Alistair Anderson
Contributing Writer Business Day
In response to International Anti-Israel Apartheid week that took place last week, the South African Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) has sent an activist and leader of a non-profit media organisation to South Africa.
Director of the Sderot Media Centre, Noam Bedein, has spoken around the world, often conveying arguments for the country Israel that many government bodies may not be able to because of his organisation’s non-political affiliation.
After the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) joined South Africa’s Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (PSA) in its promotion of the international week against alleged Israeli Apartheid, Beiden was invited by SAUJS to give some clarity on the Israeli point of view.
The PSA has condemned Israel for it allegedly maltreating Palestinians in its country and in the disputed Gaza Strip area that it occupies. The group which includes people who “work to promote a free Palestinian state” organised a march on the Israeli embassy, which took place last Friday, and was joined by Cosatu.
Bedein, a 27-year-old student from Spir College in Southern Israel, explained that he has been in South Africa to highlight what he alleges to be a media imbalance that the Palestinian Authority enjoys against the Israeli side, in the conflict over the middle-eastern area of the Gaza Strip, which lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north.
Bedein who has spoken at colleges around the world and Capitol Hill before the US Congress, explained that Sderot, his hometown in small Southern Israel has borne the brunt of rocket fire directed towards Israel from Gaza but the world has not been told about the people there’s plight.
“It’s incredible that this town is the only town in the world that has rockets directed at its Jewish population. The problem is that the Palestinian authority gets money from Muslim fundamentalist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to fund huge media television and radio broadcasts, while the twenty-thousand people of Sderot have to rely on government money just to keep the town in one piece.”
Bedein said that “the town is the world’s biggest bomb shelter”. He said that about $125 million had been spent on building bomb shelters in Sderot.
“In fact, in Israel there are about 500 million shelters and at least half a billion dollars has been invested into Israel’s security budget for a country that is about as big as your (South Africa’s) Kruger National Park.”
The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance has said that Israel is an Apartheid state where Israelis treat Palestinians as second-class citizens but Bedein said the opposite is true.
“There are Muslim families living in my neighbourhood. We have Africans, Iranians, all kinds of people and we integrate. Israel is the only Western democracy in the Middle East and we allow Palestinians to voice their beliefs, which can include a want to have the state destroyed,” Bedein said.
"People need to understand that the issue over Israel is not about land, it's about the human right to exist," Bedein said.
Is Israel really a Democracy? All My life I have been sympathetic to the Jewish people in their struggle for survival. But I am beginning to have a rethink about my position.
ReplyDeleteI think Israel’s leaders have bungled the goodwill they enjoyed with peace loving people all over the world in the way they have handled the Humanitarian ships crisis. Now they look not so much different from Hamas. My people (Biafrans) suffered similar blockades during the sixties so I understand first hand what such inhuman blockades of this sort mean.
What do you mean by Democracy when you deny people basic rights? Your Democracy is the only democracy that uses someone’s religion as a ramification to determine if he must be a citizen of a country.
Please I love Israel and believe in your inalienable right to exist as a nation. But how can you hold on to such right and deny the Palestinians statehood and freedom? I am not oblivious of the nature of Hamas and the danger it poses to the Israeli state. But do you wanna continue loosing friends because of your leaders’ irrational decisions?
Emeka Johannesburg
Hi Emeka
ReplyDeleteI must say I am little surprised that a Biafran could hold such a position as you have just stated.
Millions of people died of starvation during Biarfan war because any kind of food, or medicine was kept from the people.
This is simply not happening in gaza. Do a bit of digging and will find that tons of aid being poured into Gaza everyday by Israel precisley because they want to avoid that sitation. Only military supplies are kept out. In fact they just open mall in gaza. Do you know of any Biafran malls that were opened in 67?
Lets not forget why we are in this position. When Israel handed over gaza in was in the hopes of peace, to let them run their own affairs. What they got in return were suicide bombers and rockets at their civilians. The Biafrans were famous in the 60's for their ingenuity using rockets and other scientific military weapons.
Somehow I doubt that if Biafa had been allowed its independance it would have set about murdering ordinary Nigerians. Perhaps you think otherwise.
Lastly on your point about democracy. One of the groups who suffered the most from the rockets have been muslim Israeli Arab CITIZENS who have had their houses rocketed. This has never been a problem in most Arab countries as ethnicity and religion are fundemental importance even if you want visit. Never mind live.
If you want to help the Gazans, save them from Hamas.
Benji