PETITION TO PROTEST ISRAELI ASSAULT ON MOHAMMED OMER ACTION ALERT Contact: communications@wrmea.com Washington Report Correspondent Mohammed Omer Hospitalized Following Detention… Read More »Petition to protest Isaraeli assault on mohammed omer
John Ging, the UNRWA operations manager in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday warned that the humanitarian conditions were still on… Read More »Humanitarian conditions in Gaza still on the decline
By Raphael Ahren
(source: Haaretz)
According to South Africa’s 1998 Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act, citizens are not allowed to "engage in mercenary activity" or "render any foreign military assistance to any state" unless special authorization was granted. Yet several local community members interviewed for this article said South Africans who served in the IDF need not worry because this law does not apply to them.
"The law applies specifically to mercenaries but not to people who were inducted into the Israeli army according to Israeli law," presumed a prominent member of the community, who asked to remain unnamed. "It’s my understanding that this law contains a paragraph saying that it doesn’t apply if you’re a citizen of that [foreign] country," a 24-year-old former IDF combat soldier from Port Elizabeth said.
Attorney Mervyn Smith, the former president of the South African Jewish Board, told Anglo File he has "never heard of that exception." However, a close reading of the legislation by Anglo File revealed the following clause: "Any court of law in the Republic may try a person for [contravening the law] notwithstanding the fact that the act… was committed outside the Republic, except in the instance where a foreign citizen [contravenes the law] wholly outside the borders of the Republic."
By Khalid Amayreh
(source: Al-Ahram Weekly)
While the Palestinians and Israelis will soon engage in proximity talks, the preceding battle was won by Israel, with Palestinian leaders much weakened
At a time when the Obama administration is hailing the imminent resumption of indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a "notable achievement", very few observers in the region think that the upcoming talks will lead to any breakthrough or tangible progress.
Backed by major Arab states, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the PA agreed this week to start "indirect" or "proximity talks" with Israel for four months.
The PA had been refusing to resume stalled talks with Israel as long as Israel kept up expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Intensive pressure from Washington, coupled with "brotherly advice" from moderate Arab states, seems to have dislodged the Palestinian leadership from its earlier stance.