It's Almost Supernatural

COSATU 'Labours' Against Israeli ‘Terrorism’, ‘Colonialism’, ‘Apartheid’ and ‘Genocide’

COSATU, South Africa’s largest trade union and member of the ruling tripartite alliance (together with the ANC and the South African Communist Party), has never made its aversion to the Jewish state a secret (IAS search: Cosatu). Since the Lebanon war, it has become a champion of an Apartheid-like-sanction’s campaign against Israel, seeking a blanket boycott of all Israeli goods and the severing of diplomatic relations. But the full extent of its anti-Israel hatred was unleashed in a recent article published in its flagship publication the ‘Shopsteward’.

I have decided to reprint the article below in its entirety.

Solidarity with Lebanon and Palestine COSATU has been in the forefront of solidarity action for the people of the Middle East Shopsteward Editorial Staff From 12th July to 16th August Israel according to its own reports made 7000 air raid bombing strikes on its neighbouring country Lebanon At the same time it was shelling Lebanon from the sea More than 1200 civilians were killed the majority of them children women and old people. As well as thousands of dwellings many of them large blocks of flats in all parts of Lebanon the Israelis destroyed airports bridges roads and all kinds of infrastructure which is to say the means of supporting human life The Lebanese people had no defence against this destruction which was done with weapons supplied and paid for by the United States of America. Only after two weeks did Israeli forces enter Lebanon on the ground At that point they met the heroic defensive fighters of Hezbollah and the Lebanese Communist Party. The Israelis were beaten back and eventually forced to accept a cease fire. None of the declared objectives of the Israelis were achieved. The Israeli colonialist aggressors were defeated in Lebanon. Palestine The above is only a short description of a terrible passage of colonialist aggression to the north of the Israeli colonial entity which has at least arrived at a ceasefire position. Meanwhile the Israelis have continued to kill Palestinian people and destroying their infrastructure including the only power station in Gaza to south of Israel. The Israeli terrorism against the Palestinian people has actually never stopped since the establishment of the colony of Israel in 1948 and started long before that. There is no way here to describe fully the horror of what is still happening in Palestine as a result of Israeli colonialism. But there is one word the describes a policy of attacking and killing civilians and destroying their life support and killing or imprisoning democratic and elected political leaders that word is terrorism. The Israeli colonialists are terrorists just as the South African apartheid regime was a terrorist regime. This particular round of terror began with the shelling from the sea of ordinary Palestinian people on the Gaza beach on June 9th 2006. COSATU’s stand On July 10th 2006 COSATU called a Press Conference jointly with several other organisations and personalities and made a number of demands related to Israel's genocide of the Palestinians. Nine days later and therefore already a week into the Israeli attacks on Lebanon COSATU House hosted a public meeting with the famous Palestinian freedom fighter Leila Khaled who thanked COSATU for its July 10th statements and demands. In brief these are as follows: • COSATU’s main mobilising demand is for the people of South Africa to boycott Israeli goods and services. • COSATU demands that our South African Government withdraws its ambassador from Israel immediately and proceeds to break diplomatic relations with the Israeli colonial entity altogether. Our government should make sure that no South African is allowed to serve in the Israeli armed forces. • COSATU demands among other things that Israel withdraws from all occupied territory takes down the notorious apartheid wall releases all political prisoners of which it is holding thousands including hundreds of women and children and abides by international law and UN resolutions. • COSATU will undertake further organised mass action to back up these demands COSATU President Willie Madisha declared ‘It is time for the global workers movement to stand firm and principled against hypocrisy and double standards. We cannot remain silent any longer. It is time to stand in word and in deed with the peoples of the Middle East and heed their call to support the struggle against occupation. There will be no peace in this region and in the world without justice Afghanistan and Iraq Afghanistan has been bombed and occupied since late 2001 Iraq was attacked and occupied in early 2003. These aggressions were led by Israel's ally the Imperialist United States of America. For details of further mass actions against imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East please contact COSATU s Deputy International Relations Secretary Mandia Rametsi.

The irrational hatred, shoddy grammar and childish language speak for itself. This article is an embarrassment to COSATU. South African workers deserve far better.

Kasrils: Ahmadinejad’s Spin Doctor

South Africa’s Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, has been extremely busy these last few weeks. No, he has not been searching for the two Boeremag terrorists that are still at large or trying to crack the violent crime syndicates that threaten the security of all South Africans. Rather he has been wasting his time and taxpayers’ money engaging in a child like tantrum in the comments sections of South Africa’s leading newspapers over being criticised for saying that Israel behaves like the Nazis.

