Zionism – Features

Idf soldier posts40of blindfold palestinians on facebook from best time of my life

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Haaretz)

Female soldier smiles for camera in front of bound prisoners, before joking online with friends; army calls photos ‘ugly and callous’.

Photo posted by a former IDF soldier on Facebook.

A former Israel Defense Forces soldier has raised a storm on the internet after posting photographs of herself posing next to blindfold Palestinian prisoners on Facebook. Photographs uploaded by Eden Abergil from Ashdod and labeled "IDF – the best time of my life" show her smiling next to Palestinian prisoners with their hands bound and their eyes covered.

"That looks really sexy for you," says a comment posted by one of Abergil’s friends on the social networking site, alongside a picture or the soldier smiling in front of two blindfold men. Abergil’s repose, posted below, reads: "I wonder if he is on Facebook too – I’ll have to tag him in the photo."

Photograph with Palestinian prisoner uploaded by former IDF soldier to Facebook.

Because Abergil was discharged a year ago, the army has no power to prevent her from publicizing the photographs.

New scandal rocks zionist federations support of Isarael

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairman,Media Review Network

The latest scandal to hit a self-confessed pro-Israeli organization in South Africa, the SA Zionist Federation, [SAZF] is likely to invigorate the “Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions” [BDS] campaign against Israel and its affiliates. This remarkable turn of36involves a Johannesburg-based bag company manufacturing company, Saley’s Travel Goods, who refused to supply the SAZF with goods on the grounds that it did not want to “aid and abet” organizations responsible for “crimes against humanity”.

The SAZF, known for its links to apartheid Israel, has in the recent past been embroiled in a number of headline grabbing controversies surrounding its defense of Israeli war crimes. Most notable has been its failed attempt to prevent a leading South African jurist, Judge Richard Goldstone from attending his grandson’s barmitzvah. This move was interpreted by many Jewish critics of Israel as a form of punishing Goldstone for his report on Operation Cast Lead that established Israel’s guilt in Gaza.

More recently a Cape Town NGO known as Open Shuhada Street, whose members comprise of prominent human rights activists accused the SAZF of supporting occupation, settlement and oppression.

According to Open Shuhada Street, in response to it’s call to boycott the settlement-made products of Ahava, the SAZF launched a “vicious personal attack on us”.

Sa government faces challenges to arrest war criminals

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Firoz Osman

Has South Africa joined the United States of America and European countries in providing Israel geopolitical insulation?

This question arises against the backdrop of an intense week during which international media attention was focused on whether a senior Israeli politician faced the prospect of being arrested upon her travel to SA.

It also arises because of a perception that the Tzipi Livni trip had been planned months ago and would only proceed without hitch if the SA government had given it a green light.

The (now cancelled) visit by Israel’s leader of the opposition and former foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, led to charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity, being laid before the National Director of Public Prosecutions. This is unprecedented in South African history and presents numerous challenges to the judiciary of our country.

Only icc can bring closure on Gaza attacks

January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Ibrahim Vawda – Media Review Network

(source: Pretoria News Newspaper, Wed, 20/04/2011, Pg13)

I would like to remind Peter Fabricius and the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), that Richard Goldstone was not the only author of the report submitted by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict on “Operation Cast Lead.” The report was submitted to the United Nations (UN), and an op-ed in the Washington Post does not carry the same weight as a UN commissioned report. Hence, the euphoria displayed by the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) and Israeli advocates is best described as a failed public relations exercise.

Hina Gilani, member of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict commented on the Op-ed and confirmed that, “Nothing will change the substance of the original report………….” She further says that, “… No process or acceptable procedure would invalidate the UN report; if it does, it would be deemed as a ‘suspect move’. ”

The Goldstone Report never claimed that Israel “intentionally murdered civilians,” as claimed by his “retraction.” The report said that the force used during Operation Cast Lead was “deliberately disproportionate” and intended to “punish, humiliate and terrorize” the Palestinians. Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch emphasises this point when he says that the “crime of indiscriminate war fare” and not “deliberate killing” was Israeli policy. This part of the report is not retracted.

Human Rights Watch, testimonies by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers, “Breaking the Silence,” B’Tselem and Amnesty International concurred with the Goldstone Report.