There’s a problem when pro-Palestinian editors start adding terms like “apartheid regime” and “settler colonialism“ which don’t have a formal academic definition. Then the other side can fairly claim they’re pushing personal opinions.
It’s tough to maintain academic detachment when writing about an ongoing genocide.
A Gauteng government official, Velaphi Khumalo, stated on Facebook “White people in South Africa deserve to be hacked and killed like Jews. [You] have the same venom. Look at Palestine. [You] must be [burnt] alive and skinned and your [offspring] used as garden fertiliser”. A complaint was lodged at the Human Rights Commission, and a charge of crimen injuria was laid at the Equality Court. In October 2018, he was found guilty of hate speech by the court, for which he was ordered to issue an apology.
And:
After 76-year-old white professor Cobus Naude was murdered in 2018, black senior SANDF officer Major M.V. Mohlala posted a comment on Facebook in reaction to Naude’s murder, stating “It is your turn now, white people… [he] should have had his eyes and tongue cut out so that the faces of his attackers would be the last thing he sees”
These are prominent community members calling for overt violence against the white minority, and they merely get a slap on the wrist.
It’s not just white minorities:
In 2015, Phumlani Mfeka, a KwaZulu-Natal businessman and the spokesman for the radical Mazibuye African Forum, tweeted “A good Indian is a dead Indian”. He published a letter in the city press claiming that South Africans of Indian origin have no right to citizenship or property in South Africa. Mfeka also claimed there is a “ticking time bomb of a deadly confrontation” between Africans and Indians in KwaZulu-Natal. The South African court barred him from making anti-Indian remarks in November 2015.
There’s also racism directly against Jewish people:
In 2009, South Africa’s deputy foreign minister, Fatima Hajaig, claimed that “Jewish money controls America and most Western countries.” Her comments prompted criticism by Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and a reported “dressing down” by President Kgalema Motlanthe.>She subsequently apologized on two occasions for her remarks.
In 2013, ANC Western Cape leader Marius Fransman claimed 98% of land and property owners in Cape Town are “white” and “Jewish.” The allegation turned out to be false.
So I really don’t trust a country’s statements on racism when there’s such systemic racism throughout the community and government. They are hardly an authority and certainly don’t have the moral high ground.
I’ll instead trust disinterested parties’ opinions on the matter, along with the relevant facts.
There’s a problem when pro-Palestinian editors start adding terms like “apartheid regime” and “settler colonialism“ which don’t have a formal academic definition. Then the other side can fairly claim they’re pushing personal opinions.
It’s tough to maintain academic detachment when writing about an ongoing genocide.
Apartheid does have a definition, though.
Sure, but what is an “apartheid regime”?
I mean I know what it is, but can you cite reliable sources to meet Wikipedia’s standard under this sort of scrutiny? Sounds difficult.
Fine, then let’s rephrase it as “Israel subjects Palestinians to Apartheid”, which is just a fact and there’s really no way to get around it.
When South Africa calls it an apartheid, it’s probably an apartheid
Either that or posturing. South Africa has its fair share of skeletons in its closet.
It’s not a skeleton in their closet, they had an apartheid so are fully qualified to call other states apartheid.
What I’m saying is they swapped apartheid for a lot of racism and racially backed violence. Check out this Wikipedia article:
And:
These are prominent community members calling for overt violence against the white minority, and they merely get a slap on the wrist.
It’s not just white minorities:
There’s also racism directly against Jewish people:
So I really don’t trust a country’s statements on racism when there’s such systemic racism throughout the community and government. They are hardly an authority and certainly don’t have the moral high ground.
I’ll instead trust disinterested parties’ opinions on the matter, along with the relevant facts.