Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Iqbal Jassat
-
Who was Kamal Adwan?
Since international attention is focused on the tragic fate of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, raided and bombed by Israel’s murderous army, and its medical team terrorised, detained and killed, it is instructive to recall the history of the person after whom the facility is named. Kamal Adwan...
-
Yahya Sinwar: (29/10/62-16/10/24) Iconic resistance leader martyred by Zionist colonialists
In a heart-rending tribute to Palestine’s heroic freedom fighter Yahya Sinwar, senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya announced his martyrdom: “Our hearts are heavy but we are filled with determination and resolve.” He pointed out that, although the Zionist enemy fired two tank shells as well as a rocket-propelled grenade...
-
The call to ‘recalibrate’ South African foreign policy on apartheid Israel smacks of opportunism
Aiding and abetting Israel’s Illegal occupation of Palestinian territories has been outlawed by the latest advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice. The opinion has been welcomed by South Africa’s International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, as it conforms to the country’s long held position on the apartheid...
-
Good Jew Bad Jew — Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Assault on Meaning
Is there any country in the world that openly and crudely defies the collective countries of the West but, in spite of that, continues to enjoy the status of their favoured and trusted ally? None, except Israel, claims academic Steven Friedman. In his brilliantly detailed book Good Jew Bad Jew,...
-
Global outrage is growing against Netanyahu’s genocide in Gaza
Gaza’s killing fields are now in the seventh month of the settler-colonial regime’s genocide, without any sign of a reprieve for the besieged territory’s millions of Palestinians. Official records reveal that by day 200 of the barbaric Israeli offensive on 23 April, 3,025 massacres have been perpetrated, and 42,510...
-
Iran's historic attack was rooted in Palestine's freedom struggle
The eve of 14 April, 2024, and the hours that followed will be recorded in history as momentous, because the Islamic Republic of Iran launched an aerial assault directly from its home soil against apartheid Israel’s settler-colonial regime. Israeli citizens attested that the tense hours when Iran’s drones and...
-
An arms embargo on Israel is crucial if the ICJ genocide ruling is to be credible
Although dubbed as a mighty legal battle waged by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel’s so-called “War on Hamas”, some apologists for the Zionist entity repeated ad nauseum that the case was a futile exercise and a waste of time. To their dismay, though,...
-
Will massacres from Rabaa to Rafah see Sisi do more than watch people being slaughtered?
As the world reacts with mounting alarm to Benjamin Netanyahu’s declared goal to level Rafah to the ground, the spotlight now falls on Egypt. Will the North African powerhouse stand idly by allowing Israel to intensify its ongoing genocide in Gaza; make good its threat to annul the “peace...
-
South Africa's ICJ success has ushered in a new era of international law in pursuit of justice for Palestine
Ever since South Africa brought its case against Israel at The Hague during December, the world’s attention has been riveted on the outcome. The question that dominated public discourse was whether the ANC-led government of President Cyril Ramaphosa had made the right move to what effectively posed a crucial...
-
South Africa's ICJ case against Israel is a challenge to the West's ‘rules-based order’
All eyes are fixed on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as it begins its deliberations on whether or not South Africa’s application to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza is compelling enough to succeed. South Africa’s monumental submission to the UN’s highest judicial institution positions its case as a...
-
In siding with Zionist genocidaires, Germany ignores its own history of genocide in Namibia
As global outrage continues to escalate against the settler-colonial Israeli regime’s slaughter of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, it is necessary to glance back at Africa, where the first genocide of the 20th century occurred. Although 120 years separates the tragic events in Namibia and Palestine, on two...
-
Will Egypt's coup leader escape scrutiny in South Africa?
Has South Africa overlooked Egypt’s problematic participation at the forthcoming BRICS summit? Dignifying its military leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi with the expected red-carpet treatment will in effect be an endorsement of regime change via military coup, which is how Cairo’s despot overthrew the democratically elected Morsi government to gain power. This month marks a decade...
