Ray Cook - As I See It

Israel, Zionism and the Media

Page 43 of 46

Clerical error

11/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

images73The Arab and Muslim world is awash with anti-Semitism. Some times it is blatant, sometimes it is in the guise of anti-Zionism. Sometimes it’s just plain ludicrous.

A video on the MEMRI website has been posted which shows an Egyptian cleric railing against Starbucks. This time the canard that Starbucks gave money to Israel and/or the Israeli Army is avoided. Instead Safwat Higazi concentrates on the Jewish symbolism of the Starbucks logo. Yes, you read correctly. Now read on.

Apparently the logo depicts Queen Esther.

This queen is the queen of the Jews. She is mentioned in the Torah, in the Book of Esther. The girl you see is Esther, the queen of the Jews in Persia.

the MEMRI video translates. He goes on to urge good Muslims to boycott the Starbucks stores in the Middle-East.  After a complete misrepresentation of the Purim story, which he has clearly never read, thence to the peroration:

We Want Starbucks To Be Shut Down Throughout The Arab And Islamic World… Can you believe that in Mecca, Al-Madina, Cairo, Damascus, Kuwait, and all over the Islamic world there hangs the picture of beautiful Queen Esther, with a crown on her head, and we buy her products?

What do you notice about this story? Israel is not mentioned at all. It’s a rant against Jews. Why should this man be stirring up trouble without grounds (all puns intended, by the way)?

For some time rumours have been spread that Starbucks gave money to Israel and the IDF.  This is denied on the Starbucks website:

Is it true that Starbucks provides financial support to Israel?

No. This is absolutely untrue. Rumors that Starbucks Coffee Company provides financial support to the Israeli government and/or the Israeli Army are unequivocally false. Starbucks is a publicly held company and as such, is required to disclose any corporate giving each year through a proxy statement. In addition, articles in the London Telegraph (U.K.), New Straits Times (Malaysia), and Spiked (online) provide an outside perspective on these false rumors.

 Has Starbucks ever sent any of its profits to the Israeli government and/or Israeli army?

No. This is absolutely untrue.

 Is it true that Starbucks is teaming with other American corporations to send their last several weeks of profits to the Israeli government and/or the Israeli Army?

No. This is absolutely untrue.

Clearly Mr Higazi has heard these rumours and presumably he has also heard the ones about the Jews being responsible for 9/11, World Wars I and II, global warming and the tooth fairy.

Anti-Semites will find whatever fuel they can to stoke their own prejudices. Please observe that this is a rant against Jews, so any pretence of anti-Zionism can go straight out of the window.

Anti-Semitism is rife in Egypt. Almost a national obsession. On the streets of Cairo you can easily find a copy of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion which is a best seller. Blood libels against the Jews abound. And all this is a nation that is Israel’s ‘peace partner’. Who knows to what extent this trash is believed in Egypt where there is a current battle between Islamists and the existing regime and political status quo. Mubarak’s government isn’t exactly a Western democracy but at least it provides some sort of stability and resistance to Jihadis.

But what about poor Queen Esther?  Well, the current logo has moved on since the early days when the nature of the Queen Esther figure was a little more obvious. Wikipedia tells us:

Valerie O’Neil, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said that the logo is an image of a “twin-tailed siren” (the siren of Greek mythology).[25] The logo has been significantly streamlined over the years. In the first version, which gave the impression of an authentic 15th century European woodcut, the Starbucks siren was topless and had a fully visible double fish tail. The image also had a rough visual texture. In the second version, which was used from 1987-92, her breasts were covered by her flowing hair, but her navel was still visible, and the fish tail was cropped slightly. In the current version, used since 1992, her navel and breasts are not visible at all, and only vestiges remain of the fish tails.

Higazi is representative of a large group of Muslim clerics for whom the Jews are simply evil. Just consider: so what even if the logo DID represent Queen Esther, is that such a crime? No, the true crime is that because some of the founders and management of Starbucks are Jews that makes the company persona non grata in the Muslim world. But here’s the killer punch: the Starbucks website also tells us:

Do you work with a Middle East partner to operate Starbucks stores?

