Four Dutch NGO's - including the local branch of Oxfam - are laying off significant portions of their staff. But note where their activities are being cut back: In countries like Sudan and Rwanda where such activities are critical. Note where they're not being cut back: In 'Palestine' or 'Palestinian territories' where they're more political advocacy than humanitarian (Hat Tip: Mike P).
Minister Lilianne Ploumen of Foreign Trade and Development
Cooperation announced the cuts earlier this year. From January 1st 2016
the development aid organizations will be losing more than 80 percent of
their government subsidy, going from about 50 million euros per year to
between 7 and 15 million euros per year.
The Minister wants to limit subsidies to initiatives that helps
people in third world countries defend their rights – something she
calls “lobbying and advocacy”. She therefore largely stopped the subsidy
for normal development, such as helping small farmers in Africa break
into the local market. She called the cuts “painful”. But according to
Ploumen, the world has changed and the importance of official
development funds for the development of a country is decreasing. “It is
also no longer the only funding stream”, she said when she presented
the new policy, according to the Volkskrant. “Businesses now contribute
in many ways. The concept of development aid will eventually disappear.”
This translates into layoffs for the four large development aid
organizations. Hivos will be laying off 50 of its 145 employees at the
Dutch office, Oxfam Novib will be laying off about 75 of its 325,
Cordaid 69 of its 250 and Icco will lose 175 of its 350 employees. The
organizations will also stop funding to projects all over the world next
year. Hivos will be withdrawing support from, among others, a project
to stop female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan – a project that is
internationally regarded as successful. Icco is withdrawing from South
Africa, Colombia, Peru and Brazil. Oxfam Novib is stopping all
initiatives in Bangladesh, Rwanda, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
According to the four development aid organizations, focusing only on
lobbying and advocacy is a risky strategy. “You only have legitimacy to
lobby and advocate for something if you’re already active in the
place”, Marinus Verweij, director of Icco, said to the Volkskrant.
“Otherwise it is not credible.”
A senior official in Jerusalem said that the reason that the
minister's visa request was turned down was because he intended to pass
through Ben-Gurion International Airport for the purposes of visiting
the Palestinian Authority, rather than visiting Israel.
Another reason, the official said, was Nzimande's radically anti-Israel stance.
Nzimande is a communist who serves in the South
African parliament as a member of the ANC coalition. In the past he has
supported an academic boycott against Israel and on one occasion he
demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Pretoria.
Nzimande was invited to Ramallah by his Palestinian
counterpart to promote research collaboration between the University of
Johannesburg and Palestinian institutions in Palestine. He was due to
be there from April 25 – 29.
The minister responded harshly to the decision not
to give him a visa. "The Israeli government is trying to use all the
means at its disposal to hide its atrocities against the Palestinians
and to ensure that only the smallest number of people see what is really
happening in the land under its control," he told the South African
media.
Nzimande added that he would call on all higher
education institutions in his country to immediately freeze their
contacts with Israeli universities.
At this stage, Nzimande has not received the
support of South African President Jacob Zuma or that country's foreign
ministry. Until now, no government minister has come to his defense.
But the South African Communist party came to Nzimande's defense and that drew a strong reaction from Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
“The wild attacks by the South African Community Party against Israel
following our refusal to allow the higher education minister to pass
through Israel en route to the Palestinian Authority is hypocrisy,”
Liberman said.
“It was only a few days ago that a violent, racist
attack was perpetrated against foreigners in Johannesburg,” the foreign
minister said. “There was also vandalism and destruction of property.
The end result was many deaths and wounded.”
“As part of the
rioting, South African police fired rubber-coated bullets and stun
grenades at other migrants from neighboring African countries,” Liberman
said. “These events and others prove once again that South Africa
remains a country with serious problems of racism and violence.”