-
The Nakba’s 75th anniversary challenges the world to defeat settler-colonialism in Palestine
As most of the world recoils in horror at the latest demonstration of Israeli brutality and cold-blooded killings of Palestinians, many people are asking when these Zionist-led pogroms will end. It’s not before time. The Palestinians have for decades now faced Zionist savagery by Israeli thugs who masquerade as...
-
Netanyahu’s claim of Jewish exclusivity in Palestine must be challenged
The defiant declaration by Benjamin Netanyahu that he is going to press ahead and complete Israel’s colonial project in Palestine must be challenged by the world. Regardless of international law and conventions, his government is going to continue to defy them. Knowing full well that Israel has America’s backing, and...
-
Biden’s capitulation to Bin Salman is a disaster for Palestine
Saudi Arabia’s monarchy under the leadership of unelected Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has always been suspected of maintaining close ties with the colonial state that occupies Palestine. Despite attempts to conceal this in the past, Saudi subterfuge hasn’t been very successful, perhaps by choice. The latest revelation reported by...
-
Holy Land Foundation 5’ are victims of the US’ unjust persecution of Palestinians
The US’ destructive wars on Muslim countries launched in the wake of 9/11 under the misplaced rubric known notoriously as the “War on Terror” spawned senseless deaths and bloodshed on an unprecedented scale. The George W. Bush administration, heavily infested with neoconservatives and Likudniks, contemptuously ignored and wilfully disregarded the...
-
Shireen Abu Akleh personified truth to power
Since the shattering news broke of the brutal killing of one of Palestine’s most iconic journalists, an unmistakable sense of anger began to surface across newsrooms in the Arab world and in many different parts of the world, including South Africa. Shireen Abu Akleh had been on assignment covering the...
-
Justice requires the prosecution of South Africans serving in the Israeli Army
With the global spotlight on Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine and dramatic pictures of civilians fleeing in droves to neighbouring countries, many across the world will be wondering how this tragedy will end, if at all. Palestinians who have been on the receiving end of a similar drama for...
-
Where is South Africa heading in its response to Israel’s brutal military occupation?
How much longer is the South African government going to ignore violations of the Foreign Military Assistance Act by local citizens serving in Israel’s Apartheid army? This is a serious question. Seven years ago a high profile group of South Africans reached some damning conclusions about Israel following their fact-finding...
-
Normalisation and the betrayal of Palestine by Arab despots
Pinning Palestinians down while applying harsh measures of violent repression accompanied by a fanatical settler movement of arch-racists given free rein to attack and plunder, is a notorious game Israel has made a daily ritual. In fact the routine of inflicting war crimes has all the hallmarks of a rogue...
-
Israel's observer status at the African Union is a major blunder
The mere thought of having a colonial enterprise enjoying red carpet treatment within an anticolonial setting beggars belief. Even more so when that setting is the African Union, because the continent has suffered under colonialism, slavery, the exploitation of its natural and human resources and a multitude of other...
-
Has the AU declared war on member states with Israel’s ‘observer status’?
In the midst of a full-blown controversy sparked by a decision to allow Israel “observer status” at the African Union, it is crucial to note that the Zionist colonial settler regime hasn’t halted its violent plunder of Palestinian rights while relentlessly pushing ahead with illegal settlements in the Occupied...
-
HRW’s Israel apartheid finding brings justice for the Palestinians one step closer
In a dramatic escalation representative of global outrage against Israel’s tsunami of crimes against the people of occupied Palestine, New York-based Human Rights Watch has released a detailed legal report declaring that the Israeli government is committing crimes of apartheid. The serious charge of apartheid is groundbreaking, because it...
-
The UAE's notorious limits on free speech have serious implications for expats
Expatriate workers in the UAE be warned: overzealous securocrats in the Gulf oligarchies are watching you and all other foreigners, ready to pounce if you dare to criticise any of its allies. Fear has gripped foreign workers across various sectors from banking to teaching, following the imprisonment of a...