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Lawfare – Features

South Africa must cut all ties with Isarael

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By Iqbal Jassat – Pretoria

(source: Palestine Chronicle)

South Africa’s response to the dastardly act of piracy and blatant savagery by the Israeli regime is reflective of a global mood that is increasingly becoming less tolerant of contemptuous disregard for international obligations flowing from a variety of conventions.

In addition to the decision to recall its Tel Aviv based ambassador, South Africa has also summoned the Israeli ambassador and presented him with a demarche, the strongest possible diplomatic protest short of expulsion. And included among 31 nations on the UN Human Rights Council, South Africa voted in support of a resolution that condemned Israel’s outrageous attack and endorsed a full inquiry into the incident.

These moves have been welcomed by an array of civil society groups as well as the powerful labour movement COSATU. Muslim and Christian leaders alike from formations such as the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and the South African Council of Churches (SACC) have welcomed this fresh and significant intervention by the Zuma presidency. All in all it would be accurate to conclude that the government’s decisions are in line with views held by the majority of this country’s population.

Though government’s position is being attacked – not unexpected, by the troika of Israeli defense lobbies as “premature and inappropriate and disproportionate”, it is apparent that despite claiming to speak for South African Jewry, the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, the SA Zionist Federation and the Chief Rabbi do not hold any monopoly on Jewish voices.

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Israelis sink again on new medias high seas

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By Anton Harber

(source: Businessday, Wed,9-06-2010, pg11)

The activists on the flotilla that sought to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza last week had multiple video cameras beaming live40from their ships on to satellites, and from there to the internet, and it was made available to any television network that needed images. They had media people posted in third countries, available to answer questions and feed information.

The Israelis appeared to be armed with almost as many cameras as guns when they raided and seized the boats. One of the first things they did was to cut off the activists’ international media links.

The Israelis quickly released their own — carefully edited — footage to show that their soldiers were attacked as they landed on the boats. They seized all the cameras, film and video they could from journalists and activists on the boat, and edited it before releasing those bits that matched their own version of what happened. Read More »Israelis sink again on new medias high seas