“That’s
why it would behoove the South African government and the Communist
Party to stop preaching morality and attacking Israel, which is a great
democracy that is exceptionally coping with threats and terrorist
elements while making maximal effort to preserve human rights and
international norms of behavior.”
If South Africa was forced to
contend with Israel’s security predicament, “blood would be awash in the
streets there,” Liberman said.
“In this light, it’s no surprise
that the Communist Party prefers the Palestinians over Israel,” he
said. “It is a case of like attracting like.”
I can think of some other politicians who think the same way as Nzimande. One of them is the President of the United States. But as I have said many times, no country is obligated to allow unfettered access to its borders. Certainly not Israel.
Spanning a period from 2006 until December 2014, they include
detailed briefings and internal analyses written by operatives of South
Africa's State Security Agency (SSA). They also reveal the South
Africans' secret correspondence with the US intelligence agency, the
CIA, Britain's MI6, Israel's Mossad, Russia's FSB and Iran's operatives,
as well as dozens of other services from Asia to the Middle East and
Africa.
The files unveil details of how, as the post-apartheid South African
state grappled with the challenges of forging new security services, the
country became vulnerable to foreign espionage and inundated with
warnings related to the US "War on Terror".
Israel Apartheid Week 2014 is based on a lie. The true reason behind it is hatred for Jews
Kennith Meshoe, a member of the South African Parliament and a man who
suffered through the true apartheid of South Africa speaks about the
false claim of Israeli apartheid. Kennith Meshoe exposes the false lie
and fraudulent narrative that Israel is an apartheid state.
In
Israel Arab, Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists, can
live in freedom compared to most Muslim countries in the Middle East
and majority Moslem countries. Gays and Lesbians are free to live their
lives in Israel, while in majority Muslim countries are either killed or
imprisoned.
The real reason there are attacks on Israel is
based on anti-Jewish hatred. The Palestinian leaders during World War II
were backers of Hitler and the Nazi movement of Germany.
In
Muslim countries they treat people practicing Christianity, atheism,
Buddhism, Judaism, or Hinduism like second class citizens without any
rights...why aren't people in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United
States protesting those countries. In fact in some Muslim countries
slavery is still practiced.
No, this post is not about Jimmy Carter or Barack Hussein Obama. It's about their good friend Desmond Tutu, who once again proves that his unbridled hate of Israel and Jews overcomes anything - including supporting his own people.
"I have witnessed the systemic humiliation of Palestinian men, women
and children by members of the Israeli security forces," he said in a
statement. "Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans
who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the
security forces of the apartheid government."
The former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town made the statement as the 10th annual Israel Apartheid Week
opened Sunday in South Africa. The initiative, part of the
international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement’s campaign
against Israel, is being marked in 87 cities this year. Tutu visited
Israel in 1989.
International pressure similar to the BDS movement led to the end of apartheid in South Africa, the statement said.
"In
South Africa, we could not have achieved our democracy without the help
of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means,
such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other
corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the apartheid
regime.
The same issues of inequality and injustice today motivate
the divestment movement trying to end Israel's decades long occupation
of Palestinian territory and the unfair and prejudicial treatment of the
Palestinian people by the Israeli government ruling over them."
Tutu,
who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for standing up against
white-minority rule in South Africa, added that people who don't act
against injustice are complicit in it.
''Those who turn a blind
eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in
situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor," he
said. "It doesn't matter where we worship or live. We are members of one
family, the human family, God's family."
Tutu has apparently forgotten what real apartheid is like. Let's remind him. Recall that I linked to a post from a South African blog here. Here's some of what Steve - who grew up with it - had to say about apartheid:
There
were two components to Apartheid – grand apartheid with its goal of
political separation, and petty apartheid which sought to segregate
whites from non whites. Both components were equally important and
intertwined for one could not succeed without the other.
