Tag Archive for: South Africa

South Africa’s Christians Rise Up Against Government’s Claim That Israel Has Committed ‘Genocide’

The government of South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, charging the Jewish state with “genocide” in Gaza. The charge is preposterous, and it will be seen to be so as the Israelis continue to lay out their defense. Meanwhile, 86% of South Africans are Christians; only 1.6% are Muslims.

The government’s decision to charge Israel at the ICJ with practicing “genocide” is wildly unpopular in the country.

And now the Christians have been speaking out, expressing their deep distress over the government’s grotesque attack on Israel. The fury over the government’s coming out so strongly, and unfairly, against the Jewish state, might even lead infuriated Christians to mount a political challenge to the ANC.

More on the Christians of South Africa rallying in support of Israel can be found here:

South African Christian leaders oppose ICJ charge: Cannot keep silent

by Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, Jerusalem Post, January 10, 2024:

Christians throughout South Africa have risen against the government’s decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

“The African National Congress government and their allies’ decision to take Israel to the International Court of Justice has brought us to a place where, like the time of Queen Esther in the Bible, we cannot keep silent,” said Tshego Motaung, head of the Healing of the Nations prayer movement in an article published on the South African Christian website Gateway News. “We cannot keep silent when a government that has failed on its domestic mandate wants to rise as a hero in the global political arena.”…

The first argument made by these Christians is a moral one. Hamas committed unspeakable crimes on October 7, and Israel has a right, and a duty, to defend itself. Hamas wishes to destroy Israel, but Israel has no similar desire to annihilate Gaza. Israel is the victim, Hamas the criminal. The South African government has things backward.

The second argument is one based on the recognition that South Africa stands to benefit economically from good relations with Israel. The Jewish state is a world leader in water management — in desalination, drip irrigation, wastewater recycling, and production of water from the ambient air. It is a world leader, too, in solar energy, and could help South Africa, which gets 50% more exposure to the sun than the United States, increase its use of that renewable source of energy. Finally, Israel could help South Africa develop its own high-tech start-ups, another area where Israel is a world leader.

Third, unnamed “trading partners” of South Africa — presumably meaning the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the members of the E.U. — are likely to look askance at Pretoria for taking the side of Hamas, a group that is widely recognized as a terrorist organization. This may affect their willingness to continue to trade with South Africa, and to cause them, too, to refrain from closer political ties with a country that defends and endorses murderous terrorists.

They [South African Christians] also condemn the government for failing to condemn Hamas’s actions in Gaza.

This failure by their government to condemn Hamas’ atrocities on October 7, and its use of human shields in Gaza, and its kidnapping and cruel mistreatment of Israeli hostages, including children and the elderly, is to South Africa’s Christians inexplicable and insupportable. It has been more than 100 days since the atrocities committed on October 7, and still not a syllable of sympathy for Israelis has been forthcoming from Pretoria.

Such actions could be interpreted as direct support to Hamas’s tactics, including using civilians as human shields and diverting aid for military purposes and the building of tunnels, rather than humanitarian relief sent to the Palestinian people, which Hamas intercepted,” the letter continued.

The letter from the Christian groups in South Africa notes that Hamas made a choice years ago: it chose to spend billions of aid dollars on its underground network of tunnels. The letter might have also noted that Hamas’ corruption is colossal, and that just three Hamas leaders — Khaled Meshaal, Mousa Abu Marzouk, and Ismail Haniyeh — have stolen a total of $11 billion from aid money meant for the people of Gaza. But that would be too dangerous a matter to raise, given that the ANC leaders are also, like those of Hamas, exceedingly corrupt, with President Ramaphosa alone now possessing about half a billion dollars.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

‘Genocide’? The Population of Gaza Tripled Under Israeli Occupation

What does Israel do in Gaza? Does the IDF deliberately rape, torture, and murder Palestinian civilians, as Hamas did to the Israelis at the dance party and in the kibbutzim? Does the IDF take delight in killing, in as sadistic a way as possible, as many Gazan civilians as it can? No, of course not. The IDF tries instead, to minimize civilian casualties. It has no desire to harm the truly innocent. Unfortunately, Hamas wants to maximize those civilian casualties, and to exploit that result to undermine Israel’s standing in the world.