Through a licensing agreement with trading partner and licensee MH Alshaya WLL, a private Kuwait family business, Starbucks has operated in the Middle East since 1999. Today Alshaya Group, recognized as one of the leading and most influential retailing franchisees in the region, operates more than 274 Starbucks stores in the Middle East and Levant region. ….

We partner with Alshaya Group to operate Starbucks stores in Egypt, Kuwait, KSA, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Jordan and Lebanon in the Middle East region….

We are also committed to hiring locally, providing jobs to thousands of local citizens in the countries where we operate.

In other words, the operation in the Middle East is merely a franchise operated by a Kuwaiti company and provides employment for thousands of people. But Mr Higazi isn’t interested in that, he is only interested in his narrow-minded Jew-hatred.

[On 23rd April 2018 I received an email linking to a thorough explanation of the logo on the www.dailycupo.com website https://www.dailycupo.com/starbucks-logo-meaning]

The glory of Galloway

11/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

Well, Viva Palestina finally made it into Gaza and George Galloway and Hamas had their little love-in.

Not before a number of Egyptians showed him and the convoy what they thought of them.

Apparently, in El Arish, the convoy came under attack. It was stoned and anti-Hamas slogans daubed on vehicles.

Several people were injured. 

I will not gloat over the suffering of the Viva Palestina people. They came in peace to bring aid to those in need in Gaza. Galloway and Ridley also came as a propaganda exercise which has hardly been reported in the mainstream media.

Galloway made a speech in which he praised the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyah  as the “the only and legitimate elected leader of the Palestinian people”. 

Galloway’s true motive was that of all demagogues – self-publicity. There he was, in the centre of Gaza City, praising terrorists and would-be perpetrators of genocide against Israel and the Jews. He wore dark sun glasses as he spoke, a true metaphor for the limit of his vision and his blindness to the real truths about Hamas. As long as he has his moment in the limelight. He hasn’t had such a good time since he last praised Saddam Hussein, or was it the Iraqi people? It gets so confusing.

But why did brother Muslims in Egypt attack a convoy sending aid to relieve their fellow Arabs and co-religionists in Gaza?

The answer is simple. Many Egyptians hate Hamas and all they represent. They see Hamas flags flying on the convoy and their gut reaction is violence. But Gorgeous George doesn’t see it that way. He looks foward to the day when the Hamas flag flies over Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Not a two-state Palestine with Israel, but a one-state Palestine. A day when the Israelis will simply disappear. Disappear like the Jews did in Nazi Europe, because that is their avowed intention, an intention that Galloway and his ilk do not wish to confront.

 Why did the Egyptians stop them for so long at the border and only allow most of the trucks through after lengthy negotiation? Why did Galloway and Ridley have to make the unspeakable compromise of having some vehicles pass through Israeli checkpoints (which they did without incident – no stone-throwing from the Israelis, please note)?  I don’t really know. Maybe the understanding with Israel about what gets into the Strip meant they had to be very wary and consult with their Israeli counterparts. 

So the next time you hear anyone blaming the ‘siege’ on Israel, just point out that Gaza has a border with Egypt and that they are as keen as Israel to contain and curtail the activities of Hamas.

And finally, when did the Nazis allow food, medical equipment and ambulances into the Warsaw Ghetto? (Just in case someone tries to make that comparison too.)

Remember Nahr el-Bared?

09/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

No, I don’t suppose you do unless you are one of the 30,000 Palestinians displaced or a relative of the 400 who died two years ago in fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants.

The Lebanese army went in hard. It destroyed homes and killed many innocent civilians.

Yet there were no delegations from the Arab League, no British MPs making a tour of the devastation, no UN resolutions, no lurid TV pictures, no Iranian outrage, no Hamas demonstrations, no Palestinian Authority claims of war crimes,  no UNRWA officials accusing Lebanon of anything, no Viva Palestina convoys and definitely not a Jeremy Bowen in sight.

