Countering Bias and Misinformation mainly about the Arab-Israel conflict

Response by Faadiel ibn Suleiman re Palestine against the wall

HOME
MISCELLANEOUS ARTICLES
INTERNATIONAL LAW
THE SAN REMO CONFEERENCE IN CONTEXT
THE GOLDSTONE MISSION TO GAZA 2009
THE OCCUPATION
GAZA and HAMAS
1948 ARAB-ISRAEL WAR
THE SIX-DAY WAR & RESOLUTION 242
BEHAVIOR OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS
DEIR YASSIN - startling evidence
1967 & ITS CONSEQUENCES
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
WHAT SOME ARAB COMMENTATORS SAY
APARTHEID,ISRAEL & SOUTH AFRICA
LEBANON & HEZBOLLAH
HUMAN RIGHTS
ISLAMIC EXTREMISM
MEDIA DISTORTIONS
BOYCOTTS & DIVESTMENT
INCITEMENT
MEMORANDA TO UK PARLIAMENT
DOCUMENTS & ARTICLES
RECOMMENDED LINKS
THE ICJ & THE WALL
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
About Maurice Ostroff

On Jan. 30 2011 Faadiel ibn Suleiman wrote

From  emefen0@mweb.co.za
date    Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 1:35 PM
subject visitor's comment
        
        
comment: Dear Mauritz
Although Im always mildly amused by your narrow self serving views, it is not new to me. For instance,  most of the South African Zionists claim of having never supported apartheid or were an an anti-apartheid activist. Just like you who cannot see the evil that is being perpetrated in the name of all Jews. By the way I am black and was at the receiving end of Apartheid from the Fifties
When you recklessly refer to the Quran, you show your ignorance. To make things a little easier for you, here is an extract from Wikipedia.
In Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city.[6][7] It became the first Qibla, the focal point for Muslim prayer (Salah) in 610 CE,[8] and, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad made his Night Journey there ten years later.
In Arabic, Jerusalem is most commonly known as القُدس, transliterated as al-Quds and meaning "The Holy".
Islamic scriptures record that the Prophet Mughamad (PBUH) was instructed to alter/change the direction of prayer from Al Quds to Makka.

Shalom


name: Faadiel ibn Suleiman

email: emefen0@mweb.co.za

Details: The Apartheid Wal

name: Faadiel ibn Suleiman

email: emefen0@mweb.co.za

Details: The Apartheid Wall

On February  1 Maurice Ostroff replied

Dear Faadiel ibn Suleiman,

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts.

As a former anti-apartheid activist, I fully appreciate where you are coming from as a black person who endured the cruelties of apartheid.. However, I think your skepticism about anti-apartheid activities of South African Jews is unjustified.  Considering that Jews comprised only 3.1% of the White population and 0.6% of the total population,  it is doubtful that any other separate group, can boast anything approaching the proportionate number of Jews who took part in the struggle against apartheid. e.g. of the 23 Whites charged in the 1956 Treason Trial, more than half were Jews.

Jews put the Progressive party headed by Helen Suzman into parliament and where there was no Progressive Party candidate, they voted for the opposition United Party.

You are possibly too young to know about the activities of the Black Sash, the Federation of Progressive students (FOPS), the Torch commando  and the Springbok Legion in which Jews participated prominently.  The legion was probably the first mass movement of whites to take part in the South African liberation movement. Motivated by of the discrimination suffered by black soldiers in the S.A. army while on active service, it was formed during WW2  by men like  Wolfie Kodesh, Jock Isacowitz, Jack Hodgson and  Rusty Bernstein. Back in South Africa after the war Kodesh  was a member of an ANC committee organized to protect Nelson Mandela when he went underground in 1961. My friend Arthur Goldreich was an early member of Umkhonto we Sizwe.

As a front for the banned ANC, Arthur rented a house on the Lillieslief farm in Rivonia where the underground leadership of the ANC met secretly. Nelson Mandela would pose as a gardener and occasionally as Arthur's chauffeur. Mandela wrote in his autobiography how he valued Goldreich's experience as a volunteer in Israel's 1948 War of independence. Lilliesleaf is  acknowledged to be the birth place of Umkhonto we Sizwe from which the leadership planned the struggle for liberation and justice. Today it is a national museum.See http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id27.html

This is  what Nelson Mandela, wrote in Long Walk to Freedom: I have found Jews to be more broadminded than most whites on issues of race and politics, perhaps because they themselves have historically been victims of prejudice." His defence attorney, Isie Maisels, was Jewish.

With regard to Jerusalem being mentioned in the Koran, you may consider taking up the offer of $1 million by Daniel Pipes for finding "Jerusalem" in the Koran. http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2006/01/offer-1-million-for-finding-jerusalem-in-the

I admit that I am not an expert on the Quran and I note your quotation from Wikipedia with interest, though I also offer the following quotations from Wikipedia

1. "Some have claimed that the Qur'an does not identity or allude to Jerusalem as being the first qiblah and that the practise of facing        Jerusalem is only mentioned in traditional biographies of Muhammad and hadith collections" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qibla

2. "Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi is the leader of Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder and a co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, based on what Palazzi believes are the authentic teachings of Muhammad as expressed in the Qur'an and the Hadith.

Palazzi accepts Israel's sovereignty over the Holy Land, and says the Qur'an supports it as the will of God as a necessary prerequisite for the Final Judgment. He accepts Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, if the rights of other religions are protected. He quotes the Qur'an to support Judaism's special connection to the Temple Mount. According to Palazzi, "The most authoritative Islamic sources affirm the Temples,". He adds that Jerusalem is sacred to Muslims because of its prior holiness to Jews and its standing as home to the biblical prophets and kings David and Solomon, all of whom he says are sacred figures also in Islam. He claims that the Qur'an "expressly recognizes that Jerusalem plays the same role for Jews that Mecca has for Muslims". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hadi_Palazzi

While we may agree to disagree on the above points, I am sure there is much that we have in common and I would welcome exchanging ideas with you in civil discourse. As I wrote in my letter to which you replied, "let's hope that the ANC leaders' visit to Ramallah will be followed by a visit to Israel with emphasis on the positive aspects of relations between our two countries which could lend synergy to the contribution South Africa, the PA  and Israel can jointly make towards a peaceful Middle East". Israel has much to offer to south Africa as described in the article by David Kaplan at http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id50.html

Regards
Maurice Ostroff

 
 

Please enter your comments here. Thank you
Full name:
Email address:
Subject: