Kritiek op Knessetlid dat 'Israel Apartheid Week' steunt

 

Stel: een Arabisch kamerlid van de SP neemt deel aan een wereldwijde anti-Nederland week in het kader waarvan op meer dan 40 universiteiten activiteiten georganiseerd worden, waaronder de VS en diverse Arabische landen. Wat zouden wij daarvan vinden? Hoe zouden kamerleden van andere fracties reageren? Het is je moeilijk voor te stellen, want zo'n week bestaat niet en zal er ook niet snel komen, maar ik denk dat het land te klein zou zijn. Het dubbele paspoort van Aboutaleb en Albayrak was reden voor felle aanvallen van de PVV en Leefbaar Rotterdam, het lidmaatschap van een door de Marokkaanse koning ingestelde adviesgroep voor migratiebeleid was al reden voor felle aanvallen en verdachtmakingen aan het adres van het PvdA kamerlid Arib. Met andere woorden, moslims en mensen met Arabische wortels worden in Nederland om minder verdacht gemaakt en beticht van een gebrek aan vaderlandsliefde, en dat niet alleen door de PVV.

 

De kritiek van Israelische Knessetleden van diverse pluimage op de deelname van het Arabische lid Jamal Zahalka aan de Israel apartheidsweken zal door Nederlandse media en bloggers echter ongetwijfeld worden neergezet als bewijs van extreem nationalisme, zoals alle kritiek van Israeli's op de vergaande activiteiten van een kleine groep zeer actieve antizionistische Israeli's (zowel Joden als Arabieren) wordt afgedaan als blijk van racisme en eng nationalisme.

RP

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MKs blast Balad head for accepting invite
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL - 02/03/2010  
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=169969

 

Jamal Zahalka to speak as part of Israel Apartheid Week.
 

 

Jewish MKs blasted Balad Party chairman MK Jamal Zahalka Monday in advance of his first scheduled stop on an Israeli Apartheid Week speaking tour.

 

Despite the near across-the-board criticism of Zahalka's participation, Hadash Chairman MK Muhammad Barakei defended Zahalka's actions and said he too received invitations and would have liked to participate.

 

"I call on the Knesset Speaker and the Knesset Ethics Committee to consider an appropriate response to MKs such as Zahalka," said MK Moshe Matalon (Israel Beiteinu). "It cannot be that an MK who earns his salary from Israeli taxpayers goes out and lectures against the country and its existence. This hater of Israel ought to earn his living from his audiences and from those who arrange his lectures around the world."

 

MK Danny Danon (Likud) echoed Matalon's calls for an Ethics Committee probe into Zahalka's conduct.

 

While joining in the condemnation, MK Robert Tibayev (Kadima) pointed out that Zahalka's controversial remarks and participation in international Israel Apartheid Week events in England, Canada and the United States actually contradicted Israel's detractors.

 

"There is no other state in the world where a member of the parliament goes out on a tour to lecture and incite against his country," said Tibayev. "The fact that Zahalka does this is the best proof that Israel is truly a democracy of all of its citizens. It is a pity that Zahalka himself takes advantage of his status to incite against his country, but in doing so he proves the very strength of Israeli democracy."

 

"Israel Apartheid Week is very important because of Israel's actions, such as building the security fence, maintaining settler-only roads and engaging in selective detention, among other things," said Barakei. "When Israel feels the need, it sends representatives around the world to preach its cause, but when it isn't comfortable, it hides itself away within its borders."

 

Knesset officials were unaware Monday of any other MKs planning to participate in international Israel Apartheid Week activities, and Zahalka was the only MK listed as a headliner in the week's main events. Zahalka was set to begin his tour Monday night at a lecture sponsored by Oxford University's Arab Cultural Society together with Israeli professors Ilan Pappe and Avi Shlaim, and continue Tuesday at Cambridge University.

 

Later in the week Zahalka will cross the Atlantic and lecture in New York City and at Canada's University of Ottawa and McGill University in Montreal.
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