Media Release: Response to Jewish Board of Deputies, Zionist Federation and Office of Chief Rabbi

Issued by the Palestine Solidarity Committee
12 January 2009

We are deeply troubled by the immoral position adopted by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the South African Zionist Federation and the Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, on the current atrocities in Gaza.

Goldstein, in particular, has become a propagandist for massacre and crimes against humanity. We call for him to be shunned by all South Africans who believe in justice and international law. Specifically, he should be excluded from the National Religious Leaders' Forum which seeks to develop moral responses to the crises facing South Africa. Can he offer any morality when he unapologetically supports one of the worst forms of immorality: genocide? He has also lost his hold on reality and morality by claiming that Israel's onslaught is humanitarian because "it sends out mass smses before bombing" (Sunday Times, 11th January 2009).

These organisations and Goldstein released a statement about the Gaza massacres riddled with inaccuracies. For example, they claim that Hamas broke the ceasefire when, in fact, Israel repeatedly violated the ceasefire killing six Palestinians on the 4th November and more thereafter. Indeed, Israel violated the ceasefire from the first week because the ceasefire agreement called for Israel to lift the strangling siege which prevented food, fuel, and medicines from entering Gaza, which it did not do. (See CNN report at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KntmpoRXFX4 and the report by Jews for Justice at www.jfjfp.org.)

That Israel's current massacre in Gaza is 'in response' to Hamas' actions is also inaccurate. As Israeli officials proudly tell the media, this operation had been planned six months ago when Israel was negotiating a ceasefire with Hamas.

An even greater inaccuracy is the claim that, three and half years ago, Israel 'withdrew' from Gaza, leaving it to Palestinians to run. In fact, Israel only pulled its illegal settlers (every single one of whom was settled on Palestinian land in violation of international law) out of Gaza and its troops to the border. However, Gaza was not free, nor was it 'left in peace'. It was sealed off: its borders were controlled by Israel; access to its coast was controlled by Israel and restricted for residents of Gaza; its airspace was controlled by Israel. No food, fuel or medicines could enter Gaza without Israel allowing them to. Palestinian legislators were not able freely to move between Gaza and the West Bank. In short, Gaza went from being territory that was illegally settled and militarily occupied to being territory that was hermetically sealed, thus becoming the largest open-air prison in the world and still beholden to the Israeli military.

Despite these pro-Israeli organisations' portrayal of Israel as a victim and of Israeli soldiers as heroes, two recent incidents uncovered by the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gazan town of Zeitoun show the depravity of the Israeli Occupation Forces in their treatment of women, children, and the injured and show that Israel is committing some of the worst war crimes ever to be inflicted on a national population.

Last Thursday, the Israeli Army had established a command position near some bombed houses. For four days they sat there while 20 people, several wounded, were forced to remain inside without water, food, or medical treatment. Grotesquely, these 20 survivors were trapped in the ruins with the corpses of their dead relatives. Children were forced to lie side by side with their dead mothers. Husbands were forced to lie next to the rotting corpses of their dead wives.

So weak were the survivors after four days without food and water that when the Red Cross finally gained access to them they had to be carried out. For days the Israeli forces refused to allow the Red Cross access for days the Israeli forces were aware of the plight of the women and children inside the building, and for days they did nothing. By any standard, moral or legal, the army's actions in Zeitoun are an affront to humanity. (See also http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7819261.stm.) Even the normally sedate and reserved Red Cross is unable to suppress its anger with what is happening in Gaza. (See http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/palestine-update-050109?opendocument.)

The depravity with which the Israeli Government is inflicting death on the people of Gaza reached a new low as news leaked out of yet another Israeli war crime in Zeitoun. According to the United Nations, the events in a shelter in the town represents 'one of the gravest events since the beginning of the offensive.' Eyewitness accounts obtained by the UN describe how, on the 4th January, the Israeli Army rounded up 110 people, half of them children, and evacuated them to a single storey house. The soldiers told the people they were being led to safety. Then, 24 hours later, the Israeli army bombed the shelter, killing 30 people. According to the Red Cross and the UN, the Army's refusal to allow humanitarian access to the area for four days was because of this incident.

Following this incident the Red Cross issued a statement on the deaths of children killed by the Israeli Army in which they said that there had been a 250% increase in deaths to children since the ground invasion. (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7819492.stm).

We are also surprised that these Zionist organisations in South Africa so brazenly claim to be speaking for 'the South African Jewish community'. There are many in this community who do not support the massacre of civilians, who oppose the current actions of the Israeli military machine against the people of Gaza, who believe that Israel should immediately cease its military operation, who believe that Israel should not even have begun these operations. Yet, SAJBD, the SAZF and Goldstein seek to suppress these Jewish voices and to smear them by claiming that they all support the Israeli army's genocide. These voices will not be suppressed, however. Almost 100 South African Jews have already signed a declaration saying that these organisations do not represent them on this issue. And even outside of South Africa, many Jews have actively opposed Israel's murderous military campaign. They include the group of Jewish women who last week occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto. And the thousands of Jewish Israeli students who protested against the Gaza massacre in at least three Israeli cities, and numerous Jews who are protesting in the US.

Finally, it is appalling and an attempt to censor voices critical of Israel when the statement, after unashamedly stating its authors' support for war crimes and genocide, urges other South Africans not to 'import' 'the conflict' into South Africa. It is like saying to people: 'this is what we support. If you have a different view you are not allowed to express it because that will create bad relations between us.' Why is it that organisations such as the SAZF can exist for the sole reason of supporting Israel, but when anyone supports the just struggle of the Palestinian people, that person is 'importing conflict' into South Africa?

These organisations of Israeli apologists want South Africa to remain 'neutral' while they peddle their warmongering freely. South Africa cannot be neutral. It must choose sides. It must choose the side of justice and international law or stand accused of supporting the law of the jungle. Calls by the Israeli apologists that the South African government should play a mediatory role are absurd. Israel ignores the UN Security Council; it certainly treats South African politicians and politics with disdain. Israel and its South African propagandists constantly talk of peace but practise war. UN Resolutions are flouted, and international law violated with impunity. Illegal settlements continue to be built in the West Bank and construction on the 760 km Apartheid Wall continues. Israel is a pariah state like Apartheid South Africa was. South Africa's role should be to lead an international campaign to sever diplomatic relations with and implement sanctions on Israel. This is the only moral option. This is what most Palestinians have asked.

For more information, call:
Ronnie Kasrils 082 784 9236
Steven Friedman 072 480 6483
Virginia Setshedi 078 473 3086
Brian Hotz 082 085 7088
Farid Esack 083 459 9989
Mercia Andrews 082 368 3429
Melissa Hoole 073 906 0017
Suzanne Hotz 082 774 4594
Salim Vally 082 802 5936
Na'eem Jeenah 084 574 2674