Grand
apartheid was to be achieved by creating separate political realities
for whites and non whites. This was done by revoking the citizenship
from non-white South Africans reducing the ‘legal’ population of South
Africa so that the whites would be the demographic majority. Homelands
called Bantustans were created and these were eventually to become
separate independent states. Blacks were to either be physically moved
into these homelands, or nationally tied to them (i.e. they would become
a citizen of the homeland that they might have never set foot in; and
not a citizen of South Africa). Naturally, even blacks that were not yet
assigned a Bantustan, were denied suffrage (i.e. they were denied the
right to vote).
Legislation was passed to legally separate blacks
from whites in all aspects of daily life. The separate public amenities
act ruled that blacks and whites would receive separate public
services. Blacks and whites were to have separate education, medical
care, transport and beaches. The legislation even pervaded to the use of
parks – blacks could not sit on the same benches as whites and they
could not even use the same water fountains used by whites.
Laws
were also passed prohibiting blacks and whites from having sexual
relations. This was policed to the extent that a white could be
incarcerated for allowing a black of the opposite sex to sit on the
front seat in their car.
Apartheid ensured the domination by a
white minority over a black majority in every apsect of their daily
lives. Blacks could not participate in the political process, they were
forced to study in languages selected by the government and their
education was geared towards making them useful labourers for their
white ‘bosses’.
It is thus easy to see that Israel is not an
apartheid state. All citizens of Israel (whether Muslim or Jewish, Arab
or European) have equality before the law. There is nothing close to
resembling the separate provision of amenities – Muslims and Jews use
the same hospitals, Muslims and Jews use the same public transport,
Muslims and Jews all vote in Israeli elections, Muslims and Jews can run
for election etc etc. Muslims in Israel can choose to study in the
language of their preference and Arabic is even one of the national
languages of Israel. In apartheid South Africa, although blacks made up
over 80% of the population, not a single African language was recognised
by the state.
Tutu is cheapening what his own people endured out of hatred for Jews and Israel. He went through the entire experience of apartheid and learned nothing.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation can confirm that it has not located any
evidence in Nelson Mandela's private archive (which includes his 1962
diary and notebook) that he interacted with an Israeli operative during
his tour of African countries in that year. Both the diary and the
notebook were used as evidence against him in the 1963-1964 Rivonia
Trial for sabotage.
In 1962 Mr Mandela received military training from Algerian freedom
fighters in Morocco and from the Ethiopian Riot Battalion at Kolfe
outside Addis Ababa, before returning to South Africa in July 1962. In
2009 the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s senior researcher travelled to
Ethiopia and interviewed the surviving men who assisted in Mandela’s
training – no evidence emerged of an Israeli connection.
But the Haaretz report was based on a letter in Israel's state archives, which would not be in Mandela's diary, and there was good reason to keep the training secret and to ask Mandela to keep it secret: So as not to endanger South Africa's large Jewish community.
Mandela received weapons training from Mossad agents in Ethiopia
Haaretz reports that Mossad agents in Ethiopia gave weapons training to Nelson Mandela and tried to turn him into a Zionist. The training took place in 1962, before he was arrested by the apartheid regime in South Africa.
These revelations are from a document in the Israel State Archives
labeled “Top Secret.” The existence of the document is revealed here for
the first time.
It also emerges that the Mossad operatives attempted to encourage Zionist sympathies in Mandela.
Mandela,
the father of the new South Africa and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
led the struggle against apartheid in his country from the 1950s. He was
arrested, tried and released a number of times before going underground
in the early 1960s. In January 1962, he secretly and illegally fled
South Africa and visited various African countries, including Ethiopia,
Algeria, Egypt and Ghana. His goal was to meet with the leaders of
African countries and garner financial and military support for the
armed wing of the underground African National Congress.
A
letter sent from the Mossad to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem
reveals that Mandela underwent military training by Mossad operatives in
Ethiopia during this period. These operatives were unaware of Mandela’s
true identity. The letter, classified top secret, was dated October 11,
1962 – about two months after Mandela was arrested in South Africa,
shortly after his return to the country.
