CIA behind Scorpions, Aids: expert

August 12 2008 at 03:37PM

British intelligence organisation MI5 and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are the masters of South Africa's elite crime fighting unit, the Scorpions, a public hearing into their dissolution heard in Durban on Tuesday.

Sam Kikine, the head of the International Traditional and Medicine Research Council, accused these two organisations of controlling the Scorpions.

"Why have the Scorpions not investigated [chemical warfare expert] Wouter Basson and the CIA who have created this Aids? The Scorpions are working for MI5 and the CIA and not for South Africa," he told the hearing at the Umlazi Indoor Sports Complex.

--MORE--

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 05:40 25/07/2008

By Amira Hass

NEW YORK - Right at the door, before extending his one hand (the left) in greeting, Albie Sachs sternly informs me that he has no more than one hour for the interview. That's understandable: The man is 73, a justice on his country's highest court, he has authored four fascinating and beautifully written autobiographies, as well as a number of texts about law and society (including one on sexism and British law) - and now, as he hastens to point out, he's busy writing two more books, simultaneously. At this moment, he's probably thinking to himself: "Oy, oy, oy. Why did I ever consent to be interviewed?"

As his recent book, "The Free Diary of Albie Sachs" (Random House, 2004), reveals, "Oy, oy, oy" is a regular part of his vocabulary. The interview takes place in the office allotted to Sachs as a scholar in residence at the Ford Foundation in New York, and the honorable justice answers all the questions with prudent and sometimes elusive formulations.

Where is the mischievous Albie who appears in his books? Is this the same man who shared with his readers his shared bath tub experiences with women, after he had been wounded in the attempt on his life, in a book that chronicled his recovery ("The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter," University of California Press, 2000)? Is this the same man who dreamed in his youth of becoming a guerrilla fighter? Who was defined as a terrorist solely because of his affiliation with the African National Congress (ANC)? The same Albie who immediately, in the first pages of his book about his recovery, tells the Jewish joke about a certain Hymie Cohen, who falls off a bus and instinctively makes the sign of the cross. "What cross?" Hymie explains to his astonished friend. "I was just checking that everything was in place: spectacles, testicles, wallet and watch."

--MORE--

w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m

Last update - 09:40 12/07/2008

Twilight Zone

By Gideon Levy

I thought they would feel right at home in the alleys of Balata refugee camp, the Casbah and the Hawara checkpoint. But they said there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under apartheid. This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Among them were members of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress; at least one of them took part in the armed struggle and at least two were jailed. There were two South African Supreme Court judges, a former deputy minister, members of Parliament, attorneys, writers and journalists. Blacks and whites, about half of them Jews who today are in conflict with attitudes of the conservative Jewish community in their country. Some of them have been here before; for others it was their first visit.

For five days they paid an unconventional visit to Israel - without Sderot, the IDF and the Foreign Ministry (but with Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and a meeting with Supreme Court President Justice Dorit Beinisch. They spent most of their time in the occupied areas, where hardly any official guests go - places that are also shunned by most Israelis.

On Monday they visited Nablus, the most imprisoned city in the West Bank. From Hawara to the Casbah, from the Casbah to Balata, from Joseph's Tomb to the monastery of Jacob's Well. They traveled from Jerusalem to Nablus via Highway 60, observing the imprisoned villages that have no access to the main road, and seeing the "roads for the natives," which pass under the main road. They saw and said nothing. There were no separate roads under apartheid. They went through the Hawara checkpoint mutely: they never had such barriers.

--MORE--

By Donald Macintyre in Hebron

Friday, 11 July 2008

Veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle said last night that the restrictions endured by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories was in some respects worse than that imposed on the black majority under white rule in South Africa.

Members of a 23-strong human-rights team of prominent South Africans cited the impact of the Israeli military's separation barrier, checkpoints, the permit system for Palestinian travel, and the extent to which Palestinians are barred from using roads in the West Bank.

After a five-day visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories, some delegates expressed shock and dismay at conditions in the Israeli-controlled heart of Hebron. Uniquely among West Bank cities, 800 settlers now live there and segregation has seen the closure of nearly 3,000 Palestinian businesses and housing units. Palestinian cars (and in some sections pedestrians) are prohibited from using the once busy streets.

--MORE--

We, South Africans who faced the might of unjust and brutal apartheid machinery in South Africa and fought against it with all our strength, with the objective to live in a just, democratic society, refuse today to celebrate the existence of an Apartheid state in the Middle East.

While Israel and its apologists around the world will, with pomp and ceremony, loudly proclaim the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel this month, we who have lived with and struggled against oppression and colonialism will, instead, remember 6 decades of catastrophe for the Palestinian people. 60 years ago, 750,000 Palestinians were brutally expelled from their homeland, suffering persecution, massacres, and torture. They and their descendants remain refugees. This is no reason to celebrate.

When we think of the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, we also remember the Deir Yassin massacre of 1948.

When we think of South Africa's Bantustan policy, we remember the bantustanisation of Palestine by the Israelis.

When we think of our heroes who languished on Robben Island and elsewhere, we remember the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

When we think of the massive land theft perpetrated against the people of South Africa, we remember that the theft of Palestinian land continues with the building of illegal Israeli settlements and the Apartheid Wall.

When we think of the Group Areas Act and other such apartheid legislation, we remember that 93% of the land in Israel is reserved for Jewish use only.

When we think of Black people being systematically dispossessed in South Africa, we remember that Israel uses ethnic and racial dispossession to strike at the heart of Palestinian life.

When we think of how the SADF troops persecuted our people in the townships, we remember that attacks from tanks, fighter jets and helicopter gunships are the daily experience of Palestinians in the Occupied Territory.

When we think of the SADF attacks against our neighbouring states, we remember that Israel deliberately destabilises the Middle East region and threatens international peace and security, including with its 100s of nuclear warheads.

We who have fought against Apartheid and vowed not to allow it to happen again can not allow Israel to continue perpetrating apartheid, colonialism and occupation against the indigenous people of Palestine.

We dare not allow Israel to continue violating international law with impunity.

We will not stand by while Israel continues to starve and bomb the people of Gaza.

We who fought all our lives for South Africa to be a state for all its people demand that millions of Palestinian refugees must be accorded the right to return to the homes from where they were expelled.

Apartheid was a gross violation of human rights. It was so in South Africa and it is so with regard to Israel's persecution of the Palestinians!

* Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Intelligence / End Occupation Campaign
* Blade Nzimande, General Secretary, South African Communist Party
* Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary, Congress of South African Trade Unions
* Ahmed Kathrada, Nelson Mandela Foundation
* Eddie Makue, General Secretary, South African Council of Churches
* Makoma Lekalakala, Social Movements Indaba
* Dale McKinley, Anti-Privatisation Forum
* Lybon Mabasa, President, Socialist Party of Azania
* Costa Gazi, Pan Africanist Congress of Azania
* Jeremy Cronin, South African Communist Party
* Sydney Mufamadi, Minister of Provincial and Local Government
* Mosioua Terror Lekota, Minister of Safety and Security
* Mosibudi Mangena, President, Azanian Peoples Organisation / Minister of Science and Technology
* Alec Erwin, Minister of Public Enterprises
* Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency
* Enver Surty, Deputy Minister of Education
* Roy Padayache, Deputy Minister of Communications
* Derek Hanekom, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology
* Rob Davies, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry
* Lorretta Jacobus, Deputy Minister of Correctional Services
* Sam Ramsamy, International Olympic Committee
* Yasmin Sooka, Executive Director, Foundation for Human Rights
* Pregs Govender, Feminist Activist and Author: Love and Courage, A Story of Insubordination
* Adam Habib, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Johannesburg
* Frene Ginwala, African National Congress
* Salim Vally, Palestine Solidarity Committee
* Na'eem Jeenah, Palestine Solidarity Committee
* Brian Ashley, Amandla Publications
* Mercia Andrews, Palestine Solidarity Group
* Andile Mngxitama, land rights activist
* Farid Esack, Professor of Contemporary Islam, Harvard University
* Elinor Sisulu, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Andre Zaaiman
* Virginia Setshedi, Coalition Against Water Privatisation
* Max Ozinsky, Not in my Name
* Revd Basil Manning, Minister, United Congregational Church of Southern Africa
* Firoz Osman, Media Review Network
* Zapiro, cartoonist
* Mphutlane wa Bofelo, General Secretary, Muslim Youth Movement
* Steven Friedman, academic
* Ighsaan Hendricks, President, Muslim Judicial Council
* Iqbal Jassat, Media Review Network
* Stiaan van der Merwe, Palestine Solidarity Committee
* Naaziem Adam, Palestine Solidarity Alliance
* Asha Moodley, Board member of Agenda feminist journal
* Suraya Bibi Khan, Palestine Solidarity Alliance
* Nazir Osman, Palestine Solidarity Alliance
* Allan Horwitz, Jewish Voices
* Jackie Dugard, legal and human rights activist
* Professor Alan and Beata Lipman
* Caroline O'Reilly, researcher
* Jane Lipman
* Shereen Mills, Human rights lawyer, Centre for Applied Legal Studies
* Noor Nieftagodien, University of the Witwatersrand
* Bobby Peek, Groundworks
* Arnold Tsunga, Chair, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
* Mcebisi Skwatsha, Provincial Secretary, ANC Western Cape
* Owen Manda, Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg
* Claire Cerruti, Keep Left

NB: Organisational affiliations above are for identification purposes only and do not necessarily reflect organisational endorsement

28 April 2008

Open letter to Nadine Gordimer

In your response to our letters of concern and protest over your planned visit to Israel, to participate in a writers festival largely endorsed by the Israeli government, you brush off our criticism, citing the role of literature in "opening up the human mind" and claiming that "whatever violent, terrible, bitter and urgent chasms of conflict lie between peoples, the only solution for peace and justice exist and must begin with both sides talking to one another." So talking, in your opinion, has replaced resistance as the starting point for ending injustice and fighting apartheid and colonial rule? Is that what you and your fellow anti-apartheid colleagues did in your struggle in South Africa – talk to the “other side”?

It is also worth reminding you that Palestinian writers in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), like all Palestinians under Israeli occupation, are denied their basic rights, including the “privilege” of freedom of expression which you -- and all of us -- so highly value. They are often denied their right to travel, sometimes even within the OPT; many are denied access to conferences and festivals where they can participate in a free exchange of ideas with their peers on an international level; and some are imprisoned, injured or killed by the occupation forces. By attending this conference you are helping to perpetuate this special form of apartheid that denies us our human rights.

You start your letter asserting that you are "not invited to Israel by the Israeli Government." Is this accurate? Even if it is, is it relevant? You are invited, technically, by that Writers Festival; but the festival itself is primarily funded, promoted, and sponsored by Israeli government sources. Hair-splitting aside, you are, indeed, invited by the Israeli government. Even if that festival were not at all supported by the government, does it in any way take a stand against the occupation, racism and apartheid that essentially define the reality of Israel today for you to consider it acceptable to participate in?

--MORE--