In my previous post on Kasrils’ response to previous criticism of his rogue political stance on Israel, I questioned how much lower Kasrils could go intellectually. But in his latest rant, Red Ronnie has managed to surpass my most pessimistic expectations. In logic reminiscent of the Soviet propaganda machine Pravda, Kasrils claims that Iran’s anti-Semitic president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been deliberately misquoted by the West as part of a calculated strategy to politically delegitimise him. Kasrils writes:

‘I would have thought that Helen Suzman would have been alert enough not to have uncritically swallow western interpretations of the Iranian President’s alleged use of the term Israel must be wiped off the map. This has been proven to be a deliberate mistranslation of a statement concerning a desired regime change which is very different meaning indeed.’

This absurd accusation, like most of what Kasrils says and writes about the Middle East, is not his own. It was lifted from an article by arch Israel hater Virginia Tilley, who in turn took it from a piece by Jonathan Steele in the Guardian (it all started with Juan Cole.)

The exact translation (from Farsi to English) of Ahmadinejad’s now notorious call to wipe Israel of the map is debatable. The New York Times in a detailed syntactical analysis found that ‘eliminate from the pages of History’ would perhaps have been a more accurate translation. An idea which I find infinitely more frightening. Ahmadinejad and his evil regime do not only wish to destroy the Jewish state of today but to wipe out any notion that it may ever have existed at all.

No matter how you translate it, it is clear that Ahmadinejad was not calling for a benign regime change in Israel as Kasrils claims. Does he honestly expect us to believe that the Islamic Republic is developing long range missiles and acquiring nuclear technology in order to gently encourage Israelis in their next election to vote for say Yossi Beilin’s Meretz rather than Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud? Ahmadinejad and his fellow Islamofascists do not have a preference for one or other political party in Israel, they wish for the complete overhaul of Israel’s nature as a Jewish and democratic state. They wish to ethnically cleanse Israel of its Jewish population by ‘sending them back to Europe’ and to install an Islamist totalitarian state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. What will be the fate of the millions of Israelis who are descendents of Jews from Arab land, I do not know? Perhaps if they are lucky, they will be allowed to live as Dhimmis as their forefathers once did.

Kasrils deliberate attempt to sanitise Ahmadinejad’s incitement to genocide against the Jewish state makes him an accomplice in this crime. Kasrils signed this particular piece as the Minister of Intelligence Services. He makes no mention that he is writing in his personal capacity as he has previously done. It is interesting to note that South Africa was one of the few countries not to condemn Ahmadinejad’s original comment. Even after a direct request from the South African Jewish Board of deputies and the South African Zionist Federation, they failed to do so.

Are we to assume then that the South African government shares Kasrils’ outrageous position? If not, then Kasrils’ Islamofascist sympathies are a blight on our new democracy and the government should publicly distance themselves from him. But if this is our government’s official position then it is clear that like Antonescu's Romania during the Second World War, South Africa is an enemy of the Jewish people and the Free World.

The Week with Kasrils

This was a quiet week compared to previous weeks from Kasrils. This week he only penned 4 letters to the local print media.

As usual Kasrils responded to each and every article or letter critical of his Middle East positions. It’s a trend that keeps repeating – Kasrils gets space to crucify those who responded to his original articles always using his public profile to ensure he gets the last word in.

In my post Mulholland Skins Kasrils I urged readers to watch out for Kasrils' childish response. Sure enough, last week Kasrils did reply with a personal attack on Mulholland just as he did the week before when Peter Fabricius skinned him. Helen Suzman also came in for some biting Kasrils remarks after she dared criticise his attitudes towards Israel.

A favourite retort now from Kasrils is to try and fool others into believing that Albert Einstein was an anti-Zionist.

Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest minds of our time who understands more about Einstein than red Ronnie ever will, writes that Einstein’s second great cause was Zionism and that he was “an outspoken supporter of Zionism”. In fact because of this support an anti-Einstein organisation was even set up and one of its members was convicted of inciting others to murder Einstein. Hawking writes that Einstein's vocal support of Zionism was rewarded in 1952 when he was offered the presidency of Israel.

