Who Says Kasrils is Biased?

Kasrils says that even Israel will benefit from the AUT boycott in this article in the Guardian: Both Palestinians and Israelis will benefit from a boycott.

This is sure to make it into the local Mail & Guardian this week.

Once more, the paradox that is our Minister of Intelligence cheapens the meaning and impact of the word apartheid, reducing the risible system of racism perpetrated in South Africa to just another swear word.

In his usual partisan way, Kasrils highlightes vivid details of Palestinian fatalities without providing the proper context surrounding the tragedies. The naive reader would be forgiven for thinking that Israelis have been spared any suffering in this conflict.

Kasrils bemoans the fact that children have been arrested by Israel. When Palestinian teenagers stop trying to turn themselves into mass murderers then Israel won't need to arrest them.

In addition, and related to the demographic question, Israel continues to deny Palestinian refugees, who were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 war, their right to return to their lands and properties. Israel bases its position, which is contrary to fundamental human rights provisions and international law, on its right to preserve its Jewish ethnic-religious supremacy. No other country in the world today dares to claim any similar right. In response to all this, how many Israeli academic institutions have criticised the racist and colonial policies of the state? How many Israeli academics have conscientiously objected to military service in the occupied territories? How many university lecturers have publicly opposed the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land? Professors Ilan Pappe and Tanya Reinhart stand out, leading a few Israeli academics in calling for support for the Palestinian academics' call for selective academic boycott. The boycotts and sanctions ultimately helped liberate both blacks and whites in South Africa. Palestinians and Israelis will similarly benefit from this non-violent campaign that Palestinians are calling for.

Yes, that's right, Kasrils is calling for Israel's one non negotiable, the one thing that if Israel were to concede on would esnure her destruction by demographic subversion. How many states would enter a negotiation within these parameters?

Kasrils refuses to exit the realm of the mistakes made by both Palestinians and Israelis during the many years of this conflict. By concentrating only on perceived "rights" both sides only serve to prejudice and insult the other side. For a fair and just resolution both sides need to forego their perceived rights and rather concentrate on their essential needs.

UPDATE
The Guardian included a response by Benjamin Pogrund (soon to visit South Africa) and David Newman to the Kasrils invective.

The response makes a mockery of the superficial understanding that Kasrils has of the conflict.

We are opposed to the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We are equally opposed to the, at best misguided, at worst immoral attempts by the Association of University Teachers to boycott the Israeli academic community. Such a boycott would do irreparable harm to the tenuous, but growing, Israeli-Palestinian relations and joint research at almost all of Israel's universities. For those of us who are active in the pro-peace, anti-occupation movements in Israel, the boycott only serves to make our work almost impossible. If there is a public space in Israel where liberal voices can be heard, it is the universities. As far back as the pre-Oslo days, when the Israeli government forbade all relations between Israeli citizens and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the first significant links were forged through academic contacts. These links have grown during the past decade in the many ongoing dialogues and negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian academics, particularly in the difficult period since 2000 when almost all formal political dialogue between the sides ceased.

Go read it all.

And all this at a time when Israel is making the most painful of concessions, removing Jews from their homes in Gaza and northern Samaria.

Comments

[Anti-UN]

Maybe the Kasrils Kraziness convinced the AUT that they were losing it. His involvement these days is ussually a litmus test for craziness.

[greenmamba]

Even the response criticizes the so-called ocupation.

Why can't these 'tards understand that the whole mess has come about as a direct result of Arab acts of war? It seems everyone including many Israelis, have been influenced by the one sided reporting of the media over the years.

[Anti-UN]

Good point, the response is very left wing Israeli. But isnt that what we have come to expect from the Guardian. They will counter radical marxist left wing with moderate left wing. Why cant they counter it with something central or right wing?