Why? Because it’s alright for an Arab country to kill Muslims with impunity. No Jews or Israelis were involved. So the world has little interest. Why did Lebanon take this action? Because an Islamist group was threatening to destabilise the country. They weren’t sending a missile barrage into neighbouring towns and cities, they didn’t threaten to annihilate the Lebanese people, but they were brutally slaughtered.

The Lebanese did not allow in any journalists. Pictures of the devastation have been carefully suppressed.

The camp was not bombed for three weeks but for 3 MONTHS!

This is what Michael Birmingham had to say on 25th October 2007 on the Information Clearing House website:

Between May and September of this year, a ferocious battle took place between the Lebanese Army and a small armed group known as Fatah Al Islam. From the first the day, the Lebanese Army surrounded the camp and fired in artillery, maintaining this course for months. Most of the residents of the camp were forced to leave with the clothes on their backs within the first three days. As the number of young Lebanese soldiers killed and horribly maimed rose through the battle, Lebanon became awash with patriotism and grief, any questioning of the army taboo.

Something terrible has been done to the residents of Nahr al Bared, and the Lebanese people are being spared the details. Over the past two weeks, since the camp was partly reopened to a few of its residents, many of us who have been there have been stunned by a powerful reality. Beyond the massive destruction of the homes from three months of bombing, room after room, house after house have been burned. Burned from the inside. Amongst the ashes on the ground, are the insides of what appear to have been car tyres. The walls have soot dripping down from what seems clearly to have been something flammable sprayed on them. Rooms, houses, shops, garages – all blackened ruins, yet having had no damage from bombing or battle. They were burned deliberately by people entering and torching them.

How many we do not know; it is too large for a few people to comprehensively assess. But finding an un-bombed house or a business that has not been torched is very hard indeed.

(http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18618.htm)

Basically THE ENTIRE CAMP was destroyed by the Lebanese army. Was this not a prima facie war crime? Was this not worthy of world-wide condemnation, ICC war crimes investigations and those other instruments being used to attack Israel?

Unfortunately the residents of Nahr el-Bared do not have the propaganda machines working for them, but what is incomprehensible is that they do not even appear to have the interest of their fellow Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

But perhaps it’s not so incomprehensible after all. In fact, it’s blindingly obvious. Hamas and the PA don’t care about Palestinians who are not fighting Israel because there is no political ground to be gained. Accusing the Lebanese does nothing to further their aims of destroying Israel by arms or by political stealth.

Meanwhile the BBC reports today (here):

Palestinians have been here for more than 60 years – since the creation of Israel – but they are still barred from at least 70 professions, have no access to state education or healthcare, and cannot move freely or buy land.

These conditions turn the Palestinian camps into a breeding ground for extremism, a time bomb which will inevitably explode

It sounds to me that these Palestinians have it considerably worse than those in Gaza but are ignored by the world and the Arab world especially. The BBC adds:

The UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has only managed to raise $43m (£31m) to rebuild the camp – a tiny fraction of the $430m needed. Lebanon’s rich neighbours in the Gulf have not delivered the funds they pledged. 

Can the world not see the utter moral bankruptcy of the Arab world with regard to these people. But still it’s Israel and Israel alone which is being demonised and delegitimised around the world by Arab and Muslim hypocrites who allow hundreds of thousands to die in Sudan whilst sending support to the evil regime of al-Bashir and turn a blind eye to their fellows in Lebanon many of whom, despite the BBC’s assertion, were actually expelled from Jordan, another state that has washed its hands of the Palestinians.

Israeli Arab women march through Tel Aviv

09/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

We hear so often that Israel is racist and apartheid, that it is not a true democracy.

Ha’aretz reporter Noah Kosharek reports on a march through Tel Aviv by Arab women which was organised by the Workers Advice Center.

The women want to work in agriculture but there is a general policy of employing foreign workers within that sector. 

The main thrust of the protest is to bring attention to the plight of Arab women and empower them to find work at a fair wage.