Whenever it can, the IDF warns civilians away from areas about to be targeted. These warnings are enormous undertakings. When the IDF had concluded that it was first going to concentrate its war-making in northern Gaza, it dropped 1.5 leaflets on that area, urging inhabitants to move south of the Wadi Gaza, so as to avoid the most intense fighting that was about to begin in the north. 900,000 Gazans ultimately heeded the warning, and headed south on the north-south corridor of Salah al-Din Street. Hamas fired on, and killed, some of the Gazans trying to move south, in order to keep their civilian shields trapped in the north. Later, when the IDF began to attack Hamas in the south, it dropped both leaflets, and sent emails, with maps included, that showed Gazans the precise areas in the south, in and around Khan Yunis, where the IDF would not be attacking, and that, therefore, they should move to for safety’s sake. It was the same with buildings — schools, apartment buildings, mosques — where the IDF was about to attack. The IDF messaged, emailed, telephoned, and used the “knock-on-the-roof” technique to warn civilians living in or near those buildings soon to be targeted to leave them. Furthermore, Israeli pilots will call off an airstrike if they detect too many civilians near the target.

The result of the IDF’s attempt to minimize harm to civilians can be seen in the statistics about casualties. The UN has reported that in all the wars since World War II, the average civilian-to-combatant ratio been 9 to 1, that is, nine civilians killed for every combatant killed. The American and British armies have worked hard to bring down that ratio, and succeeded. In Iraq, when the Americans were fighting forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, the ration was 3 civilians killed for every combatant. In Afghanistan, the ratio was estimated at between 3 and 5 civilians killed for every combatant. But in the Gaza war, the ratio was much lower still. As of January 6, the IDF believes it has killed about 9,500 Hamas fighters. As of January 4, the Palestinian Ministry of Health claimed a total of 22,500 dead; it does not provide a breakdown between civilians and soldiers killed. Using these figures, we find that at most there have been 13,000 civilian deaths and 9,500 combatant deaths, for a ratio of 130:95, which is far lower than 2: 1, and perhaps the lowest such civilian-to-combatant ratio in a war since such records have been kept. It is no wonder that British Colonel Richard Kemp has called the IDF “the most moral army in the world.”

So let the spectacle begin at the ICJ in The Hague. South Africa claims that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza. Israel should begin by noting how the Palestinian population of Gaza went from 410,00 to 1.3 million during the time Israel occupied the Strip. It should note, further that the Palestinian population in Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the West Bank) increased from 600,000 in 1967 to three million today. There was no “genocide” in either place. But what about now? Israel should mention how Hamas tries in increase civilian casualties among its own people, by placing its weapons, its rocket launchers, and its fighters in and around and under— in the 300-mile network of tunnels —civilian structures, in order to use its own civilians as human shields. The Israeli legal teamnat the ICJ should present the evidence of all the ways that the IDF attempts to minimize civilian deaths in Gaza: first, by warning Palestinians away from those parts of Gaza that were soon to be targeted by, for example, dropping 1.5 million leaflets in northern Gaza; second, by providing maps both in emails amd in a million leaflets dropped south of the Wadi Gaza, showing places in southern Gaza that were not going to be targeted by the IDF, places where Palestinians would be relatively safe until further notice; third, in warning Palestinians away from specific buildings, including schools, mosques, apartment and office buildings, through messaging, telephoning, and the “knock-on-the-roof” technique. Lay it all out for the august judges in solemn conclave assembled at the ICJ. Tell the justices about how the ratio of civilians-to-combatants killed by the IDF in Gaza is 130:95, or less than 2 to 1, far below what has been recorded in previous wars anywhere in the world. And let those justices hear about the wounded Hamas fighters who since the Gaza War began have been treated in Israeli hospitals, and their lives saved as a result. All of that evidence shows a clear lack of “intent” by the IDF to commit genocide, and fatally vitiates the claim, made by South Africa, that the Jewish state has been “genocidal” in its conduct of the war against Hamas killers in Gaza.

AUTHOR

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

San Francisco: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Can’t Find Enough Housing for Gay ‘Refugees’

Mark Hetfield

Mark Hetfield, President & CEO of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Ho hum!  So we are bringing refugees from the highly touted welcoming-to-all “Rainbow Nation” of South Africa, dropping them off in San Francisco and now whining about how there isn’t enough housing for them.

Maybe one of the well-paid staffers at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) might welcome this gay refugee to their home!

A long sob story at the Bay Area Reporter:

Gay_Refugee_31_LRG

Isn’t HIAS PAID to take care of the refugees it resettles? Why is San Francisco gay refugee saying this: “In the U.S. I am facing homelessness,” Mayema told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent interview. “I don’t want to end up on the streets.”

“Our biggest challenge in helping these people is to find housing for them,” said Amy Weiss, the director of refugee and immigrant services at Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay. “They come with no employment history and no housing history. San Francisco is hard enough to find housing if you have an income. It is a huge problem for us and for them and to anybody resettling refugees.”

The agency is believed to be the only one in the country that has developed a specific program to work with LGBT refugees. It began four years ago when a number of Iranian LGBT refugees, who had fled to Turkey, needed help resettling in the U.S.

