Revealed by The Guardian Newspaper: How Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

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Written by Chris McGreal in Washington Chris McGreal in Washington

Published: 24 May 2010 24 May 2010

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Exclusive: Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons

The secret military agreement signed by Shimon Peres, now president of Israel, and P W Botha of South Africa. Photograph: Guardian

Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons.

The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.

The documents, uncovered by an American academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a book on the close relationship between the two countries, provide evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of "ambiguity" in neither confirming nor denying their existence.

The Israeli authorities tried to stop South Africa's post-apartheid government declassifying the documents at Polakow-Suransky's request and the revelations will be an embarrassment, particularly as this week's nuclear non-proliferation talks in New York focus on the Middle East.

They will also undermine Israel's attempts to suggest that, if it has nuclear weapons, it is a "responsible" power that would not misuse them, whereas countries such as Iran cannot be trusted.

South African documents show that the apartheid-era military wanted the missiles as a deterrent and for potential strikes against neighbouring states.

Read more: Revealed by The Guardian Newspaper: How Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

Jews In Arab East Jerusalem Defy Obama Peace Push

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Written by The Associated Press The Associated Press

Published: 21 May 2010 21 May 2010

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Jews In Arab East Jerusalem Defy Obama Peace Push

JERUSALEM May 21, 2010, 01:46 am ET
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127028184

When Devorah Adler's children go to school, they pass underneath the gun-toting security officer who stands on their roof 24-hours a day, walk down a path dotted by surveillance cameras and get in a van manned by another armed guard.

Adler is one of 2,000 Jews who reside in predominantly Arab neighborhoods in the heart of east Jerusalem, part of a movement that aims to ensure Israel's hold on the sector, which Palestinians seek as the capital of a future state.

Revved up by the Obama administration's latest attempts to limit Jewish encroachment in disputed areas of the holy city, they are working furiously to cement and expand their presence.

Adler believes her neighborhood, which Palestinians call Silwan and Jews call the City of David, was where the biblical King David once walked and is the heart of Israel's historic capital. She is willing to brave the occasional rock-throwing and rioting that erupt in the sector — sometimes sparked by Jewish expansion moves — to remain in the place she believes is so tied to Jewish history.

"When it's something that you really believe in, it's something that you're willing to endure certain difficulties for," said Adler, a mother of six.

Nearly 200,000 Jews have moved to east Jerusalem since Israel captured the city in 1967, the vast majority living in Jewish neighborhoods built since that time. Those areas are widely expected to remain part of Israel in any future peace deal, but that does not apply to the Arab neighborhoods where Adler and other Jews have moved in, which Israel would have to cede to the Palestinians for peace.

Jerusalem is the most explosive issue separating Israelis and Palestinians. Israel's government rules out relinquishing sovereignty in any part of the city, and Jewish expansion in east Jerusalem was at the center of a recent diplomatic row between the Obama administration and Israel's hawkish government. Palestinians demand a total halt to Jewish construction in both east Jerusalem and the West Bank, areas they claim for a future state.

Both the settlers and their critics agree on the ultimate goal of their presence here.

"The main objective is to prevent a two-state solution and to prevent the possibility that these areas will become the capital of a Palestinian state," said Hagit Ofran of the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now.

Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib called these residents "the most dangerous factor" preventing an agreement with Israel.

But plans are underway to strengthen their presence. At a complex in the neighborhood of Ras al-Amud now housing 50 Jewish families, a sign boasts of 60 new units to be complete by the end of the year.

Last week, Peace Now reported dozens of new houses for Jews in Arab east Jerusalem: 20 units in one neighborhood, 24 in another and renovations having started to turn an old police station in Ras al-Amud into a 14-unit apartment building.

"If you look at 2009 and 2010, you understand what the trend is here. The trend is massive expansion," said Arieh King, who runs a group that buys land for Jews in east Jerusalem and other areas.

He said his organization's goal is to create "Jewish continuity" from Jerusalem to settlements in the West Bank, making it harder to eventually disconnect the two.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem immediately after capturing it from Jordan during the 1967 Middle East war, a move the international community does not recognize. The Jews living in Arab neighborhoods are there in keeping with Israeli law, often in houses purchased from Arab residents directly or through organizations that buy land for Jewish settlement. To the Palestinians, however, it's pure provocation.

The neighborhoods are prone to conflict. Riots broke out in March as Palestinians, angered by plans for more Jewish housing in east Jerusalem, hurled rocks and set tires ablaze.

Signs of Jewish entrenchment in these neighborhoods are everywhere, beginning with the security equipment and personnel the Israelis bring with them. Israeli police are on constant patrol. Israeli flags fly from several rooftops. Thick metal grates protect the windows of Jewish homes and visitors with no invitation are turned away by security guards.

Palestinian residents are bitter because they say they feel they are being pushed off their land.

"It's not enough that they have west Jerusalem, they need the whole city," said Musa Alawi, an Arab resident of east Jerusalem who owns a falafel shop across the street from the Jewish housing in Ras al-Amud.

Neighborly relations between Arabs and Jews are nearly nonexistent. In the neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, Palestinian homes overlook a giant 91-unit apartment block for Jews. The only contact between the residents is when Jews stop at the local shop to buy milk.

"We don't spend time together. We don't hang out together. I personally support that separation," said Uri Dopelt, an Israeli who has lived in these Arab neighborhoods for the last decade.