Apparently 83% of Arab women in Israel don’t work. This is probably more of a cultural problem than one of discrimination although the article does not explore the causes of such a high figure.

So what is my point?

How many Arab countries would countenance a demonstration by women at all? Were these women marching through Tel Aviv attacked or abused? No. Can you imagine a march of Jewish women in Teheran or Damascus? 

This is a fundamental difference between Israel and its neighbours which many on the left in the UK who support Israel’s enemies: Israel is a free country and a democracy. It is not perfect by any means, but at least everyone regardless of race or religion can find a voice. There is freedom of speech and of the press. 

The world concentrates on Israel’s relationship with the Territories, the Separation Wall, the restriction of movement and illegal settlements. All these are genuine concerns, and the plight of Palestinians outside of ‘Israel proper’ can be described as being between the ‘Rock’ of Israel’s policies in the Territories and the ‘Hard Place’ of being subject to rule by either Hamas or the PA.

The questionof whether you can separate the two Israels – the Israel within the pre-1967 and the Israel in ‘the Territories’  – I’ll leave to another time.

See the article here

Viva Palestina prevented from entering Gaza – by Egypt

08/03/2009 / / 4 Comments

As I predicted, it is not Israel who has stopped the Viva Palestina aid convoy, as Tony Benn originally tried to imply would be the case, but Egypt.

The convoy has been stopped at Al Arish about 25 miles from Rafah.

One wonders why the world insists that is Israel and Israel alone who is penning in the Gazans when there is a border with Egypt which is rarely mentioned because it does not conform to their preconceptions and prejudices.

It is puzzling why Muslims would prevent aid reaching fellow-Muslims in Gaza. In fact, all along the way as they have passed through North Africa they have been stopped more than once.

But listen to this folks – the Viva Palestina Facebook page is now saying that the Egyptians want the convoy to pass through an Israeli crossing. Wouldn’t that be a great propaganda disaster for George Galloway; having the Israelis allowing in an aid convoy! Unthinkable.

The page reports:

During the day new obstacles have been placed in the path of the convoy passing into Gaza via the Rafar(sic)  crossing – to the amazement and disbelief of everyone involved.

‘Amazement and disbelief’ – so an enlightening time for them into the realpolitik of the region.

Cheer leading for genocide

08/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

Whilst President Omar al-Bashir thumbs his nose at the ICC and world opinion, Iran and Hamas have rushed to Khartoum in a solidarity mission.

These two august regimes have denounced the International Criminal Court’s warrant. These are the same regimes who accuse Israel of genocide of the Palestinians.

There is no doubt that the Sudanese government and its supporter’s activities in Darfur represent the clearest example of genocide and war crimes imaginable. But Iran is sending the speaker of their parliament, Ali Larijani whilst Hamas have despatched Moussa Abu Marzouk their second in command in Damascus.

After the ICC warrant  was announced, al-Bashir expelled foreign aid workers further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, an act itself which could be considered a crime against humanity. 2.7 million people have been forced out of their homes and villages. Hundreds of thousands have been killed. Tens of thousands of women and young girls raped. 

By supporting such a regime Iran and Hamas show their true colours.  Yet we still have people in this country (UK) and around the world who believe them to be a bulwark against the West, the vanguard of anti-Zionism and the heroes of Islam. 

Meanwhile, the BBC has reported here that the Arab League us asking the UN to defer the warrant for a year.

But look who Sudan’s biggest supporter is. None other than the Tibet-annexing, freedom-suppressing Chinese government who effectively have aligned themselves with Hamas and Iran by complaining to Ban Ki-moon about the warrant and then blocking a French security council statement. For the Chinese their strategic interests in Africa are more important than the lives of millions of Africans – no surprise there.

Meanwhile, on March 3rd, the Libyan ambassador to the UN compared Gaza to Nazi concentration camps. The double standards of the Arab League and many Islamic regimes on the question of Darfur are breathtaking in their hypocrisy.

The PA’s sick logic

05/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

I recently wrote about how many Palestinians have sought medical treatment in Israel.

