Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Iqbal Jassat
-
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 more…
-
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 ills…
-
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 Palestinian…
-
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 is…
-
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 Jordanian…
-
Will South Africa unravel the mystery of the Palestine-Israel #VisaScandal?
The petition for South Africa’s ANC-led government to lift punitive visa restrictions on Palestinians wanting to travel to the country is an embarrassing but necessary exercise. Many people, including veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle familiar with Palestine’s freedom struggle, and aware of deep historic ties between the two liberation movements,…
-
Israelis don’t need visas for South Africa, but Palestinians do; why the double standards?
When I applauded Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for his firm stance against “normalisation” with Israel earlier this month, a friend posed an interesting query. Is it true, he asked, that Israelis don’t need visas for travel to South Africa? This was an important and timely question, because this embarrassing…
-
These aren’t ‘peace deals’, they’re military pacts signed with malicious intent
As Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up to the podium flanked by the foreign ministers of Bahrain and the UAE to sign what has been hailed as a “historic peace agreement” between Israel and the two Gulf states, many wondered where the Palestinians were. Indeed, the absence of Palestinians…
-
Beinart cracks Zionism’s apartheid foundation
Is it a case of much ado about nothing or does it pose a significant challenge to undermine key components of Israel’s multi-layered myths? From the heated backlash unleashed following an essay authored by Peter Beinart, it is clear that defenders of Zionism’s settler-colonial project view him as a “turncoat”…
-
South Africa’s Chief Justice should retract his pro-Israel comments or resign
South Africa’s Chief Justice has come under intense fire for publically expressing his love for Israel. Mogeong Mogeong made his pro-Israel comments on an online platform hosted by the Jerusalem Post, and has come under heavy attack from numerous human rights organisations, legal officials and the governing African National Congress.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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 Court…
-
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 the…
-
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 African…
-
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 also…
-
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…
-
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 in…
-
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 faulted…