Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political influence on Gaza prior to the Palestinian elections that saw Hamas win by a landslide, or that Israel assisted in the creation of Hamas in 1987, says the writer.
I have been reading several articles by pro-Israeli Saffa groups to try and understand the case for Zionism.
But a common denominator I found is the lack of compassion towards the suffering and dying Palestinians, and in particular, the children of Gaza. The total number of dead children stands at a staggering 4500, with more than 1000 still buried under the rubble.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has released the names and ID numbers of the deceased to combat Western atrocity propaganda.
Many pro-Israelis have placed the blame on Hamas, citing that the militant group started the war on October 7. They go on to mention that Palestinians voted for Hamas in 2006 as a means to justify the collective punishment of Gaza.
All commentators, including a misguided PAC official, fail to highlight the historical and geopolitical context of the situation. No mention at all of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political influence on Gaza prior to the Palestinian elections that saw Hamas win by a landslide, or that Israel assisted in the creation of Hamas in 1987.
Every pro-Palestinian activist I know has strongly condemned the killing of innocent Israelis, but very few Zionists are willing to condemn Israel for apartheid crimes and crimes against humanity.
By now many people across the world are aware of the Balfour Declaration of 1907 and Britain’s hand in today’s conflict.
However, pro-Zionists in South Africa continue to skirt around any mentioning of the Nakba, a “catastrophe” that saw more than 750000 Palestinians expelled from their homeland in 1948 and several hundred killed by extreme Zionist militias such as the Lehi, Irgun, Haganah and Palmach.
No mention at all about the “Tantura massacre”, the “Deir Yassin massacre”, the “Qibya massacre” and the “Khan Younis massacre of 1956” carried out by Jewish extremists.
By the way, a colonial apartheid regime has no business calling itself a democracy. Zionists have long dreamt of a supreme Jewish state cleansed of the “backwards Arab” even before the days of Hamas, Ariel Sharon, or the ring-wing Likud party.
But present-day Israelis couldn’t care less that their happiness comes at the expense of Palestinian blood and tears.
No thought is given to the “Great March of Return” of 2018 and 2020, where 217 peaceful Palestinian demonstrators were killed by the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) with impunity.
There is also a deliberate “conflation” of identity, that is, between the ordinary Jew, and a Zionist, and Western media has made it their business not to cover Jewish groups (across the globe) in support of Palestine in order to bastardise the Holocaust. This is a disgrace.
In addition to pro-Palestinian censorship, according to a 2022 article in The Guardian, pro-Israeli lobbying groups pour millions of dollars into the US Congress yearly to shield Israel from negative PR across the board and also to undermine any US politician partial to Palestine.
A few weeks ago, a US congressman caused a stir when he made the claim that the needs of Israel supersede that of America, and by extension, Americans. One cannot help but wonder if the US is just a shell company for Israel... How can we trust that the US will remain impartial when the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), one of the most powerful lobbying groups for Israeli interests in the US, pays millions to Washington annually, influencing policy- and lawmakers, especially pro-Israeli Republicans?
Adding to the Aipac problem, the benefactors of war (select US corporations) prioritise profits above human life, even US lives, and so Israel’s war on Gaza must go on. Another shocking example of Israel’s influence in the US: Texans who sought relief funding following a hurricane in the city of Dickson in 2017 had to agree in a four-page contract not to boycott Israel before they could receive funds.
According to the BBC, a section reads: “By executing this Agreement, the Applicant verifies that the Applicant: (1) does not boycott Israel; and (2) will not boycott Israel during the term of this Agreement” – a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Israeli officials aren’t shy to let the world know that their regime is a fascist-apartheid regime, so why should the pro-Zionist diaspora in South Africa be shy?
Jacob W is a writer and poet living in the Western Cape
Cape Times