Now Israel’s ‘peace partners’ cannot bear that Israel might be seen in a good light. So what do they do? They further emiserate the lives of their own people:

The Palestinian Authority has announced that it will stop sending sick Arabs to Israeli hospitals and will cut off funds to local residents who use Israeli medical facilities. “Israel cannot be allowed to render medical aid at the same time it is killing us,” said PA Health Minister Fathi abu Marlee.

So reports Arutz Sheva today. So yet again the Palestinian leadership not only fails its own people but blatantly uses them in its propaganda battle against Israel. It would rather they die than be treated by Israelis.

Tragic.

So much for genocide

05/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

An uncharacteristically even-handed report on the BBC website What gets into the Gaza Strip reveals what those who cared to investigate knew anyway. Basically everything gets in except fruit juice and sweets, building materials and car parts and agricultural supplies. Previously pasta, lentils and paper were not allowed in since the conflict, but now they are. What is let in and out  has varied over time. The Karni, Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings, for example, were closed on various occasions last year because Hamas attacked them in order deliberately to disrupt the flow of supplies so that they could then accuse Israel of cutting off the Gazan lifeline. Yet another example of how Hamas have cynically and cruelly exploited their own people for propaganda purposes, propaganda which the world and its press have usually swallowed whole.

What is clear is that even during the conflict humanitarian aid was getting through and since the end of the conflict enough passes through the border to ensure the necessities for life.

So why not building materials? The answer is that if these materials were let in, Hamas would do as they always do, that is, commandeer some of these materials to manufacture rockets and rocket launch pads. This policy appears harsh because it delays rebuilding. But why should Israel be an accomplice to the re-arming of those that would destroy it. Hamas still fire their rockets. If the rockets stopped and credible guarantees were given, then building materials could be allowed in.

In contrast to Gaza, in Zimbabwe food has virtually run out and cholera has killed 4,000 people. I don’t hear the world claiming that Mugabe is committing genocide against his own people. Israel is often accused of that crime which, were Hamas to be allowed free rein to  import and build weaponry, including arms from Iran, they would surely embark on against Israel.

And if you still think that Israel wants to kill all Palestinians, here’s an interesting statistic for you that you won’t read on the BBC. Arutz Sheva reports that:

despite the continuing rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, more than 14,000 tons of aid and more than two million liters of fuel entered Gaza last week. Israel also accepted 1,563 patients from Gaza for medical care

Did you read that last bit? 1563 Gazans taken for treatment to hospitals within Israel. Yes, it is a tragedy that these people cannot receive treatment within Gaza where the BBC also reports on a deteriorating medical situation which it blames on both Israel’s policy of restricting movement and also the chaos caused by Hamas. The BBC couldn’t resist taking a pot at Israel because over 30 out of 60 pregnant women lost their baby whilst being held up at Israeli checkpoints. But it doesn’t occur to them that they would almost certainly have been heading for Israeli hospitals, probably because of complications. 

Delays at checkpoints, delays in reconstruction, deteriorating medical situation – all placed at the door of the Israeli government, not the Hamas government whose continued policy pf aggression against Israel and its own genocidal programme against the Jewish people is barely mentioned and when it is, is excused or dismissed as ‘posturing’. 

If there was an Israeli charter which explicitly stated the intention to kill all Palestinians and all Muslims we’d soon see how swiftly that was dismissed as ‘posturing’.

The hypocrisy of the Science Museum boycotters

04/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

The Science Museum has come under an unprecedented attack by a group of 400 academics.

The Zionist Federation has organised two Israel Day of Science events at the Science Museum in London and its sister museum in Manchester.

The academics who are aligned with supporters of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (Bricup) argue that such events give “respectability” to universities in Israel which are linked to the Israeli military and which are, therefore, so they argue, complicit in the recent Gaza conflict.

The Science Museum is resisting this effort to add to the long list of Israel demonizers, de-legitimisers and boycotters.

Clearly, the fact that the organisers have the word “Zionist” in their name is like a red rag to a bull(y).

