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Khaled’s visit leaves bitter taste
“Depicting Leila Khaled as Mother Teresa is like awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Osama Bin Laden”. This was a comment read out to a crowd protesting Khaled’s visit in Cape Town on Friday and formed part of a message from a man who wish to be identified only as Adam and who was on an El Al flight from Israel to New York that was hijacked by Khaled and her cohorts in September 1970.
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“The real issue is the hypocrisy of those who give a platform to people like Khaled, someone who explicitly supports all terrorist attacks wherever they may be,” read the message from Adam. “Khaled laid the foundation for many other attacks that are even happening today under the slogan ‘if you are not with us then you have no right to exist, and we dare you to go or speak against us’.
The protest, organized by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, took place outside a press conference being hosted for Khaled by BDS-SA. The participants stood with banners saying “BDS wants blood…BDS’s true colours” and chanted: ’No to Terrorism”. They also wore t-shirts saying: “The SA Government condemns all forms and manner of terrorism”.
SAJBD chair Mary Kluk, who addressed the crowd gathered, noted that it was no coincidence that the day after Khaled spoke on the campus of Durban University of Technology, the SRC had called for the de-registration of Jewish students. “Welcoming hate-mongers like Khaled to South Africa sends out a message that it is legitimate to discriminate against Jews, something that runs completely counter to the South African ethos of non-racialism, equality and tolerance,” she said.
Khaled, now in her seventies, was hailed during her trip as “a leader in exile of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” by her South African hosts, BDS. She was also feted by the ruling Tripartite Alliance of the ANC, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party – as a “struggle icon” for the Palestinians.
Khaled returned to Jordan – where she lives – on Monday after concluding her South African tour with a visit to Soweto on Sunday which was co-hosted by BDS and the Umkhonto we Sizwe’s Veterans’ Association (MKMVA).
According to Rebecca Hodes, writing in Tuesday’s issue of the Daily Maverick, bizarre conspiracy theories, involving not just the usual suspects like Israel, ‘Zionists’ and the CIA, but also Julius Malema and the EFF, abounded.
Khaled warned in her speech that ‘vicious’ imperialists were “collaborating with the Zionists to control the whole world…” She also informed the raucously enthusiastic crowd that the US and Israel were the hidden hand behind Islamic extremism worldwide.
“ISIS, I tell you, is a Zionist, American organisation. Boko Haram is another Netanyahu. [Its leaders] are more Zionist than the Zionists,” she said.
Deputy Defence Minister Kebby Maphatsoe said that, like “Comrade Khaled”, MKMVA rejected the notion of two coexisting states, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs in Palestine. He further advised the SA Jewish Board of Deputies “to arm itself with real facts and rid itself of misplaced self-pity, and begin to become part of the resolution of the conflict in Palestine, rather than to serve as the insidious hand of the terrorist apartheid Israel Zionist state in South Africa”.
reported that, “dozens of audience members vied for a decent angle for a cell phone snap” with Khaled while she was being presented with a gift.
BDS made much of the fact that Khaled had been “personally invited” by President Jacob Zuma to his State of the Nation address (Sona) in Parliament last week Thursday. However, the organization quickly backtracked on their announcement, saying that Khaled had been invited to the Sona not by Zuma, but by senior parliamentary staff.
The South African Jewish community, through the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, voiced scathing criticism of Khaled’s visit, noting that she’s persona non grata in a host of European countries as well as the US.
In a statement released last week ahead of the protest, the board said: “The SAJBD has been consistent in its argument that BDS-SA is using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to import anti-Semitism into South Africa.
“The South African Jewish community is committed to the ethos of tolerance, diversity and respect that is enshrined in our Constitution. This is the climate that we have experienced until recently, and we believe is being eroded by the BDS’ continual intimidation and maligning of the South African Jewish community and use of threats of violence against those who reject their radical agenda. That agenda is epitomised by their glorification of terrorism and violence, as demonstrated by their hosting Leila Khaled, whose organisation the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) is responsible for the deaths of numerous Israeli civilians and remains committed to perpetrating such acts of terror.
“The SAJBD believes that it is only through negotiation that a resolution to the conflict will be found and it reaffirms its commitment to seeing a two-state solution in which Israeli and Palestinians live in secure borders, alongside each other. This is in line with what the majority of Israelis and Palestinians want. It is also consistent with the official position of the South African Government.”
