The Muslim Lawyers Association (MLA) on Monday took urgent steps to secure the arrest of former Israeli Prime Minister, Shimon Peres. The MLA lodged documents with the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) requesting its intervention in the case. Peres is tipped to arrive in South Africa for a fund raising event hosted by Israel United Appeal and United Communal Fund on Saturday 27th February.

In statement on Monday, the Media Review Network (MRN) expressed its support for the MLA’s quest, saying South Africans could not allow a war criminal on its shows. Peres is known to have ordered the 1996 airstrikes on Qana in Lebanon, in which more than 200 people were murdered and hundreds wounded. During the massacre, 17 villages were flattened and over a half million people rendered homeless.

“In the 1970’s, he was the chief architect of the illegal settlement project in the central regions of the West Bank. When he took over as Prime Minister after Rabin’s assassination, he had an opportunity to implement the clauses enshrined in the Oslo Agreement. Instead he entered into war with Lebanon. This resulted in the tragic events of the massacre in Qana,” said Ibrahim Vawda from the MRN.

“Peres was France’s principle ally in her fight against Algeria’s resistance fighters. His support for the French during the 1956 Suez Crisis was disastrous, to say the least. The French gifted him with the Nuclear Reactor in Dimona. Peres considers this to be his greatest achievement. He announced that this Israeli/French Alliance was based on thoughtful common values.”

Peres has been described as an “enigmatic politician” all his life.

“He has never won an election. In a democracy, a politician is expected to be elected and re-elected. He never was. Even his position as President of the Zionist State was by default. When the incumbent, Moshe Katzav, uncovered as a women molester and had to resign, was Peres elected by a contrite Knesset. This was his definitive humiliation. And now this man, whom almost everybody loved to hate, is coming to South Africa.”

“He has never held a principled position. Throughout his political life, he oscillated between possible views, almost to say ‘These are my principles. If you don’t like them, I will change’. He has advocated everything: war and peace; socialism and capitalism; secularism and religion.”

The MRN is hopeful that the request to have Peres arrested and charged will be successful. It has called on all relevant authorities to give expression to South Africa’s obligations under the provisions of the Rome Statute. VOC