To these people any contact with Israel or Israeli institutions, however worthy or non-political is to be condemned.

Whilst such events clearly have a propaganda aspect to promote Israel and its outstanding achievements in all areas of science, this is no different from similar events which all countries organise.

Israeli science is second to none and has brought untold benefits to mankind totally out of proportion to its population.  It is important that the world see this side of Israel instead of the constant flow of negative images and reporting.

It is clear that these academics view Israel as a pariah to be singled out for boycotting and academic disengagement.

But if this is the case then these academics and Bricup at hypocrites.

Do they support the daily assault on southern Israel which caused an almost complete breakdown of school life in Sderot and its neighbourhood? Would they therefore be as forthright in boycotting a Palestinian science event were it to take place? I don’t think so.

Recently there was an exhibition at the British Museum of Iranian art and culture. Would Bricup contemplate demonstrations against this exhibition because Iran is building nuclear weapons and supplying arms (presumably developed by Iranian scientists)  to Hamas and Hezbollah so they can be used indiscriminately against Israeli civilians?  And if they would argue that such an exhibition is not scientific and therefore a different issue, then it could be equally argued that an Israeli Science Day where the presenters are particle physicists working at CERN, hydrologists, nano-technologists and geneticists has absolutely nothing to do with the military.

And what if it had? Do not British scientists and American scientists and Arab scientists and Chinese scientists work at universities where military technology is studied, produced and even tested?

Will we have no exhibitions of science at all then? Are not some of these very academics engaged, perhaps, in scientific enquiry that could have military use? Maybe not.

This has nothing to do with science and everything to do with the obsession of a certain cadre in British academe that has an animus against one country above all others. Why is this? Go figure.

The Farce of Arab League investigations into Human Rights Abuses and War Crimes in Gaza

02/03/2009 / / 0 Comments

Ha’aretz reports that:

“A committee of jurists hired by the Arab League completed a six-day tour of the Gaza Strip on Friday. The fact-finding mission was meant to investigate alleged war crimes as well as crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel during its offensive against Hamas earlier this year.

Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa appointed the committee which is expected to submit a detailed report on its findings and conclusions. This report will then serve as the basis for any future legal proceedings the league plans to initiate.“

It might be edifying to examine the human rights records of some the members of the Arab League since they seem so keen on such things.

EGYPT

Their ‘shoot to stop’ policy on the Israel border has been criticised by Human Rights Watch. The Christian Science Monitor reported in November 2008. (http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1113/p06s03-wome.html)

Sadiq Sahour came to Egypt from Darfur in 2004 after government militias burned down his village. He wanted to find a better life for his family, but in Cairo he found no work and little assistance from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). So in July 2007, he and his wife, Hajja Abbas Haroun, made an increasingly popular – and dangerous – decision for refugees and migrants. They resolved to smuggle themselves into Israel.

With their infant daughter in tow and a second child due any day, they traveled to the Sinai town of Al-Arish and paid Egyptian smugglers $250 per person to ferry them to the border area. As they drew near, says Mr. Sahour, Egyptian border police approached the group of 12 adults and several children and opened fire.

Ms. Haroun and her unborn child were killed instantly. Many of the others were arrested, tried, and sentenced to heavy fines and a year in prison.

“The police came and shot us from close up,” Sahour says. “They could see that there were women and children.”

As I previously reported here Israel’s treatment of Muslim refugees is in stark contrast.

Amnesty International (who have strongly criticised Israel and so it seems fair that we should hear what they say about Egypt and other Arab League members) speak of

long-standing… systematic torture, deaths of prisoners in custody, unfair trials, arrests of prisoners of conscience for their political and religious beliefs or for their sexual orientation, wide use of administrative detention and long-term detention without trial and use of the death penalty

The country has been in a State of Emergency since 1981 which is used as a vehicle for abuses under the cover of ‘security concerns’.

Free speech is suppressed with the example of two prominent bloggers being arrested for criticising the President and the government.

Democracy in Egypt is problematical with Hosni Mubarak clamping down on any threat to his power. Critics and activists are subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention and military trials.