The Tripartite Alliance’s support of the BDS movement in a sense shows up the ruling party’s confusing stance on the Israel-Palestine issue. Official government policy, as far as Israel is concerned, is “business as usual”. Government continues to emphasise that it supports a two-state solution to resolve this Middle East conundrum, yet Khaled’s warm reception by the ANC appears to tell a different story.
nat cheiman
February 18, 2015 at 12:12 pm
‘Boko Haram and Isis are Zionists. BDS have their own cartoon channel.\”Vicious Imperialists\”she says.
She intentionally doesn’t mention the burning of Coptic Christians (21) and beheading of journalists by Isis.
Khaled is devoid of humanity and so are the ANC cadres who helped her here in SA. Deputy Minister, Kebby Maphatsoe who threatened the SABJD is also one of the clowns (as his name suggests) who fervently believe that Israel and Palestine are going to be molded into one state. The man clearly must be smoking dagga or something to believe that fantasy.’
nat cheiman
February 18, 2015 at 12:16 pm
‘PS. Depicting Leila Khaled as a \”mother Theresa\”is like wrapping a birthday gift with used toilet paper and telling the recipient that you hope he likes the gift wrap.
\nIn Afrikaans one would say \”mother Theresa, my g**\”. ‘
chaim
February 18, 2015 at 7:22 pm
‘in the language of khaled, (if she doesn’t understand, let her ask her imam.) …
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Sorry, Chaim, but as we cannot understand the language we’re unable to moderate the content as we do with ALL comments and have hence removed what we understand regarding content! -ED
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Gary Selikow
February 19, 2015 at 9:36 am
‘The Fogel family massacre of 2011 and the Maalot massacre of children in 1974 were also carried out by Khaled’s PFLP.
Also the assasination of Israeli Tourism minster Rechavam Zeevi and several homicide bombings which killed women and children
Leila Khaled and the PFLP are as bad as ISIS
‘
Myron Robinson
February 19, 2015 at 11:56 am
‘A man is known by the company he keeps. The fact that Khaled informed her audience that the US and Israel were the hidden hand behind Islamic extremism worldwide more particularly ISIS & Boko Haram shows how ignorant the BDS and their cohorts are. When fantasy becomes reality we need to be aware. For any Jew to accept that the BDS are not anti-Semitic in the light of what Khaled said vis-à-vis ISIS & Boko Haram etc. is not worthy of being called a Jew. I would like to hear Friedman, Kasrils et al response to these comments by Khaled. Maybe Bibi is right we should all go on Aliyah if our Govt. is party to what Khaled said. (They have not repudiated as yet)’
Mordechai
February 19, 2015 at 11:55 pm
‘The South African Jewish Community and SAJBD need to wake up. The real questions are 1) how was this murdering terrorist Leila Khaled granted a visa to enter S Africa ? 2) after granting her a visa why was she treated as royalty by the SA government ? Now let us look at how the majority of SA Jews feel about South Africa – they are proud South Africans. With this in mind you, South Africa’s Jewish community have no room to complain. You are proud of your country, who are doing everything they can to try and destroy the Jewish State of Israel and replace it with a Palestinian state…and don’t give me the \”copout\” that the country is not the government, because I don’t buy that. When you stop calling yourselves proud South Africans then you can protest.’
Gary Selikow
February 20, 2015 at 8:21 am
‘Why are my comments not appearing on the SAJR wesbite?’
Ant Katz
February 20, 2015 at 8:46 am
‘Sorry Gary, I had some medical leave which was followed by a family crisis so the website has not enjoyed the amount of attention it usually does. We moderate all comments, for obvious reasons, and I have tried to do this at least once a day. Needless to say I am back in the saddle and will be moderating more frequently again.
Regards, Ant Katz, online.editor@sajr.co.za ‘
Choni
February 20, 2015 at 8:56 am
‘A Refuah Shleima to you.
Choni and Miriam.’
Choni
February 20, 2015 at 10:16 am
‘History repeats itself.
Before WW2 Jews were proudly Polish, Lithuanian, Ukranian etc, and worst of all PROUDLY GERMAN.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
‘
Mordechai
February 22, 2015 at 5:00 am
‘Dito Choni. The Yiddishkeit in Eastern Europe was also fantastic in the 1920’s and early 1930’s’