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'My people's suffering under apartheid used to criminalize Israel' - South African activist
Christian pro-Israel activist Olga Meshoe Washington defended Israel ahead of a UNHRC debate on the final presentation of a report investigating Israel.
GENEVA – The suffering of blacks in South Africa under its apartheid regime has become an antisemitic tool by which to delegitimize Israel, Christian pro-Israel activist and Johannesburg native Olga Meshoe Washington said on Monday.
“My people’s history and experience is being used as an antisemitic tool to politically, morally and with incredible pretzel-like twisting and legal gymnastics, legally delegitimize Israel with the hope to criminalize her.”
Washington was speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, as an event hosted by the NGO UN Watch. The gathering was held in advance of a UN Human Rights Council debate on the first presentation of what will be an annual report by the UN’s three-member “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem and Israel,” otherwise known as the COI on Israel.
The initial 18-page report explained that the COI on Israel blames Israel for the conflict with the Palestinians, and insists that Israel has no intention of ending its oppressive systematic “occupation.” The COI also spoke of its intention to investigate issues of discrimination against Arab-Israelis living within Israel’s sovereign borders. The COI is headed by former UN high commissioner for human rights Navanethem (“Navi”) Pillay.
Yoseph Haddad. (credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF) Yoseph Haddad. (credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)
--snip--
Washington told the audience that the situation in Israel was incomparable to that of South Africa, so much so that a new definite of apartheid had been created to allow for what was a decades-old “lie” first conceived by Soviet and Arab propaganda to be leveled against Israel.
THIS DISSOCIATION is troubling, said Washington, who is the executive director of the pro-Israel South African NGO DEISI (Defend, Embrace, Invest in, Support Israel) International.
"It trivializes the humiliation and injustices endured by black South Africans who lived through apartheid and how still, together with their descendants, bear the scars of its legacy."
Olga Meshoe Washington
“It trivializes the humiliation and injustices endured by black South Africans who lived through apartheid and now still, together with their descendants, bear the scars of its legacy,” she explained.
“It erases the very real, very livid experience of the brutality of apartheid, a reality that includes mothers who to this day do not know what happened to their children, and millions of black South Africans who had to flee their country and live in exile under fear of persecution purely because of the color of their skin,” Washington said.
“My people’s history and experience is being used as an antisemitic tool to politically, morally and with incredible pretzel-like twisting and legal gymnastics, legally delegitimize Israel with the hope to criminalize her.”
Washington was speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, as an event hosted by the NGO UN Watch. The gathering was held in advance of a UN Human Rights Council debate on the first presentation of what will be an annual report by the UN’s three-member “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem and Israel,” otherwise known as the COI on Israel.
The initial 18-page report explained that the COI on Israel blames Israel for the conflict with the Palestinians, and insists that Israel has no intention of ending its oppressive systematic “occupation.” The COI also spoke of its intention to investigate issues of discrimination against Arab-Israelis living within Israel’s sovereign borders. The COI is headed by former UN high commissioner for human rights Navanethem (“Navi”) Pillay.
Yoseph Haddad. (credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF) Yoseph Haddad. (credit: TOVAH LAZAROFF)
--snip--
Washington told the audience that the situation in Israel was incomparable to that of South Africa, so much so that a new definite of apartheid had been created to allow for what was a decades-old “lie” first conceived by Soviet and Arab propaganda to be leveled against Israel.
THIS DISSOCIATION is troubling, said Washington, who is the executive director of the pro-Israel South African NGO DEISI (Defend, Embrace, Invest in, Support Israel) International.
"It trivializes the humiliation and injustices endured by black South Africans who lived through apartheid and how still, together with their descendants, bear the scars of its legacy."
Olga Meshoe Washington
“It trivializes the humiliation and injustices endured by black South Africans who lived through apartheid and now still, together with their descendants, bear the scars of its legacy,” she explained.
“It erases the very real, very livid experience of the brutality of apartheid, a reality that includes mothers who to this day do not know what happened to their children, and millions of black South Africans who had to flee their country and live in exile under fear of persecution purely because of the color of their skin,” Washington said.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-709295