Since then the agency has worked with a number of LGBT refugees, mostly gay men from Africa and the Middle East. In November Junior Mayema arrived from Capetown, South Africa, where he had fled five years ago from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Then look at this, even the UN High Commissioner for Refugees refers to the attack (the star of this story claimed he suffered) as an “alleged attack.” So, he was resettled in America even though it was never proven he was attacked in S. Africa?

UNHCR staff, after learning about Mayema’s alleged attack, referred his case for resettlement last summer. Four months later, according to the account, he was granted refugee status and, in November, arrived in the Bay Area where he received assistance from the Jewish agency and a local church-sponsored group in acclimating to his new surroundings.

And, by the way, as we admit hundreds of refugees from the supposedly welcoming country of South Africa, you can bet there are few if any persecuted white people in the group.  I wonder if a white person pretended to be gay or lesbian and said he or she was attacked, could they get in to the US from South Africa?

The sob story goes on and on, continue reading here.  It is largely a play for more taxpayer money!

Islamic State recruits in South Africa

Submitted by Jasmine Opperman –

The murderous Islamic State (Isis) is active in South Africa and has been recruiting citizens to fight in Iraq and Syria. So far, three have died fighting for the terrorist group.

Iraq’s ambassador to South Africa, Dr Hushaim al-Alawi, said on Saturday that the men’s deaths were subsequently covered up as car accidents. The trio had travelled to Syria separately.

The terror group is known for its highly publicised beheadings of foreigners and for carrying out other public executions.

Al-Alawi says he shared the information with Department of International Relations and Co-operation officials. According to a UN report, more than 15 000 people from various countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside Isis. The Sunday Independent understands that up to 140 men have left South Africa to join the group.

But Department of State Security spokesman Brian Dube said he was unaware of any South Africans joining Isis. However, he said intelligence officials would look into it.

The Syrian Embassy said it was not aware of the matter.

The Foreign Military Assistance Act, 1998 (Act No 15 1998) prohibits South African citizens from participating in the armed forces of foreign states, rendering foreign military assistance and taking part in armed groups.

Although al-Alawi said he was not aware that 140 SA citizens had allegedly joined Isis, he said there were groups operating in the country recruiting for and raising funds for Isis under the guise of humanitarian aid.

He said one of the South Africans who died fighting for Isis was recruited by two men in Joburg.

The 24-year-old had travelled with a group of young men from Azaadville and Lenasia. He is believed to have been killed in combat for Isis in October last year.

The ambassador said before the man left the county he sold all his belongings, including his car.

Al-Alawi said the man came from a wealthy background.

“He was recruited by two men in Gauteng. The group used the slogan of supporting refugees and orphans,” he said. The third victim to die in combat this year was a 26-year-old man from Vereeniging, who went to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage.

“When he got to Saudi Arabia he came in contact with a man who convinced him to travel to Syria to join Isis,” he said.

The man died fighting for Isis, but his family were told he had died in a car crash. “They always use car accidents as an excuse.”

A 54-year-old man from Cape Town had left with a group that was meant to provide humanitarian aid but then joined Isis and died while he was travelling in a convoy with the terror group.

“His body has been returned to South Africa,” said al-Alawi.

He said the group used its strong media resources to lure young men from various countries to join them.

He cited the example of a man who attended Friday prayers with a friend at a mosque in the Eastern Cape. He was shocked by the speaker’s inflammatory language. “They were saying all non-Muslim should be sent to hell,” said al-Alawi.

A spokesman for the Muslim judicial body, the Jamiatul Ulama South Africa, said: “If this is a matter of fact that so many South Africans are joining the Islamic State, there will always be concerns. There are legal implications for anyone involved in armed conflicts around the world.”

This week the African Christian Democratic Party released a statement calling on the government to investigate the allegations that elements in South Africa are “key players in facilitating funding and sending of recruits to fight alongside Isis”.

Al-Alawi said it was the obligation of all countries to raise awareness to prevent young men from joining terrorist groups.

“This is not a simple issue to deal with, but we have to bring on board government and non-government organisations to fight terrorism. I think if we do that we are likely to succeed,” said al-Alawi.

Last year South Africans were shocked when it emerged that “White Widow” Samantha Lewthwaite – believed to be the mastermind behind the terrorist attack in Kenya – had lived in a flat in Mayfair, Joburg with her three children.

International Relations spokesman Nelson Kgwete told The Sunday Independent on Saturday they were unaware of South Africans being recruited by Isis, but if the ambassador had passed on such information, it would have been relayed to security authorities.

Kgwete could not confirm whether the bodies of the dead men who were allegedly Isis recruits had been repatriated to South Africa.

“The UN Security Council recently adopted a resolution that member countries must take harsh action against citizens helping such groups. In South Africa we have laws that deal with this, and any citizens who are found to be in contravention of the laws will be dealt with.”

He said security agents would be best positioned to look into the allegations and take appropriate action.