South Africa out of step with reality
By Allan Wolman
Brunei recently announced death by stoning for adultery and gay sex.
“Death by stoning” in this day and age?
Well not that surprising given that this is the sentence dished out by the Mullah’s of Iran to women accused – only accused, mind -and not given a fair trial even in the event of being raped by her attacker.
But it is Israel that is hauled before the court of liberal public opinion for its abuse of human rights!
It is Israel that the likes of BDS, Jews for a Just Palestine, and other so called humanitarians who find every conceivable opportunity to demonize her, be it for marking the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration or the U.S’s moving her embassy to Jerusalem and any other issue that becomes the topic of the moment that could in any way be associated with Israel!
I grew up in apartheid South Africa and well remember the degradation and humiliation of having to take the lady who worked for us and helped raise our children to the “pass office” in downtown Johannesburg to obtain that most valuable of commodities, a simple rubber stamp that would allow her to remain in Johannesburg for another year.
Something that had to be repeated annually.
There are no words to explain that humiliation and degradation – that was Apartheid. Yet Israel is labeled an apartheid state, a country where every citizen is afforded the very same right to education, healthcare, political emancipation, labor relations – in fact every aspect of life that is enjoyed by its entire population regardless of being Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or whatever faith they choose to follow.
The U.S. recently recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the territory captured by Israel in the 1967 aggressive war against Israel, but we hear calls to return this territory back to Syria, a country embroiled in a civil war that has claimed over half a million lives. One must wonder what the fate of the 20,000 Druze living in that territory would be or to be more realistic how many would survive under the Syrian regime? The irony is that those hell bent on the destruction of Israel care less for the carnage going on in the Arab world but hide behind the hackneyed term of “human rights” to justify their mission of destroying the Jewish state, which we all know reads the destruction of the Jews.
On March 31st, the President of Brazil paid an official state visit to Israel, cementing a relationship initiated a short while back by the visit to Brazil by the Israeli prime minister. Brazil, a key member of the BRICS group of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) forges close relations with Israel as do China, India and even Russia – but who is the “odd man” out from this group, no prizes for guessing.
Not only the odd man – but openly hostile to any contact with Israel – are we missing something here?
About the author
Allan Wolman is a recent immigrant to Israel from South Africa. Matriculating from Parktown Boys high School in Johannesburg, in 1967, he joined1200 young South Africans to volunteer to work on agricultural settlements in Israel during the Six Day War. After spending year in Israel, he returned to South Africa where he met and married Jocelyn Lipschitz. The couple have three sons.
Allan ran one of the oldest travel agencies in Johannesburg – Rosebank Travel which he still runs together with his son in Johannesburg.
In March 2019, Alan and his wife immigrated to Israel and live in Tel Baruch between Tel Aviv and Herzliya.