In another neighborhood, Sheikh Jarrah, Israeli police acting on a court order evicted Palestinian families and allowed Jewish settlers to move into their homes, which had been owned by Jews before Israel's independence in 1948. Palestinians cannot similarly reclaim lost property in the city's western sector.

Another flashpoint is a seven-story building in Silwan built by an ultranationalist settler group in 2004. The imposing structure houses eight families who live there under 24-hour government guard.

While the government vows never to give up east Jerusalem, the Jews who have moved into the Arab districts mistrust its resolve.

"The government is feeling American pressure," said Dopelt. "People like us in these neighborhoods are the last line in protecting what is ours."

US Campaign's 9th Annual National Organizers' Conference

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Written by US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Published: 20 May 2010 20 May 2010

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Persecution of Palestinian citizens recalls S. Africa apartheid repression

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Written by Adri Nieuwhof and Bangani Ngeleza, The Electronic Intifada Adri Nieuwhof and Bangani Ngeleza, The Electronic Intifada

Published: 19 May 2010 19 May 2010

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[PHOTO: A South African is carried away after being injured by police at an anti-apartheid demonstration in Cape Province, 1985. (UN Photo)]

Two weeks after Israel imposed a travel ban on him, Ameer Makhoul, a well-respected Palestinian leader holding Israeli citizenship, was kidnapped from his home on 6 May in the middle of the night. The persecution of Makhoul brings back memories of the South Africa apartheid regime: he has been held incommunicado and was not allowed access to his lawyer for two weeks; a court order prohibited publication of any information on the case against Makhoul for 90 days; and the so-called evidence justifying the "security charges" against Makhoul remains secret. During the South Africa anti-apartheid movement, similar tactics were used against those advocating for freedom and equal rights, who were accused of terrorism and having links with the Soviet Union.

The detention of Ameer Makhoul follows a wave of repression of Palestinian leaders and activists resisting the occupation in the West Bank, and he is not the only Palestinian community leader in Israel to be receiving such treatment. Internationally-renowned pharmacologist Dr. Omar Said was detained two weeks before Makhoul and a gag order was used to silence the media. Detentions and gag orders are imposed by Israel to intimidate and harass those who speak out and campaign for freedom and equal rights.

The secrecy around the detention of Makhoul and Said is disturbing, because there is no way to determine if their rights are being respected, and human rights organizations have documented Israel's systematic abuse of Palestinian political prisoners' rights. Makhoul wasn't even present for the closed-door hearing at the Petach Tikva court during which his detention was extended. Meanwhile, Said has been subjected to continuous interrogation and allowed a very limited amount of sleep since his arrest on 24 April. Makhoul's attorneys suspect that Makhoul was subject to torture during the 12 days he was prevented from meeting with his legal defense team, and the lawyers' request for the court to release Makhoul's medical records was refused.

The gag order prevents the Israeli press from exposing the secret "evidence" behind Israel's espionage allegations against Makhoul and Said. Similar accusations drove former Knesset member and community leader Azmi Bishara into self-imposed exile to avoid ending up in prison. Hussein Abu Hussein, a lawyer who has defended several Palestinians in Israel against charges of spying, told the Israeli daily Haaretz that espionage laws in Israel were so wide-ranging that an Internet chat or telephone conversation with anyone in an "enemy state" could lead to prosecution. However, Israel's strategy of branding the Palestinian struggle for freedom and equal rights as "terrorist" is not new and the similarities between Israel's behavior and apartheid South Africa's oppression of anti-apartheid activists are striking.

South Africa's Terrorism Act No. 83 of 1967 allowed for the indefinite detention of an individual for terrorism, which was very broadly defined to include anyone they suspected of being engaged or involved in any act against the state. Persons could be held indefinitely since the act allowed detention until all questions were satisfactorily answered or until no further useful purpose would be achieved by keeping the person in detention. The act gave the state the authority to interrogate and to extract information while the public and the families of detainees were not entitled to any information including even the identity or whereabouts of persons detained. Detainees could literally and effectively disappear.

This legislation effectively gave the state license to take away activists' human rights and avoid accountability. Many were kidnapped and imprisoned under this legislation; this law was invoked in the kidnapping and sentencing of Eric Ngeleza and some of his comrades in 1977 for their membership with the banned African National Congress (ANC) and for facilitating the safe passage of freedom fighters into ANC camps outside South Africa. They were branded as terrorists, interrogated and sentenced to long prison terms on Robben Island. In Ngeleza's case, it would be ten years before he was reunited with his family. This fate should not be allowed to befall Makhoul, Said and many other activists whose only "crime" is demanding equal rights in the land of their birth.

The new Israeli military order -- order 1650, for the "Prevention of Infiltration" -- also parallels apartheid South Africa's racist pass laws. The military order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit. The current South African government protested the order as "a gross violation of an individual's human rights," comparing it the notoriously oppressive policy of the apartheid era.

Israel's treatment of Makhoul and Said, so similar to the application of the Terrorism Act in South Africa and other oppressive measures, confirm that Israel is an apartheid state that has no regard for the rights of its own citizens. It is long overdue for Israel, like apartheid South Africa in its time, to be declared a pariah state and isolated until it agrees to respect human rights.

Adri Nieuwhof and Bangani Ngeleza are independent consultants from Switzerland and South Africa, respectively. Nieuwhof supported the South African anti-apartheid struggle as a member of the Holland Committee on Southern Africa. Ngeleza participated in the liberation struggle as an activist with the African National Congress. When he was 11, his father Eric Ngeleza was sentenced to ten years on Robben Island.