Stop Leila Khaled, stop importing terrorism into South Africa
The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), Cape Council, is dismayed that at this time, after a horrific week of attacks on civilians in France and in Nigeria, carried out by radical Islamists, the BDS movement, unashamedly associates itself with terror by inviting Leila Khaled to South Africa.
BDS brazenly promotes and lauds Khaled, as a ‘plane hijacker'. She is notorious, for in 1969 being the first female terrorist as a member of the terror group ‘Black September' for hijacking a civilian plane. We aver that her invitation here is provocative and insensitive and cannot serve any purpose other than promote the idealisation of violence.
Khaled's terror group was responsible for 4 simultaneous plane hijackings, resulting in airports and airlines having to tighten up on security, which have adversely effected passengers ever since. The moral duplicity of the BDS movement, readily overlooks the harmful fallout stemming from Palestinian terror in the 1960's and 70's, to which travellers since then have become inured; the long security queues, the X-Ray machines, and the body searches, which travellers have to endure at airports, on boarding ships and on entering stadiums and other public places.
These measures have had to be implemented to make the world safe from people like Khaled. The consequences of Khaled's ruthless acts are still being felt and have impeded the civil liberties of ordinary civilians all over the world.
Inviting a notorious convicted terrorist makes a mockery of the claim by the BDS movement that they support and use only nonviolent means to further their aims. Their commitment to boycott any product emanating from Israel and any Israeli that does not conform to their viewpoint, makes them guilty of racial and Religious profiling and their commitment to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth, is warmongering and anything but peaceful.
In view of her terrorist past and in view of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation's support for the French people following the attacks on Charlie Habdo and on the Kosher supermarket in Paris, we call on the South African government to disallow Leila Khaled to enter our country.
Statement issued by Ben Levitas, Acting Chairman, South African Zionist Federation (SAZF), Cape Council, January 14 2015
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
