coming crisis, but the appeal of the “grand narrative” – of a global struggle between “moderates” and “extremists” – overrode their warnings to the Israeli electorate.

The thesis that literally “everything” must be done either to lever “moderates” into power, or prevent them from losing power – euphemistically called “supporting moderation” – lies at the heart of the Gaza crisis.
It is a narrative that has served Israel’s wider interests in garnering legitimacy for the Israeli campaign against Iran, and in dichotomizing the region into Westernized “moderates” and Islamist “extremists”.

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British telecom firm severs ties with Isaraeli counterparts

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British telecom firm severs ties with Israeli counterparts

UK’s FreedomCall informs Israeli company of decision via email, blames Gaza operation Meir Orbach

British telecommunications firm FreedomCall has terminated its cooperation
with Israel’s MobileMax due to the IDF operation in Gaza.

"We received an email from the British company informing us that it is
severing all ties with us and any other Israeli company following Israel’s
strike in Gaza," said CEO Raanan Cohen.

"We weren’t expecting this from them and there was no prior warning. I don’t
intend to appeal to them or answer the letter."

The email from FreedomCall said, "As a result of the Israeli government
action in the last few days we will no longer be in a position to consider
doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company."

MobileMax, established in 2004, produces a program providing cellular phones
with inexpensive international service.

 

 

 

 

 

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