Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Iqbal Jassat
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Israel is on edge as the George Floyd murder sparks global demands for justice
Does the current wave of protests across America sparked by the brutal murder of George Floyd by a white police officer present an existential threat to Israel? I hope so. Astonishing as it may sound, though, Israel’s propagandists and defenders have been shocked to “discover” suddenly that the parallels between...
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Saudi Arabia’s persecution of Palestinians in the Kingdom is treacherous
A brutal legacy of Apartheid South Africa’s notorious assault on human rights was the violent enforcement of detention without trial. Scores of people targeted as opponents of white minority rule and classified as “terrorists” were held incommunicado arbitrarily; most were subjected to brutal torture and many were killed. With the...
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Turkey seems torn between appeasing Israel and helping Palestine during this pandemic
As the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms the world, bringing to a halt almost all social, cultural and economic activities, Turkey is in the firing line. Bizarrely, it is facing the wrath of Israel for allegedly holding up hundreds of crates of medical equipment destined for the settler-colonial state. According to Israeli...
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Merkel's defence of Israel's war crimes undermines the ICC and the rule of law
Shortly after her visit to South Africa earlier this month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government made a shocking announcement in defence of Israel’s horrendous record of serious human rights violations. Germany took the shameful step of undermining international law by contesting The Hague’s jurisdiction, claiming that the International Criminal...
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Trump's ‘peace plan’ is simply another round of crumbs being thrown from the Apartheid table
There is no doubt that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and millions of their compatriots living in squalid refugee camps in neighbouring countries will be appalled that the Trump administration has announced a process to extinguish their legitimate rights by gifting the occupying colonial regime with its “deal of...
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America's abandonment of Palestine is a challenge to South Africa
Is South Africa among those countries which are standing aside as the world is confronted with illegal moves by the Trump administration to facilitate Israel’s complete annihilation of Palestine? Notwithstanding the fact that the ANC-led government of President Cyril Ramaphosa has stuck by its decision to downgrade the South...
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Has Trump painted himself into Israel's corner over war with Iran?
Is America preparing to go to war with Iran? This is the question dominating discussions around dinner tables as well as boardrooms. Confined not only to the Middle East, where heightened concerns about the fall-out for the volatile region’s future forms part of the focus of debates, this is...
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Quds Day 2019: resistance will triumph
The annual Quds Day commemoration for 2019, which is held on the last Friday of Ramadan in many parts of the world, will be distinguished from previous years as new challenges confronting Palestinians come to the fore. The overwhelming squeeze applied by the apartheid regime of Israel on Palestinian lives...
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Trump's rogue leadership has declared war on international law
If America’s standing as the “leader of the free world” has been on shaky ground following its disastrous wars post-9/11, US President Donald Trump has ensured that whatever little credibility it may still have among its European allies and the UN is shattered. His messy and bloody military adventure...
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Theresa May's battle for survival cannot be allowed to cast Hezbollah as a scapegoat
Having lost considerable influence in Europe and other parts of the world over the chaotic Brexit process, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking to gain leverage by boxing-in Hezbollah. British politics under the Conservative government not only appears to have lost the plot, but many may not be...
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Netanyahu's 2019 'Wish List' To End In Despair, Defeat and Humiliation
Israel’s war criminals who head the settler regime’s apartheid government, are in all likelihood deeply disappointed at the way 2018 has ended. Since Donald Trump’s election as America’s president, Israel felt pretty smug about the prospect of gaining a foothold within the White House. Overnight, the magical world of fantasy began...
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Will a UNHRC without America rebuild and flex its muscles against Israel?
The UN Human Rights Council’s allegedly “unconscionable” approach to Israel is the reason cited by the Trump administration for withdrawing unceremoniously from the international body. Using the excuse that the UNHRC is biased against Israel, the United States has, without blinking — and in typical, cowardly fashion — exited...
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The legacy of Sam Nzima's iconic photo will live on in Palestine
Nothing could illustrate the stark contrast between a post-1994 democratic South Africa and Israel’s apartheid structures than the iconic photograph of Hector Pieterson taken by Sam Nzima. The picture of the dying 13-year-old Pieterson, who was shot by police in Soweto on 16 June 1976, was listed by Time...
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From Deir Yassin to the Great Return March, Palestinians have been massacred
At a time when South Africa is mourning the passing of the country’s beloved icon of the freedom struggle Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the world is reeling from yet more evidence of Israel’s brutality. In the full glare of the world’s cameras, Israel’s “Defence Forces” have mown down Palestinian demonstrators in...
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The Great Return March signifies the start of a new defiance campaign
In a remarkably fresh approach to their resistance against Israel’s seven decades of colonialism, Palestinians have mobilised en masse in what has been dubbed the Great Return March. Starting on Friday, 30 March, thousands upon thousands headed towards the homes and land from which they have been forcibly expelled...
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Modi's 'de-hyphenated' policy on Palestine contradicts India's struggle against British colonialism
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brief stopover in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank has been hailed by parts of India’s media as “historic”. It is premised on what they tout as “the first ever Prime Ministerial visit to Palestine from India.” Strangely, the media interest seems to...
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Kashmir from Nehru to Modi; what's changed?
Generations of Kashmir’s people have waited in vain for an end to India’s brutal military occupation and to celebrate their independence and freedom. Alas, seven decades have passed and the deeply-felt objective of standing proudly alongside free nations of the world remains as elusive as ever. Seventy years of struggle...
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Bollywood betrays India's anti-colonial past to embrace war-criminals
On a massive drive to cast Israel as a “normal democracy” and woo audiences in India’s film-crazy population, its war criminal leader Benjamin Netanyahu has just made a whirlwind tour of the subcontinent. He was hosted by fellow right-wing extremist Narendra Modi, who as leader of the Hindu nationalist...
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A tale of two SAs
South Africa and Saudi Arabia represent two distinctly different countries, populations and regions. Much can be written and said about the huge chasms that separate the two “SAs”, not only ideologically but also in terms of governance. One SA is located in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula while the...
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South Africa has a moral duty to clip the wings of Israeli settlement growth
The approval of thousands more housing units in Israel’s illegal colony-settlements across the occupied West Bank is the latest undertaking by the country’s extreme right-wing regime led by war-criminal Benjamin Netanyahu. This daring move, despite being in direct contravention of UN resolutions and international law, doesn’t end there. The...
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Hajj 2017 went well, but the Rohingya matter not a jot in Saudi Arabia
The House of Saud will, no doubt, be quite pleased with itself that the Hajj 2017 has concluded without any setbacks or hitches worth reporting. In fact, it will pat itself on the back rather cynically that in addition to a smooth, incident-free pilgrimage, its enormous team of bureaucrats...
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A tale of two golden jubilees
Renowned Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy wrote in his latest op-ed for the newspaper that, “A state that celebrates 50 years of occupation is a state whose sense of direction has been lost, its ability to distinguish good from evil impaired.” Using typical, hard-hitting honesty, Israeli journalist Levy pulled no punches...
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Israel faces the inevitable collapse of its apartheid system
Israel’s racist right wing regime is turning the heat on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists. Is this any different to the “total onslaught” against freedom struggle activists by the former apartheid government in South Africa? In fact, it is much worse. Daily accounts reveal severe repression whereby Palestinian...
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The media must not be held hostage by the pro-Israel lobby
Has President Jacob Zuma ever considered replacing his official spokesperson with David Saks of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies? Perhaps he should, for the two share an apparent desire to muzzle the media. Zuma has many reasons to do so, and thus avoid media coverage of his corrupt...