Urgent Arrest of Tyrant Shimon Peres
22 February 2016
The Media Review Network (MRN) is pleased to announce that urgent steps are underway to secure the arrest of a senior Israeli war criminal, Shimon Peres.
A group of professional lawyers, the Muslim Lawyers Association (MLA), have this morning lodged documents with the National Prosecution Authority, requesting its intervention.
Peres is expected to land in South Africa for a fund raising event hosted by IUA-UFC (Israel United Appeal – United Communal Fund).
We at the MRN, are deeply perturbed that Peres, known for various human rights violations and unspeakable war crimes such as the Qana massacre, has been invited to South Africa.
The MRN fully supports the position taken by the MLA.
Peres has been 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.
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.
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.
The MRN is hopeful that the request to have Peres arrested and charged will be successful. We pledge our full support for this initiative and call on all relevant authorities to give expression to South Africa’s obligations under the provisions of the Rome Statute.
Statement issued by Ibrahim Vawda, Senior Researcher, Media Review Network, 22 February 2016
