Every so often, you get a glimpse of what evil really is. There are few regimes on this earth as brutal and cruel as that of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Yet the hordes of demonstrators who poured into the streets to protest Israel’s Gaza operation are not perturbed by Mugabe; many of them would probably hail this vicious dictator as a courageous anti-imperialist.
This article by Z Word contributor Michelle Sieff originally appeared in the Ugandan newspaper, The Independent.
In response to Israel’s war in Gaza, Uganda’s Muslim associations have lambasted Israel for “war crimes” and called on the government to sever its diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. In other African countries with sizeable Muslim populations-Mali, Niger, South Africa, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, to name a few– Muslim and Palestinian solidarity groups have organised protests where Israel is regularly accused of “genocide” and “war crimes”. The response on the African street is similar to the response on the Arab and European street. Hundreds are turning up at protests to vilify Israel and call for its diplomatic and economic isolation.
Continue reading ‘Africa: Loud on Israel, Quiet on Zimbabwe’
Bob left the following comment on an earlier post. I want to be sure that everyone sees it.
“I frequently walk past the Zimbabwe embassy in London - a grand Edwardian building in high British imperial style - and am moved to see the dignity of the protesters (mostly black Zimbabwean exiles) who regularly gather there, sometimes singing, sometimes standing in quiet mourning, ignored by the mainstream media. Such a stark contrast to those outside the Israeli embassy…”
Hugo Chavez says that “the blood shed in Gaza is the blood of humanity. Venezuela kisses each and every one of you and stresses that it supports the Palestinian people and all those who suffer from the occupation.” Quite the humanist, our Hugo, no? Except that the above photograph shows him embracing Zimbabwe’s dictator, Robert Mugabe, whose most recent contribution to his country’s suffering is a cholera epidemic that has claimed 1732 lives.
Continue reading ‘Mugabe’s Friend Declares Solidarity With Gaza’
This is a guest post by Michelle Sieff, Assistant Director of the American Jewish Committee’s Africa Institute.
Mahmood Mamdani, the eminent professor of Government at Columbia University, has published an appalling article on Zimbabwe in the London Review of Books.
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