Writer should concern himself with his own country before attacking Israel
ONE wonders what media Iqbal Jassat, of the Media Review Network, a pro-Palestinian organisation, refers to when writing in this newspaper, under the headline “Media should not protect Israel” (February 1).
Other than one community publication, almost all printed and electronic media in South Africa most certainly don’t “protect”, but it can be stated without contradiction that the South African media are among the most hostile towards Israel in the world.
No stranger to the columns of this newspaper group, Jassat quotes Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Isn’t it South Africa, Jassat’s own country, whose “neutrality” has been echoed for almost a year since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine? His foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, never misses the opportunity to attack Israel in the name of the ANC government that the writer is imploring to take action against.
The ANC-led government can also be said to be, with little ambiguity, outside Iran, Pakistan and Iraq, the most hostile towards Israel. Constant calls from Pandor and her colleagues to break off diplomatic relations are almost a weekly demand. The South African embassy in Israel had been downgraded and the ambassador withdrawn some years back, but clearly not enough to satisfy the demands.
The old adage “the pot calling the kettle black” can surely be ascribed to this article, as Jassat’s country is blatantly perpetrating many of the atrocities he is accusing Israel of.
Collective punishment is precisely what his country’s ruling party is guilty of. Punishing its own people, the poorest of the poor, by denying them decent education, housing, medical care, transport, power and, in many cases, water. These are just some of the privations meted out.
While Jassat ignores the tragedy in his backyard, he’s driven by “conscience” to take up a cause far from where his attention is needed.
Consumed by hatred, Jassat is blinded to the daily killings of more than 70 innocent people, many assassinated for political gain; the number of violent rapes; and the unemployment of nearly half the population, with almost 24 million people living on government grants.
These, Mr Jassat, are the homegrown tragedies that should concern you in your own country.
Those people whose cause the writer champions do not experience pit latrines in their well-funded schools, whose curriculum promotes hate and glorification of martyrdom.
The same people enjoy free world-class medical care in Israeli hospitals and continuous supply of electricity and water, unlike most of his countrymen.
Why don’t we see, sir, your opinion pieces highlighting the plight of the poor who endure hardships and deprivation?
That would be far more meaningful and pertinent to your own people who have more to deal with than issues thousands of kilometres from where they are suffering, that you continue regurgitating and which have little interest to those going hungry on a grant of a mere R350 a month?
Stating that the Two State Solution is “dead” clearly reveals the writer’s duplicity, where on the one hand he wants to see a free Palestine yet, on the other hand, denies the same people the independent state that the solution would bring about.
But it’s not a peaceful outcome he seeks, as is vividly revealed. He is less interested in the welfare of the people he professes to support than the destruction of another country and its people.
He barely tries to conceal his loathing for Jewish people, which, of course, he’ll vehemently deny, while ignoring tragedies that the world witnessed this past Friday, when seven worshippers were gunned down in cold blood while leaving their synagogue, something he, no doubt, celebrated with glee.