Media Review

Opposing Apartheid

Palestine and the Experience of South Africa - with Ilan Pappe and Ronnie Kasrils

By Dr. Hanan Chehata

(source: Middle East Monitor)

Israeli historian Professor Ilan Pappe and South African anti-apartheid campaigner and former government minister Ronnie Kasrils spoke on Wednesday 10 March 2010 in the Houses of Parliament on the subject of opposing apartheid. Drawing comparisons between the oppressive nature of the former South African apartheid regime and the current Israeli government they highlighted the way forward for Palestine

Simply by looking at the title of one of his books, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, you can see why so many close-minded members of Israeli society made it their mission to make life so intolerable for the brave and outspoken academic Professor Ilan Pappe. So successful were they that he was forced to leave Israel, the land of his birth. Following repeated death threats and calls for him to be sacked he came to live in Britain. "Israel's loss is our gain", as was said at this programme. Now a Professor of History at Exeter University, Ilan Pappe is an Israeli Jew and one of the foremost in the group known as Revisionist or New Historians. He focuses on uncovering the myths of Zionism and exposing it for what it really is.

EU Endorses Goldstone Report

PCHR welcomes Resolution by the European Parliament endorsing the Goldstone Report

(source: Palestinian Centre for Human Rights)

On Wednesday, 10 March 2010, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that backs the findings of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (the Goldstone Report) and urges its member states to “demand the implementation of the Goldstone Report’s recommendations and accountability for all violations of international law”. The resolution calls all parties to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law under all circumstances.

In line with the UN General Assembly resolution adopted on 26 February, the European Parliament "urges both sides to conduct investigations within five months that meet international standards of independence, impartiality, transparency, promptness and effectiveness."

Talk Radio 702 - Chris Gibbon's Show

THE MIDDAY REPORT 10 March 2010 12:35 PM Lecture on "Global Jihad: The South African Front"

The Media Review Network has objected to a forthcoming lecture by a local academic – Professor Hussein Solomon. Professor Solomon is a professor in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria – and the MRN is objecting to him because – in its words – of his anti-Muslim stance and the fact that his alarmist theories bordering on Islamophobia have been previously discredited. The MRN says it is extremely concerned that Professor Solomon is using the University of Pretoria as a platform to propagate his anti-Muslim views. The professor told the MR that he is a practicing muslim, so he can’t be anti-muslim. On the issue that he played a key role in fuelling alarm and suspicion against Muslims in South Africa, he said he said he doesn’t believe so, he said what is interesting is that they make it personal. He said other academics have come out with statements that are similar to his own. In terms of all of his research, it is all out in the public domain sources. He said that as an academic, he can’t make unsubstantiated statements. All that he is saying is nothing new, he said, it is in the public domain, the media and others.

Guests: Hussein Solomon & Iqbal Jassat
Podcast: http://www.pod567.co.za/podcast/middayreport/MDR100310.mp3

MRN Open Letter To University Of Pretoria

By Ibrahim Vawda - Senior Researcher,MRN

On the 17th March 2010, Hussein Solomon, a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Pretoria, will be hosting a seminar titled: “Global Jihad: The South African Front”. In view of his anti-Muslim stance and the fact that his alarmist theories bordering on Islamophobia have been previously discredited, the following open letter has been sent to the relevant authorities at the University of Pretoria.

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10th March 2010

OPEN LETTER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA

On 17th March 2010, Professor Hussein Solomon, a lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, will be presenting a seminar entitled ‘Global Jihad: The South African Front’ as part of the Faculty of Humanities Seminar Series. While Media Review Network (MRN) respects and encourages responsible academic freedom and healthy dialogue, we are extremely concerned that Prof. Solomon is using the University of Pretoria as a platform to propagate his anti-Muslim views.

Professor Solomon has played a key role in fuelling alarm and suspicion against Muslims in South Africa. On 13 March 2008, MRN brought to the University’s attention the content of a defamatory address that Prof. Solomon made at a conference in Israel in September 2007. During this presentation Solomon claimed:

South African Muslim organizations, mosques and the Muslim media were psychologically preparing local Muslims for terrorism; Military training is occurring at various South African Muslim high schools; Muslims were a potential threat to the 2010 World Cup; South African madressahs (religious schools) were a breeding ground for terrorism.

He went on to state that the local Muslim community was “volatile” and would provide safe-houses and money to potential terrorists. At no point did Prof. Solomon provide a shred of evidence to substantiate his distortions and wild allegations.

The Banality Of Jewish Symbolism

By Gilad Atzmon

(source: rense.com)

In a remarkable exposé of the Mossad operation in Dubai, The Times happens to refer to Meir Dagan's (the Mossad chief) 'philosophy'. "The tone of Dagan's directorship is set by a photograph on the wall of his modest office in the Tel Aviv headquarters. It shows an old Jew standing on the edge of a trench. An SS officer is aiming his rifle at the old man's head. 'This old Jew was my grandfather' Dagan tells visitors".

According to The Times, the picture reflects Dagan's belief: "We should be strong, use our brain, and defend ourselves so that the Holocaust will never be repeated,"
Dagan's interpretation of the photographic symbolism as a license to kill is rather banal yet common amongst Jews and Zionists in particular.

CAPE TIMES OPED

The State of Israel Feeds Anti-Semitism

Zionism a 'Terrible Enemy' of Jewish People

By Yakov M Rabkin

(source: Cape Times,March 10, 2010 Edition 1)

All Jews are Zionists. All Zionists are Jews. All Jews support Israel. These cliches are not only wrong; they are dangerous.

What is Zionism?

Zionism is a product of European history. Among the many tendencies within Zionism, the one that has triumphed formulated four objectives:

to transform the transnational and extraterritorial Jewish identity centred on the Torah into a national identity, like ones then common in Europe;

to develop a new national language based on biblical and rabbinical Hebrew;

to transfer the Jews from their countries of origin to Palestine; and

to establish political and economic control over the land, if need be by force.

While other European nationalists, such as Poles or Lithuanians, needed only to wrest control of their countries from imperial powers to become "masters in their own houses," Zionists faced a far greater challenge in trying to achieve their objectives.

Both Zionists and their opponents agree that Zionism and the state of Israel constitute a break with Jewish history, a break that began with the emancipation and the secularisation of European Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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