UNION, SACCYF, SASCO, Ecumenical
Accompaniment Program in Palestine
& Israel and Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, who has been very vocal on the
pro-Israeli bias, we question the onesided coverage that SABC provides to
the Israeli regime. Once again, there
was no balance as only the pro-Israeli
view is presented and no alternate
views given.
Events such as the Russell Tribunal on
Palestine, the International Campaign
for the Freedom of Marwan
Barghouthi and all Palestinian
prisoners that have had global
support from different organisations
and renowned people and coverage
in the media but nothing from the
SABC.
On 4 March 2009, the Russell Tribunal
on Palestine was launched at a press
conference in Brussels chaired by
Stéphane Hessel, Ambassador of
France and initiated by Ken Coates,
Chairman of the Bertrand Russell
Peace Foundation, Leila Shahid,
General Delegate of Palestine to the
European Union, Belgium and
Luxembourg, and Nurit Peled,
winner of the Sakharov Prize for
Freedom of Thought. Amongst more
than a hundred international
personalities who gave their support
to the Tribunal is Paul Laverty, Raji
Surani, Jean Ziegler, François Rigaux,
Jean Salmon, Belgian Senator Pierre
Galand and François Maspero were
present in Brussels to give
encouragement to the project. In the
tradition of the Russell Tribunal on
War Crimes in Vietnam, the Russell
Tribunal on Palestine is a citizens’
initiative aimed to reaffirm the
primacy of international law as the
basis for solving the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, and at raising awareness of
the responsibility of the international
community in the continuing denial of
the rights of the Palestinian people.
The International Campaign for the
freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and
all Palestinian prisoners was launched
from the cell of Nelson Mandela’s cell
on Robben Island on 27th October
2013 as a joint initiative between the
Popular Campaign to Free Marwan
Bargouthi and all prisoners and the
Kathrada Foundation. The campaign
marked the implementation of the
key recommendation adopted at the
“Freedom & Dignity” International
Conference.
Ahmed Kathrada announced the
formation of an International High
Level Committee for the international
campaign is composed of renowned
former prisoners, leaders and former
leaders, human rights figures and
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. The
committee released the Robben
Island Declaration for the Freedom of
Marwan Bargouthi and all Palestinian
prisoners, signed by leading
personalities, organisations and
individuals.
The Declaration called on the South
African government to encourage
and support Palestinian political
reconciliation efforts; fully support
the Robben Island Declaration calling
for the freedom of Marwan Barghouti
and all Palestinian political prisoners,
and to campaign for Israel to be
suspended from the SWIFT
banking network. Witness and
solidarity visits to the Occupied
Palestinian Territories are to
be encouraged by the government so
that South Africans can witness Israeli
Apartheid first-hand. Apart from an
objection from Cheryllyn Dudley, a
member of the African Christian
Democratic Party (ACDP), a small
Christian political party closely allied