Duarte and many in the ANC refuse to acknowledge the Jewish State

Allan Wolman, Johannesburg

The ANC’s Jesse Duarte, writing in the Daily Maverick, seems to have no problem with one country’s continuous threat to obliterate another country, which is a member of the UN and part of the community of nations.

But she urges readers to focus on the Nakba, or “catastrophe” of the forming of a Jewish State.

It seems this is the problem – the forming of a Jewish State. Duarte should know better than most that there has been an unbroken Jewish presence in that land since the time of Abraham. She should know that at the time of Israel’s formation in 1948, four of the most powerful Arab armies attacked the fledging Jewish State which, against all odds, defeated those armies.

And she should know better than most that Israel has been attacked three times since by these Arab states, with the sole intention of driving the Jews into the sea.

But Duarte has no problem with that simply because to her and many of her colleagues, Jews are expendable and undeserving of land to call their own.

She should know that in the years leading up to the formation of the State, the Jews compromised on the land apportioned to them in terms of international agreements, whereas the Arabs (there was not an entity called Palestinian at the time) rebuffed international agreements that not only resulted in a Jewish state but also in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

She should also know that many more Jews were expelled from Arab countries with no compensation. Today 20% of Israel’s population comprises Israeli Arabs (Palestinians), who occupy some of the highest positions in Israeli civil society.

Wouldn’t we all like to see, as Duarte writes, a free and independent Palestine, and wouldn’t it be refreshing if her ANC took a meaningful role in persuading the Palestinian Authority to negotiate such a meaningful aspiration – something that has been on the table these past 20 years no less than three times, but rejected by an intransigent leadership who refuse to accept Jews as neighbours.

Jesse, why is your government so inconsistent? If you have recalled your ambassador from Israel in support of the Palestinians, why not from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur and Sudan – where literally millions have been slaughtered?