Kasrils is not engaging in debate. He is repeating the same points over and over again – tactics typical of fascist/communist propaganda machines. Kasrils heads the network of spies that dominates the National Intelligence Agency. Truth and honesty are not words that would be used to describe a spy boss. Kasrils is a professional at disguising the truth and his public utterances should be viewed with all the circumspect that a “spy boss” boastful of a “Cuban Friendship Award” deserves.

Upon turning down the offer of the Israel presidency Einstein remarked “Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.”

The empty politics of Mr Kasrils are indeed for the present. A minor hate filled disruption that will have no positive lasting effect on the future of Israelis or Palestinians.

SABC Blacklisting Outrage Summary

Here’s an ordered summary post of our coverage of the SABC scandal

SABC Blacklisting Scandal (includes a link to the report that the SABC tried to hide from the public). Zikalala Must Go! Q & A with Paula Slier – Part 1: Slier on Zikalala IAS Exclusive Q & A with Paula Slier – Part 2: The Blacklisting Commission  IAS Exclusive Q & A with Paula Slier – New! Part 3: Slier on Objective reporting  IAS Exclusive SABC CEO Cries Racism Response in Business Day to SABC CEO SABC Saga Continues...Perlman Resigns John Perlman's Swan Song Zikalala gets off with a warning

A Festival of Hate

Friday marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was designated by Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran, as Quds day in solidarity with Palestine. It has traditionally been marked by fierce anti-Israel protests across the world. And this year unfortunately was no exception. In South Africa, this year’s celebration of anti-Israel hate orchestrated by leading representatives of the South African Muslim community and members of the South African government was more vitriolic than I have ever known it.

Hundreds of people, mainly Muslim, marched in Cape Town from District Six to parliament to demand that the South African government stop the oppression of Muslims in Palestine. The march was led by the Muslim Judicial Council, Qibla (a militant Jihadi gang) and Cosatu (South Africa’s largest trade union and a member of the ruling tripartite alliance). The murderous cries of ‘one Bush, one bullet’ and ‘death to Israel, death to America’ polluted the air while Nazi-like posters with ‘Zionists- bloodthirsty oppressors’ were held aloft.

But worse than an anti-Jewish lynch-mob marching through the streets of South Africa’s capital, was the wording of their official memorandum. It demanded ‘the world recognises Israel as an illegitimate, terrorist state, racist, expansionist and chauvinistic and has no right to exist’. It would be a mistake to laugh this off as a meaningless list of words that some wannabe intellectual shmuck copied out of the leftist version of Roget’s thesaurus. Rather it is a shocking reminder of the extent of the irrational hatred that many influential Muslim and Labour organisations in South Africa feel towards the Jewish State.

And what was the response of South Africa’s intelligentsia to this festival of anti-Jewish hate? The South African department of foreign affairs happily accepted this detestable declaration. Human rights organisations that were so vocal in condemning the pope for religious intolerance only a few weeks ago have remained silent. And even official Jewish organisations have not made a peep. This sort of behaviour is now considered commonplace and thus acceptable in democratic South Africa. Acquiescing to this sort of vile hatred will not make it go away. South Africans would do well to remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller.

When they came for the Jews, I did nothing because I wasn't Jewish. ‘When the Nazis came for the Communist I remained silent; after all I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; after all I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; after all I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

Tunnels in Greenhouses

I saw this post at LGF and I can’t help but repeat it.

When Israel left the Gaza strip last year they left behind a number of first world greenhouses. These greenhouses were taken over by the Palestinians and were supposed to be one of the means with which the Palestinians would start building a new productive society. That was the theory.

Here are the greenhouses before the Palestinians took over.

And after...

In this picture released by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), an Israeli soldier stands guard next to a tunnel during an operation near Rafah, southern Gaza strip, October 18, 2006. Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and widened a four-month-old offensive by sending tanks to take up positions around the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Mpofu's Intellectual Poverty

Peter Bruce, editor of the Business Day, has an excellent response to the shameful projection of racism made by SABC CEO Dali Mpofu: The Thick End of the Wedge

Bruce responds to Mpofu's outrageous claim that racism was the motivation behind the outcry at his attempts to censor the publication of the report of the commission of enquiry into the SABC blacklisting.