The
Mossad sent the letter to three recipients: the head of the Africa Desk
at the Foreign Ministry, Netanel Lorch, who went on to become the third
Knesset secretary; Maj. Gen. Aharon Remez, head of the ministry’s
department of international cooperation and the first Israel Air Force
commander; and Shmuel Dibon, Israel’s ambassador to Ethiopia between
1962 and 1966 and former head of the Middle East desk at the Ministry.
The
subject line of the letter was “the Black Pimpernel,” in English, the
term the South African media was already using for Mandela. It was based
on the Scarlet Pimpernel, the nom de guerre of the hero of
Baroness Emma Orczy’s early 20th century novel, who saved French
noblemen from the guillotine during the French Revolution.
No good deed goes unpunished: South Africans boo Bush, cheer Obama
George W. Bush was booed in South Africa on Tuesday, while Barack Hussein Obama was wildly cheered. Given the facts, the only explanation I have for that contrast is racism. What a shock....
Former President George W. Bush was booed when he appeared on the
video monitor at today’s memorial for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg,
South Africa, according to the White House pool report, which cited
local press outlets.
Meanwhile, when the images President Obama and Michelle popped up, there was a 30-second “deafening roar,” the pooler wrote.
How
sad. Bush has done an far greater amount for South Africa than Obama.
But Obama is much better at crafting his public image and saying the
right things.
Bush personally saved the lives of millions of South
Africans with his President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or
PEPFAR, ensuring AIDS drugs are available to South Africa’s impoverished
masses.
From a Washington Post piece describing how Bush’s achievements were haunting Obama’s June trip to South Africa:
In
South Africa, the success ( of PEPFAR) was extraordinary. AIDS killed
roughly 2.3 million in South Africa — once one of the worst-affected
countries in the world — and orphaned about a million children there,
according to the United Nations. Today, rates of infection have fallen
to 30 percent, and nearly 2 million people are on antiretroviral drugs.
Meanwhile, Obama has cut PEPFAR funding and generally been his customary inattentive self. From the same Post piece:
AIDS
advocates on Sunday said that Obama administration budget cuts that
have slashed hundreds of millions of dollars from PEPFAR threaten to
turn back years of progress in the fight against the AIDS epidemic. Last
year, the administration unveiled a budget that reduces AIDS funding
globally by roughly $214 million, the first time an American president
has reduced the U.S. commitment to fighting the epidemic since it broke
out in the 1980s during the Reagan administration.
It was a moment of high symbolism. More than 50 years after the Cuban
Revolution, the United States and Cuba still do not have diplomatic
relations. The President has eased some of the economic embargo and
travel restrictions that the administration of President George W. Bush
strongly enforced, but relations still are tense. Cuba continues to
imprison an American citizen, Alan Gross, who was arrested in 2009 on
charges of attempting to destabilize the Cuban government.
Obama knew, of course, that Castro would be on stage. But refusing to
shake Castro's hand would not have been in keeping with Mandela's
legacy of reconciliation. And it was not the first handshake between
American-Cuban leaders. In 2000, at the United Nations, then-President
Bill Clinton shook hands with Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban
Revolution, its first revolutionary president, and Raul's brother.
Obama says he wants to improve relations with Cuba, but disagreements
over human rights violations and other issues continue to keep the
countries apart.
The handshake came before Obama's speech, in which he made remarks about reconciliation.
Somehow, I think Ronald Reagan would have avoided that handshake. And somehow, if Netanyahu or Peres had shown up, I can think of a lot of 'world leaders' who would have avoided shaking their hands.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is being criticized here in Israel for saying it was too expensive for him to fly to South Africa for Nelson Mandela's funeral. The number I heard bandied about was $7 million, and that iss a lot of money.
