09 June 2007 - Anti-Israel protests fizzle out
Ronnie Kasrils & Co. failed to make much of a dent this week, as their climactic anti-Israel rally in Johanesburg failed to reach 1000 participants. Low turnouts, in fact, plagued the entire week's events, despite the best efforts of the organizers to frog-march helpless and homeless black people into position at anti-Israel rallies and to control press coverage. Note that the man who ejected the Ha'aretz freelance photographer was none other than Salim Vally, former head of South Africa's Freedom of Expression Insititute.
posted by Joel @ 5:28 PM
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1 Comments:
Grass roots support for Palestinians in South Africa is considerably less than for Israel. Throughout Africa Israel has supporters. The term "Zionist" appears in a number of substantial home grown churches and has a positive connotation.
What fuels the episodes of politically orchestrated support for the Palestinians is the internal political wars of the ANC. Both positioned and rank and file comrades have a strong committment to the Palestinians stemming from the days of struggle empathy and collaboration. Castigating one's internal opponents for insufficient passion on the Israel Palestine issue is felt to be good internal party politics. As for Ronnie Kasrils, "Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned," and he takes his rejection by SA Jewry and even members of his own family quite to heart and wishes to get even. Israel and Jewry must not let Kasril's obsession get in the way of further enhancing positive relationships with Africans and Africanists. The common White Western tendency to "write off Africa" needs to be resisted. "End the Occupation Week" was merely another episode in the futile struggle of Ronnie Kasrils for vindication. If we are not reactive to Kasril's pathological excess, business between the intensely Zionist South African Jewish Community, Israel and the South African government can continue pretty much as before.
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