The impression that there might be a level-headed chap in charge at the SABC can now safely be discarded. I wouldn’t call Mpofu a liar, though. If I did I’d also become one of the right-wing racist so-called liberals out to trash anything black. But try to remember who once wrote, after a long and intimate relationship with Mpofu and who therefore can be reckoned to have known him well, that he was a “compulsive, sophisticated liar”. It was Winnie Mandela, Mother of the Nation, way back in 1992

Q & A with Paula Slier: Part 3 – Slier on Objective Reporting

The final part of the discussion with award winning journalist Paula Slier whose reporting from the Middle East was banned by the SABC. For the background to this interview click onto Zikalala Must Go.

In this piece Slier talks about objective journalism and the error in judging her reporting from the prism of her religion.

IAS: Many Jews in South Africa however have criticised you for taking a tougher than necessary stance on Israel. How do you measure the objectivity of your reporting?

Paula Slier: I don’t believe there is truly such a thing as objective journalism per se, but I think it is an ideal to which all journalists should aspire. It certainly is something I take seriously and try to impart through all my stories. I am fully aware of the fact that all of us have our own prejudices – what worries me is that we might be prejudiced in ways that we are not even conscious of. Each time I report on a story, I am very careful to check my facts and step back and ask if this bit of reporting reflects the truth of what’s going on as best I can see, and report, it.

The parameters for me in terms of whether or not I am telling a story truthfully are the parameters I set myself. These include whether I have honestly reflected the opinions of those people I interviewed, whether what is said is factually correct, and, as far as is possible, whether or not I’ve sought opinions or facts to present a contrary view.

Context is always important. The difficulty comes in, especially with television news, when you often have only a minute-and-a-half to tell a story. I think when assessing whether or not a report is objective, it is important sometimes to not only look at that report in isolation, but to judge it alongside several other reports which were presented with it.

For example, I once did a story on a South African Israeli woman who was injured in a suicide bombing. I was taken to task for only showing one side of the story (i.e. being sympathetic to Israel), but that story was about that particular woman’s experiences (I incidentally did include a sentence at the end of the report about how many Palestinians had been injured in Israeli incursions).

The next day I did a story about a South African woman who had come to help the Palestinian population of a particular village. They were protesting against the security wall/barrier/fence – whatever you want to call it. Here I was criticized for being sympathetic to the Palestinian side. But what viewers forget is that each story is about something different. Each story here was about a particular South African woman’s experiences – and in the latter case I did include the Israeli government’s argument for building the structure in the first place.

I have been criticized by both Jews and Muslims in South Africa for my reporting on the Middle East. I’m not sure this is the best gauge that I am getting the story right, but I do think it lends some weight to the fact that because I’m not satisfying either side, I must be somewhere in the middle.

At one stage my news editor at the SABC was receiving what actually amounted to hate mail by some in the Jewish community. The Media Review network at one time also considered taking me to the Broadcast Complaints Commission. People also forget that all my stories are checked by the editors on duty – sometimes this involves two or more people.

I am insulted when some Jews claim that I am “pro-Palestinian” as a way of ensuring I am accepted as an objective journalist – their reasoning is that I have to go “overboard” i.e. take an anti-Israel position to overcompensate for my religious affiliation.

The contention is that all Jews automatically support the policies of the State of Israel, which is simply untrue. In the same way I am insulted by Muslims who automatically assume that because I am Jewish, I unquestioningly support the actions of the Israeli government. My faith is secondary to my reporting.

What kind of journalist would I be if I allowed my Jewishness to influence my reporting? Instead it’s a sad reflection on people who hold these views because it shows that for them, their faith is overriding and clouds any kind of objectivity they can bring to a piece of journalism.

I think the viewer too has a responsibility in gauging his/her own prejudices. What I wish for is that each of us will try to approach every story with an openness and readiness to engage with what is being said. More than anything what I’ve learnt is that both sides have truth, pain and suffering. It is this reality that I try to reflect.

IAS: Is it possible for a “white Jewish girl” to report objectively on the Middle East?

Paula Slier: Of course it is perfectly possible for a “white Jewish girl” to report objectively on the Middle East. Religious affiliation should never be a criteria to determine whether someone is objective or not - whether reporting on the Israeli-Arab conflict or another story. Each of us is born into a particular faith and has a specific skin colour – to suggest that these things be taken into consideration when judging the standard of a piece of journalism is ludicrous. Let me remind you that journalism is about getting to the truth of a situation and telling the story – these are its criteria, nothing more, nothing less.

SABC Blacklisting: Mpofu Cries Racism

Dali Mpofu, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the SABC, has almost predictably responded to the blacklisting affair by shouting "racism!"

