Letters/Discussion Forums
Palestinians wallow in their civilian deaths
While the ANC’s Jessie Duarte condemns “the barbaric attacks on the defenceless Palestinian people of Gaza”, she makes no mention of the barbaric attack on the defenceless civilians of Israel where lethal rockets fired from behind human shields, rain down in their hundreds.
ALLAN WOLMAN
Rosebank, Johannesburg
She denounces the collective punishment by Israel, but seems oblivious of the collective punishment by the Palestinians’ continuous rocket attacks on civilian targets, so who is traumatising whom?
One can only speculate at South Africa’s reaction to such provocation if this country were to be the target of such incessant intimidation. The distortion of facts by Duarte is so disingenuous that she even reduces the murder or three Israeli youths down to two!
One must again wonder why the ANC is concerned about only one sector of their Palestinian brothers? What about those “invisible Palestinians” – almost half a million existing in a living hell in Lebanon under conditions that pale in comparison to the practice of apartheid here. If not the ANC, who then should condemn this?
What is more obscene is the ANC calling the Occupied Territories a permanent death camp, yet they make no mention of the fate of the half a million forgotten Palestinians in Syria where to date more than 300 000 people, including 15 000 Palestinians have been systematically murdered by the Assad regime; South Africa still maintains a diplomatic presence in Syria.
Duarte, steeped in politics, would surely have firsthand knowledge that “besieged” Gaza shares a common border with Egypt, a country we have full diplomatic relations with and a country that has sealed its border with Gaza.
Why? She must surely know that when Israel left Gaza in 2005 an infrastructure worth billions of dollars was systematically destroyed within weeks of the pullout. Had the Palestinians built on that, Gaza could have become a second Singapore. Sadly shortly thereafter the rockets started.
The statement put out by the ANC is replete with outrageous distortions of the true situation and highlights the ANC’s naked bias. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, have voiced their support of Israel’s right to defend itself.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas only days ago questioned the wisdom of Hamas firing rockets.
But perhaps the ANC would feel more comfortable if the asymmetrical death toll were more equitable – the difference here is that Israel has taken precautions that reduce casualties, whereas every death in Gaza is a victory for the Palestinians. Why have they not had air raid sirens installed after all these years? No, that is left to Israel who warns them about pending air strikes, something unprecedented in the history of warfare.
Rosebank, Johannesburg