Women’s rights are poor and they are subject to discrimination with regard to marriage, divorce, custody and inheritance.

Religious freedom is also a major concern. The Coptic Christian community are restricted with regard to the building of churches or public profession and demonstration of their faith. Baha’is, Shi’a and Sufi Muslims are poorly tolerated and their religions not recognised by the state.

Gays are persecuted and AIDS sufferers considered criminals.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) has been attacked from within the country by those who say that it is a front organisation created by the government to cover up or excuse its own human rights violations. It is the EOHR that is encouraging and supporting the Arab League’s investigation into alleged war crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza.

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia’s adherence to full Sharia law is well known. Political Freedom is non-existent. Extra judicial exections are common. Religious minorities and political opposition are oppressed as are homosexuals and women. All this is denied by the government.

Although women make up 70% of the student population, only 5% are in the workforce which is the lowest percentage in the world. This situation is improving – slowly. Women’s legal position is highly problematical due to the stringencies of Sharia. This is a difficult area where international norms contrast starkly with Sharia. However, there are many Muslim countries where such stringencies are not observed and a more moderate form of Sharia is employed.

One of the difficulties that women have is vulnerability when it comes to sexual attack or rape where they are ususal presumed to be the guilty party. A recent case is of a woman who was gang-raped but herself sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and 200 lashes because she was in a car with an unrelated male at the time of the attack.

Saudi Arabia is reagrded a ‘Tier 3’ country in terms of its record on slavery and human trafficking. Thi smeans that it fails to comply with the minimum standards and makes no moves towards remedying the situation. Saudis outside the country have  been prosecuted for the effective enslavement and ill-treatment of servants. So although Saudi Arabia is very keen that foreigners observe its laws when in Saudia Arabia, many of its citizens do not seem to feel the same need to comply with the laws of countries they are visiting or are even resident in.

Anything other tha heterosexual relations within marriage is outlawed and punishable by imprisonment, the lash and sometimes execution.

Corporal and capital punishment are common.  The corporal punishment includes amputations of hands and feet or the lash. The latter can be administered over a protracted period of time. The UN considers such punishment as torture. Saudis defend it as an ancient tradition.  Human Rights Watch has concluded that the Saudi legal system “fails to provide minimum due process guarantees and offers myriad opportunities for well-connected individuals to manipulate the system to their advantage”.

Freedom of speech and the press are limited. No-one can freely criticise the government or propose values which are considered against Islamic traditions. There are no political parties in Saudi Arabia or any form of labour union or representation.

Freedom of religion is non-existent. Even other Muslim sects are proscribed if they do not conform to the Saudi’s particular brand of Wahabism. Anyone with an Israeli passport or a stamp of entry or exit from ISrael on their passport is banned.

“fails to provide minimum due process guarantees and offers myriad opportunities for well-connected individuals to manipulate the system to their advantage.”

SYRIA

As with Egypt, Syria too is in a state of emergency, since 1963!  which provides cover for its dictatorship.  Arrests and detentions without trial are common, torture and show trials rife.

There is no freedom of speech, the press or the right to demonstrate.

Human Rights Watch record 17,000 political prisoners who have just disappeared over a period of 30 years.

Syria is one of the least free countries in the world.

Do I need to go on? Other countries in the Arab League include Yemen, Libya, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates. In fact there is not one country in the league which is not tainted by repression or oppression and not one full democracy amongst them. And these are the countries who are going to sit in judgement on Israel.

Sick joke.

Meanwhile today we hear in Kenya’s Daily Nation reports that the Arab League is working with the Sudanese government to AVOID confrontation with the ICC and helping it to stall investigations whilst trying to promote ‘internal’ investigations.

See the full article here

In other words, the Arab League is effectively trying to deflect criticism from a genocidal maniac responsible for the deaths and uprooting of 2 million people whilst vigorously pursuing a case against Israel for killing 1200, most of whom were Hamas members or combatants.

A sick joke indeed.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Ray Cook – As I See It

Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