On Israel Radio this morning, they interviewed a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, who said that while protocol would call for Netanyahu to go, the reality is that support for the 'Palestinians' is a domestic - rather than foreign - policy issue in South Africa, that there is no hope of it changing, and that if Netanyahu showed up, he would be be treated to all the proper protocol by a country that is just going through the motions.
President Barack Obama’s expected 10-minute speech at Nelson
Mandela’s memorial will cost taxpayers at least $500,000 per minute.
That’s not counting any cakes and coffee he and his inner circle
consume aboard Air Force One during the 18,000-mile round trip to
Johannesburg, via Dakar, in Senegal.
The 28-hour two-way flight will cost $5 million because the
four-engined Boeing 747 costs roughly $180,000 an hour to operate,
according to a May 2012 report by the Congressional Research Service.
The cost includes jet fuel and subsequent maintenance of the aircraft’s engines, electronics and hotel-class facilities.
Obama has been accompanied by the First Lady, Attorney General Eric
Holder, national security advisor Susan Rice and confidante Valerie
Jarrett.
However, Obama will get numerous free mementoes of his trip ,
including photographs of him telling the world’s dignitaries his
personal feelings Mandela’s legacy and how it affected his own
world-historic life.
Read the whole thing. I'm happy Netanyahu didn't go. Can't wait to see how much of Obama's 'eulogy' is about himself.
By the way, are there no whites in the Obama administration who would have been interested in going? Joe Biden was otherwise engaged?
The US is sending its president and two former presidents to
anti-apartheid hero and former South African president Nelson Mandela's
funeral Tuesday. The UK and France sent its prime ministers, as did
another 88 countries. Oprah and the Dalai Lama were set to attend.
Israel, however, came close to sending no one, in an awkward diplomatic
situation that developed throughout Monday.
In the end, Knesset
Speaker Yuli Edelstein will fly to the funeral, along with the first
female Ethiopian MK Pnina Tamano-Shata (Yesh Atid), as well as MKs Dov
Lipman (Yesh Atid), Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), Gila Gamliel (Likud
Beytenu) and Hilik Bar (Labor).
Edelstein, a former prisoner of
Zion in the USSR, said he's "happy that in the end Israel has
representation at this important event. As a former prisoner of
conscience, I had the privilege of meeting Mandela as a minister in
1996, and we shared experiences from prison and the fight for our
rights. This is a sort of closure for me."
But even this delegation almost didn't make it.
The Israel Security Agency (Shabak) was concerned about Netanyahu or
Peres visiting South Africa, because of overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian
sentiment in the country.
Next in line to visit was Edelstein, who put together a group of MKs to join him.
However,
the final decision was delayed for hours. First, because of
difficulties finding a free plane. Then, it was unclear that an Israeli
plane would be able to land, due to high air traffic.
Eventually,
three hours before the Knesset delegation was supposed to fly,
Edelstein closed the deal, even reducing the price of renting a small
plane from NIS 2 million to NIS 350,000.
It will be interesting to see what kind of reception the Israeli delegation gets....
Israel Radio just reported (2:00 pm) that President Shimon Peres will not attend South African President Nelson Mandela's funeral. According to Israel Radio, Peres has the flu. Do you believe that? I can think of someotherreasons why Israeli dignitaries would not want to attend the funeral.
On Sunday night, it was reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu would not attend Mandela's funeral due to the high cost of security. Yeah, right....
Let's face it: Mandela was no friend of Israel and there is no reason the Israeli government needs to be represented at his funeral. Maybe we can send MK Ahmed Tibi. But only if they will keep him there.
BREAKING: Israeli PM @netanyahu cancels attendance at #Mandela's funeral because of high cost of travel arrangements (NIS million)
— i24news_EN (@i24news_EN) December 8, 2013
Video: Esther Meshoe, South African leader's daughter dispels libels of Israel as apartheid
Esther Meshoe, daughter of conservative South African parliamentarian,
Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, refutes false allegations of apartheidism on the
part of Israel.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
