In his latest slice of GA column, Gasant Abarder laments how the world is turning its
back on the oppressed people of Palestine in what can only be described as State-sponsored
terrorism.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
In the days after Prince Philip’s passing, I wondered if I was the only one seeing the irony at English football matches. A few minutes of silence for the departed royal with a reputation for being rather a bigot, followed shortly by players taking the knee against racism.
A few weeks later the double standards were even more breathtaking. It moved me to tweet: “Today I’m not a journalist. ‘F**k journalism’ (insert three angry emojis here).”
On Saturday morning, you see, my Twitter timeline was flooded with the happenings in East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque – one of the holiest sites for Muslims.
For those who don’t know, Israeli settlers were invading homes of Palestinian people living in the area called Sheikh Jarrah for decades with the Israeli defence force assisting by removing the furniture of the rightful owners.
In a video, one of the home invaders has an exchange with the rightful owners being kicked out. The mother of the family asks, “Why are you stealing our home?” He glibly responds, “Well if I don’t, someone else will.”
The last Friday of Ramadan is marked as Quds Day and it’s a commemoration of the illegal occupation of Palestine. Hundreds of worshippers, including children, gathered inside and outside the sacred Al-Aqsa mosque for special evening Ramadan prayers. I couldn’t believe my eyes as Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades, teargas and metal coated rubber bullets at them. It was all captured on video.
Then, with their filthy boots, the soldiers stormed the mosque to attack worshippers inside – again captured on video. About 200 people were injured, some lost their eyes, and an image not dissimilar to the George Floyd “I can’t breathe” image was disseminated on the social media platform. An Israeli soldier with his boot on the back of the neck of a Palestinian man.
More video emerged later of Israeli forces storming hospitals where the Palestinian wounded were being treated.
My emphasis on video? I scanned all the major TV news networks, including the local ones, for any news on the incidents and some context. I got that context from journalists on Twitter who had verified accounts.
Only Al-Jazeera was running the attacks at Al-Aqsa and the illegal home invasions as their lead story. Their language was problematic because these weren’t clashes, they were unprovoked attacks on peaceful worshippers. And they weren’t evictions either; these were people effectively having their homes stolen.
Later, the news network corrected its language.
So, with all this available video, I could have cut a news piece from my living room. But the TV networks didn’t have a peep about what can only be regarded as a crime against humanity and state sponsored terrorism. Later there were a few tweets, speaking of clashes.
It reminded me of the Prince Philip moment before taking the knee and the double standards in the media that led to my tweet. But It’s not only the media that is complicit.
The Arab world is turning a blind eye, the same way they ignored Saudi Arabia’s obliteration of Yemen. Or atrocities in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other Arab nations.
The West, represented by the UN, seems to have no problem either. It says nothing about France persecuting Muslims in the same way that apartheid continues against Aboriginal people unabated. Ethnic cleansing using US funding is fine – as long as it doesn’t affect the status quo or America can profit from it.
Last Thursday evening, I was privileged to attend an event for the breaking of the fast with President Cyril Ramaphosa as a special guest. He prayed with the congregation for the sunset prayers. He spoke warmly about the role of Muslim Struggle heroes who gave their lives for our freedom and how he wished he could transfer the spirit of Ramadan of charity, solidarity, unity and peace to the rest of our society.
Then he spoke about his government’s continuing support for the people of Palestine. Since then, he has been true to his word, condemning the attacks on the sacred sites.
Mr President, you showed your breaking of the fast with me wasn’t just a PR exercise ahead of an election and that you were not just paying lip service to the audience.
The only thing louder than the stun grenades and gunfire is the deafening silence of the so-called civilised world. The world has turned its back on Palestine just like many nations did during apartheid South Africa.
The world’s leaders can learn from our president.