In his propagandistic message to South Africa on 29 October 2013, timed to coincide with Ahmed Katrada’s inventive and spurious, but hardly original campaign to have him released, Marwan Barghouthi writes,” Freedom is not negotiable”, referring to his imprisoned self and fellow terrorists, but the murder of Israelis and Jews obviously is. To be sentenced to five life sentences plus forty years is hardly something to be easily dismissed and forgotten.
Whether he exerts great influence in Fatah from within prison is meaningless and propagandistic hokus pokus and theory espoused by his friends and the ever discombobulated left. It also continues to show the dearth on decent leadership, or any leadership, within the Palestinian body politic, or for that matter, its ability to emerge.
I often wonder how Yossi Beilin, a former MK and one of the main architects of the Oslo Agreement and an advocate for Barghouthi’s release, would feel if he lost a near and dear relative, a wife or a child, to one of Braghouthi’s murderous actions and whether he would still be so keen to see him released on some unproven assumption that he would be a “good” leader and unite the Palestinians and then make peace with Israel and we would live happily ever after. Only in fairy tales and I long ago in my extreme youth gave up believing fairy tales.
The claim of Barghouthi being the Palestinian “Mandela” is absolute nonsense and it is interesting that Ahmed Kathrada, a friend and colleague of Mandela, is so easily prepared to abuse and subvert Mandela’s history and image for the benefit of his co-religionists, a murderer and acknowledged terrorist. That he and his fellow travellers are prepared to devalue the Apartheid struggle for their own ends and to hell with truth and logic.
According to The Jerusalem Post, “unlike many in the Western media, Palestinian journalists and writers have rarely – if ever – referred to Barghouthi as…the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela”. Telling, isn’t it.
The Media Review Network based in Pretoria is a Saudi Arabian funded propaganda unit and, as to be expected, has come out in support of Kathrada’s campaign. Saudi Arabia a few years ago gave them US$20 million to buy a building in Pretoria and set up a propaganda unit and it is anyone’s educated guess what other uses the money has been and can be put to.
“Marwan Barghouti, is NOT a political prisoner, he is a terrorist who willfully targeted and murdered innocent civilians. He did NOT target military posts, he targeted people at their most vulnerable, in coffee shops, family celebrations, on buses and on shopping streets. The fact that Palestinians hold a man of this ilk up as a hero is one thing, that so called “people of conscience” like Tutu hold these terrorists in that light is another
“Marwan Barghouti was arrested by the IDF in April 2002. He was at the time, head of the Fatah supreme committee in the West Bank and leader of the military wing of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, which between September 2000 – April 2002 carried out thousands of terror attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings.
“The following are some of the more heinous terror attacks for which Marwan Barghouti is responsible:
- Jun 12, 2001 – The murder of a Greek Orthodox monk on the road to Ma’ale Adumim.
- Jan 17, 2002 – The shooting attack during a bat mitzva celebration at a banquet hall in Hadera, Israel. Six Israelis were killed in this attack, 26 were injured.
- Jan 22, 2002 – The shooting spree on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem. Two Israelis were killed, 37 wounded.
- Feb 25, 2002 – The shooting attack in the Jerusalem residential neighborhood of Neve Ya’acov. One Israeli policewoman was killed, 9 Israelis were wounded.
- Feb 27, 2002 – The murder of an Israeli at a coffee factory in the Atarot industrial zone of Jerusalem.
- Feb 27, 2002 – The suicide attack perpetrated by Daryan Abu Aysha at the Maccabim checkpoint in which two policeman were injured.
- March 5, 2002 – The shooting spree at the Tel Aviv Seafood restaurant. Three Israelis were killed, 31 wounded.
- March 27, 2002 – Caught smuggling weapons and bombs in an ambulance into his Terror stronghold in Ramallah, West Bank”. (http://www.news24.com/mynews24/tutu-again-supporting-terrorists-20131028?mobile=true)
In 1994 and 1995, Kathrada was elected as chairperson of the Robben Island Council. Currently, he still serves as the chairperson of the Robben Island Museum Council, hence his access to abusing the “shrine” of Nelson Mandela’s prison cell for his latest nefarious project.
Of course we can expect Kathrada and Co to try and garner as much publicity as possible for their cause. Whilst the title of this piece is partly designed to be humorous, it can also be seen as a warning that we, the South African Jewish community, will possibly and probably face a barrage of publicity and propaganda.
The whole fury and might of Israel, humanity and civilisation’s enemies is turned on us and Kathrada is part of this. The Arabs and Islam have tried to break us in our land and this war is continuous in many forms and this is just the latest salvo.
Because Israel stands up to this the world is free. If we and Israel fail, then the whole world, including the United States and Europe, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.
This is a war of peoples and of causes. This is a war of unknown warriors like ourselves. Let us steel ourselves to our duties and our beliefs and not be afraid to fight for our right, for what is right and for Israel’s right to exist.
Let us publicise these facts as far and wide as possible and send Ahmed Kathrada and his fellow travellers a clear message that we will not allow him to propagate lies and hate and abuse South Africa’s history, even if he did play a role in it. South Africa belongs to us as much as it does to Kathrada and ever other citizen. If we do so diligently and consistently, the dark curse of Islam and Israel’s enemies will be lifted from our age.
