Jewish Voices SA is a far left Jewish group in South Africa. I acknowledge that they do some very good work on certain liberal issues, but when it comes to Israel they veer off into delusional hyperspace.
They describe themselves thus:
Jewish VoicesSA is a group of Jewish South Africans who, in the light of the South African experience of a negotiated political settlement, seek to promote tolerant, critical dialogue on the Middle East. |
Jewish Voices gained notoriety last year when they marched alongside the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) in a march condemning the Israeli security barrier.
Take a look at their website under the section articles.
This website is described as “providing a diversity of information about the conflict in Israel and Palestine.” Some of their articles:
Setting up Abbas by Jeff Halper 2005-10-10 Defining 'terror' in Israel-BBC 2005-08-31 250 Israeli high school students declare refusal to serve 2005-03-22 Speaking out about Israel to save the Jewish Soul 2005-02-01 Amira Hass: Life Under Israeli Occupation by Robert Fisk 2001-08-26 |
Diverse indeed.
Their article on defining terror caught my eye. It’s a BBC article about the foresight-lacking law in Israel that defined only attacks by “enemies of Israel” as acts of terrorism. A strict interpretation meant that the Arab victims of the Jewish terrorism in Shfaram couldn’t receive the normal state compensation that victims of Arab terrorism received. I considered the law unacceptable and blogged about the need to change this law.
A few days later Sharon called on the Justice Minister to change the law. Jewish Voices, however, revealed their true motivations by neglecting to inform their readers that this law was about to be changed.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in communication with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Haaretz, 6/9): "You must work urgently to amend this law in a manner that will allow [the state] to recognize the families of the victims of the terror attack in Shfaram as victims of terror." |
If Jewish Voices intended to educate and not simply polarise and condemn, then they would have updated their story, informing their members of the true state of affairs. But they didn’t.
Today the Jerusalem Post reports that the terror-compensation law has officially been amended and the victims of Shfaram have received their full compensation (not that it makes their suffering any less serious).
The Jewish Agency on Sunday donated NIS 100,000 to victims of the Shfaram attack and their families. The attack was committed at the beginning of August by Jewish terrorist Eden Natan Zada on board an Egged bus. It was the first time that money from a special fund - established to help victims of terror following the outbreak of the so-called Aksa intifada - has been given to Israeli Arabs who were victims of Jewish terror. [...] In the past, money from the fund has been given to Israeli Arabs and their families who were caught in attacks by Palestinian terrorists, as in the case of the suicide bombings at Haifa's Matza and Maxim restaurants. Jewish Agency chairman Ze'ev Bielski [...] told reporters that the decision to award financial aid to the victims of the Shfaram terror attack had received unanimous support from representatives of Jewish communities abroad who had given donations to the fund. Ikbal Bahous, brother of the Egged bus driver Michel who was among those killed in the attack, said the money would not help ease the grief or bring his brother back but it was a positive gesture. Shfaram mayor Ursan Yassin warmly welcomed the initiative by the Jewish Agency and thanked the generous spirit of the Jewish people, saying it would help encourage coexistence between Jews and Arabs. "This is a big step that gives me the strength to continue on my path that leads to greater cooperation [between Jews and Arabs] and to a better life," said Yassin at the ceremony. |
It continues a long history of deliberately misleading behaviour from Jewish Voices SA, pretending one set of feelings yet acting under the influence of another.
Jewish voices pride themselves on being a pluralistic organisation. They are so pluralist that they refuse to take a stand on whether they support a 1state or 2 state solution. It’s laughable. Most of their member would never consider themselves Jewish. The only time they express their Jewish identity is in opposition to Israel.
I read the other article ‘Setting up Abbas’ by Jeff Halper. It is very similar to Alistair Spark’s piece on the one state solution in The Star that we both blogged about. Wouldn’t be surprised if Alistair got some of his ideas from this piece.
Posted by: mike | October 24, 2005 at 21:40
I think it is high time that we dealt with, and stopped tolerating, Jews who turn on their own people, i.e. Left-wing anti-Zionist, anti-Israel Jews.
These self-hating Jews do incalculable damage to the struggle of Israel to survive, and they encourage Arab terror. They are completely heartless, lacking any compassion for Jewish women and children murdered by the Palestinian terrorists in Israel.
It is time we exposed and isolated these despicable Judenrat Kapos. They should be completely isolated from the Jewish communities in every country in which they are found
Posted by: Gary Selikow | December 15, 2005 at 16:51
test
Posted by: Steve | December 19, 2005 at 17:29