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Monday, February 06, 2006

Israel and apartheid: a special report

Here's a thoughtful, well-balanced piece by the Guardian's Middle East correspondent Chris McGreal on whether the Israel of 2006 can be compared to South Africa under apartheid. He quotes the Jewish Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidemann, who says 'I hate the term ethnic cleansing because of the connotations of rape and pillage, which this is not. But there was and is an active government effort to rid targeted areas of its Palestinian residents and to turn it into a predominantly Jewish area. And I say, with regret, that the efforts have been moderately successful.' Even more disturbing is the testimony of Arthur Goldreich, a veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. There was a time when Goldreich believed the young Jewish state would provide the example of a better way for the country of his birth. As it is Goldreich now sees Israel as closer to the racist white regime he fought against- and of the modern South Africa of Mandela and Mbeki as providing the model.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1703244,00.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

'He quotes the Jewish Israeli lawyer Daniel Seidemann, who says 'I hate the term ethnic cleansing because of the connotations of rape and pillage, which this is not. '

Ethic cleansing doesnt have to involve rape...The lawyer is trying to dodge a bullet.

'Ethnic cleansing is a euphemism referring to the persecution through imprisonment, expulsion, or killing of members of an ethnic minority by a majority to achieve ethnic homogeneity in majority-controlled territory.[1] It is sometimes used interchangeably with the more connotatively severe term genocide. The term entered English and international media usage in the early 1990s to describe war events in the former Yugoslavia.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_Cleansing

So Mr Lawyer, israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing.

WHEN WILL ISRAEL BE MADE TO PAY FOR ITS MASSIVE DESTRUCTIVE BLITZKRIEG?????

Brian