Sydney Kaye complains incessantly that Israel is the victim of vilification, hypocrisy and double standards (Double standards, as always, August 16). That Israeli government conduct towards Palestinians meets the legal criterion under international law of apartheid as a crime against humanity has been thoroughly documented, and was even confirmed by the Israeli government in 2018 by passage of the Nation State law.
The UN Security Council back in 1977 determined that apartheid in SA constituted a threat to international peace and security, and appropriately imposed a mandatory arms embargo. Israel now exports arms to 130 countries and blatantly markets them as “battle tested and proven against Palestinians”.
As Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper reveals in his book entitled War Against the People, Israel gets away with it because, in destabilising countries in the Middle East and beyond, it does the “dirty work” for the US war business. As reward, Israel is then protected at the security council by the US, which shamelessly abuses its veto powers.
Why indeed the “double standard”? It is long past time a mandatory arms embargo is imposed against Israel, and enforced.
Terry Crawford-Browne
World Beyond War SA
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