Alarmingly, Mpofu will be calling in John Perlman to face disciplinary hearings seemingly for the embarresment he caused the SABC by contradicting and challenging the naked lies told by an SABC spokesperson he was interviewing on air.

John Perlman was interviewing an SABC spokesman, Kaizer Kganyago live on air. Kganyago insisted that there was no blanket ban on anyone at the SABC. What followed this remark was totally unacceptable to the SABC.

Perlman responded by challenging Kganyago's blatant lie. He informed his listeners that the system of excluding commentators was "already in practice". Perlman stated “Mr. Kganyago, it is happening in practice that certain people are no longer being used on SABC by instruction”.

Responding to the public reaction to this scandal the SABC GCEO called the entire affair a "storm in a teacup" and added that it is a "blood-lust of the right-wing lobby and its fellow travellers in the mass media."

Mpofu then inverted the entire affair projecting his racist inclinations onto those calling for change at the SABC. He did himself no service by inventing a conspiracy theory where evil white racists are trying to wrestle control of the SABC from the current black powers.

This battle is not about one or other commentator or a 'blacklist' or Zikalala. It is about wresting control of the SABC, of the hearts and minds and ultimately, of the country, from us barbarians. "Well folks, it is over for good. The savage natives are in charge, and democratically so. "The bottom line is that there is no blacklist at the SABC and there is most certainly no crisis.

This is the man whom we have to rely on to implement the recommendations of the commission and to do the right thing and get rid of Dr. Snuki Zikalala.

God save South Africa.

Zikalala Must Go

I have now read the 78 page South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) commission of enquiry into blacklisting.

Previously at IAS: SABC Blacklisting Scandal; Outrageous Bias at SABC

The report is a damning revelation of how the public broadcaster has blacklisted opinions that are contrary to those held by the ruling South African party (ANC).

All problems highlighted in the report are directed specifically against Dr. Snuki Zikalala, the MD for News and Current Affairs. His authoritarian management style and politically motivated decision making has cast shame upon the public broadcaster.

Some interesting names are on the blacklist. The name that we have focused on for obvious reasons is that of Paula Slier who was blacklisted because Dr. Zikalala didn’t want a “white Jewish girl” reporting on the Middle East. Other names include Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of President Thabo Mbeki, for his critical views regarding the governments accommodating stance towards Zimbabwe.

Dr. Zikalala is on record for banning other journalists from the SABC for always “bashing” Zimbabwe. Zikalala’s support for the oppressive Mugabe regime squares aptly with his nakedly revealed anti-Israel and anti-Jewish (he calls the Middle East conflict a “Jewish war”) biases.

Unfortunately the report recommendations stop short of its logical conclusion. The recommendations are general and fluffy, such as the recommendation for the development of “elaborated guideline policies” etc.

Although highlighting the central role occupied by Dr Zikalala in this saga, the commission made no recommendations towards his dismissal.

The South African Broadcasting Act places many obligations upon the SABC. The preamble to the act acknowledges that the SABC is owned and controlled by South Africans. The act promises that the SABC will provide news and public affairs programming which is fair and unbiased, impartial, balanced and independent from government interests.

The SABC code of conduct explicitly states that the SABC is not the mouthpiece of the government of the day.

Under Dr. Zikalala the SABC has failed miserably in fulfilling these promises and as the Act recognises it to be owned by South Africans I feel it is our duty to campaign for the immediate dismissal of Dr. Zikalala.

Dr. Zikalala had his chance to defend himself to the commission. He dispensed his special brand of wisdom by using shapeshifting and contradictory arguments which did more to incriminate than to defend. He defended himself in a typically arrogant fashion, knowing he can get away with it.

For us the most significant consequence of this commission is the confirmation of a long held contention of anti-Israel bias at the SABC. Dr. Snuki Zikalala refused to allow the use of reports from award winning journalist Paula Slier because she is Jewish and the conflict is a “Jewish war”. He challenged her impartiality on the basis of her support for a two state solution which he described as “very, very negative towards us.” But worst of all, he openly admitted the political motivation behind his decision “From the movement where I come from we support PLO.”

This week we conducted a Q & A with Paula Slier. We thank her for her cooperation and thoughtful attitude with which she responded to our questions.

We have broken the Q & A into 3 parts.

Q & A with Paula Slier – Part 1: Slier on Zikalala
Q & A with Paula Slier – Part 2: The Blacklisting Commission
Q & A with Paula Slier – New! Part 3: Slier on Objective reporting