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Zionist lobby trying to silence critics

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The tables have turned on the Zionist propaganda machine, and local sympathizers are slowly starting to realize that opposition to Israel’s actions against Palestinians is now the norm, according to a  media commentator.  The Media Review Network’s (MRN) executive member Iqbal Jassat told VOC Drive Time on Friday it appears as if Zionists and their supporters are attempting to silence voices critical of Israel.

Earlier this week, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) said it would lodge a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) following remarks made by Cosatu Western Cape secretary general Tony Ehrenreich on his Facebook page.  SAJBD believes Ehrenreich’s usuage of the term “an eye for an eye” is an incitement to violence against the Jewish community,

Last week, former provincial Community Policing Forum chairperson Hanif Loonat was suspended from his position with the City of Cape Town after posting ‘Death to Zionist Israel’ on his Facebook page.

“I think the Jewish Board of Deputies has realized that the propaganda war that Israel has been waging for quite a long time … has failed, these critical voices are now part of the mainstream. These voices include analysts, activists, and this is over and above the large amount of people demonstrating last week; and [SAJBD] would like to retain some influence over the narrative.

“Therefore the reaction to people like Ehrenreich must be seen within that context, of deflecting from the main argument of criticism against Israel into the literal understanding of an eye for an eye,” Jassat explained.

Social media has played a large role in the manner in which the online world has now begun seeing Israel’s actions. Jassat says the openness of social media has aided Israel’s opposition by spreading awareness in an easily accessible manner.

“The kind of commentary that has spread now [on] social media has been encouraged by the kind of arrogance openly displayed by Israel during this conflict,” Jassat said.

“The entire dynamic has changed, not only in how ordinary people have been able to access the information [on the conflict] in real time, but also people have been able to [relate], an example of this would be the 200 000 or more people that gathered in Cape Town last week. The planning of that event, the mobilization of those people relied on the social media.” VOC (Andriques Che Petersen)


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