Um, Mark, we did have a lot of ethnic cleansing in South Africa. For instance, in the Orange Free State down to the 1980s it was illegal for a person with "Indian" in his identity document to spend the night.

You might have heard of the "pass laws", under which Africans were forbidden to live in urban areas without special permission. Millions of people were shipped off to the homelands (google "Surplus People's Project", or variants, and see what you find).

I mean, you don't think we whites took control of 87% of the land area of the country just because the blacks and the Khoi and the San somehow decided to wander off into little wastelands?
MFB | 02.20.08 - 7:03 am | #

You're right MFB. I was trying to say too much in one short line. There was even a musical in London about District 6 in Cape Town. I meant without the native majority.
Mark Elf | Homepage | 02.20.08 - 8:29 am | #

That's an amazing clip.

You would never see anything like this on the telly nowadays, would you? Has any TV comedian on BBC or ITN over the past decade ever dared to make Israeli violence a topic for satire? I can't think of one.
Ellis Sharp | Homepage | 02.20.08 - 8:35 am | #

I saw an American comedian very late at night criticising American aid to Israel. It was on one of these new comedian improv type shows. I didn't catch his name but I remember thinking how he can't be very ambitious.
Mark Elf | Homepage | 02.20.08 - 9:26 am | #

Mark,

If you have time, I would really like to have your opinion on this:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/obj...l? itemNo=957520

And the day after, this:
http://www.lemonde.fr/opinions/ a...16249_3232.html

Teh second article is in French but I understood you read French. Otherwise I can translate...
Sophia | Homepage | 02.28.08 - 12:34 am | #

I can't read French but is the article not available in English?

I read Ha'aretz, typical Israel!
Mark Elf (aka levi9909) | Homepage | 02.28.08 - 12:32 pm | #

If I understand it correctly, the LeMonde piece is an open letter by LICRA, which stands for "International league against racism and anti-Semitism", which seems to mean "International league in support of islamophobia". The open letter mostly reads like a justification of islamophobia as "feminism". It whines about how Durham 2 will denigrate the "Western democracies" and Israel etc.
christian h. | 02.28.08 - 2:22 pm | #

The article in French is a signed letter attacking the UN on Durban. It is signed by Elizabeth Badinter, Elie Wiesel, Pascal Bruckner and some other French intellectuals, including LICRA (an association to combat Racism). What surprises me is that it came two to three days after Haaretz announced that Israel was folowing some unspecified western countries in boycotting Durban.
Sophia | Homepage | 02.28.08 - 2:24 pm | #

It seems to me that the Israel lobby in France is more bullying than its counterpart in America. Tariq Ali said that criticism of Israel is all but illegal in France. It'll all blow up in their faces eventually, the question is when?

Regarding this Durban business, the trouble with the zionist movement and the State of Israel presenting themselves as the sole representatives of the Jewish people means that Jews won't be represented at the conference except possibly in the form of Neturei Karta who don't make a very good case against antisemitism because historically they have preferred Jews to be discriminated against than to be treated as equals as long as the rabbis keep their power over their flock. I don't think secular anti-zionist Jews are well enough organised to have representation at a UN sponsored event unless we send Ronnie Kasrils along. That would be nice.
Mark Elf (aka levi9909) | Homepage | 02.28.08 - 5:43 pm | #