03-Nov-15: Hamas' Africa strategy might already be paying dividends

Hamas arch-terrorist Khaled Meshaal speaks to a Johannesburg press conference, October 19, 2015 [Image Source]

This past Sunday, an advertisement placed and paid for by a pro-Israel group in South Africa and attacking the terrorist organization Hamas was due to appear in that country's Sunday Times newspaper. But it failed to appear. Two days before, and after its placement had been paid for, someone took the decision not to allow it to be published.

A Facebook posting by the South African Zionist Federation explains what happened:

This is what the Sunday Times did not want South Africans to know about Hamas!!!! This advert was fully paid to run as a full page advert in the Sunday Times tomorrow. On Friday afternoon at 3 PM the Sunday Times pulled the advert and cancelled publication. These are the facts that they did not want their readership to know about Hamas! — at Sunday Times ZA.

If the Sunday Times has explained its decision, we're not aware of it. It's an important and influential platform. South Africa's largest Sunday paper, it has nationwide distribution, as well as being sold in neighbouring Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland for an overall estimated readership of about 3.5 million [source]. Times Media Group whose shares are listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, owns the paper and describes itself in these generous terms:

In a continent where economic progress and social reforms are critical goals, TMG enriches lives, by offering solutions for knowledge, information, leisure and business. That is the essence of what makes TMG the company that it is.

The TMG corporate footprint is large, covering multiple businesses in media, broadcasting and content, and retail. The owners take a serious-sounding approach to their corporate responsibilities, publishing a "Code of Conduct" as part of their 2013 annual report, assuring stakeholders that

ethical practices underpin our corporate code of conduct.  Accordingly, our people are expected to uphold fair practices by: Maintaining the highest standards of integrity in all business relationships; Carefully guarding against influences that may compromise independent judgement and action; Using their approved authority to act in TMG’s best interests at all times. The Group’s code of conduct details the behaviour expected from employees at every level when dealing with stakeholders including customers, shareholders, suppliers, colleagues and competitors.

How exactly this "highest standards of integrity" policy works in today's South Africa is not clear to us outsiders. What we do sense from here is that South Africa has taken an approach to the Islamist terrorists of Hamas that places them in a very small and select group of jihad-receptive countries.

We wrote here just two weeks ago ["20-Oct-15: Children and what a soulless society can do to them"] about the visit to the late Nelson Mandela's homeland of Khaled Mashal, Hamas' political leader (since 2004) and the fact that he was an official and honored guest at a conference of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC). The conference was to discuss "Palestinian identity issues, in addition to an independent, sovereign Palestinian state, free from Israeli occupation" according to a news report we quoted from Xinhua. We posted a photo of the arch-terrorist meeting with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma. We noted that they exchanged gifts, and signed "a letter of intent for the two governments to build a lasting relationship".

Does the ANC also stand with the knife-equipped children seeking innocent Israeli victims, or with the hate-driven adults who put them there? Does South Africa's president subscribe, as Hamas does, to the uplifting value of viciously murdering unarmed Jews and other Israelis as part of its efforts to “free Al-Aqsa”? We never managed to find out.

But we do understand, thanks to this Times of Israel report from yesterday, that Mashaal

told a government-endorsed rally in South Africa that the wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis would continue. Referring to the terror attacks as “the Jerusalem intifada,” Mashaal told a crowd of several hundred supporters waving Hamas’s white-and-green flag in Cape Town that “the uprisings shall continue until freedom is achieved and the land is for Palestine and its people.” He compared the Palestinian cause to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. “South Africa, you have achieved your freedom, the people of Palestine are aspiring to attain their freedom,” he said. “Do not expect that they should stop with the uprising, do not expect that they should stop with the resistance.”

There's evidence that Meshaal's message was receive with ardour and enthusiasm - even before he started speaking:

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal received a massive welcome as he walked on to the stage at a rally being held for him and his delegation in Cape Town on Tuesday. People rushed to the aisle, protected by bodyguards, to try and touch him as he bounded up the steps of the Darul Islamic Campus in Greenhaven east of Cape Town. He smiled through a salt and pepper beard and waved back at people in the the packed hall. ["Hamas leader gets huge welcome in Cape Town", News24 South Africa | October 21, 2015]

We also know, from a Palestinian source, that other voices inside the ANC ascribe considerable importance to the evolving brotherly ties:

ANC’s Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe said, “we are starting a relationship with Hamas…we are happy today we are together, we are formally formalizing our relationship. We’ll exchange delegations, we’ll share experiences and we’ll talk to each other regularly”...The ANC did host the Palestinian Authority with full state honors in Pretoria late last year where there is an accredited PA ambassador. But sentiment in South Africa has turned to the view that the idea of a two-state solution needs to be revisited. Israel’s creating of facts on the ground through occupation (deemed illegal by the UN) and constructing the apartheid wall (also deemed illegal) has made Oslo unworkable... It is felt that the two-state solution would simply entrench the old status quo of Israeli control of Palestinians, and would leave the West Bank divided into at least twenty cantons and multiple border posts. In other words, Palestinian freedom of movement and economic activity would be forever be policed by Israel in an unequal, if not militarily dominated, relationship. It is in this light that it is believed the Hamas visit to South Africa is an historic occasion, an occasion that could open the door to a whole new discourse on the Palestinian question.

The paid advert that was refused at the last moment by South Africa's Sunday Times

Clearly there is more than interpretation of what Hamas stands for, and what its message for South Africans actually is.

Which brings us back to the Sunday Times advertisement that was pulled at the last minute. Here (according to PoliticsWeb) is what it was going to say:

ACCORDING TO HAMAS, JIHAD IS THE ONLY WAY TO ACHIEVE ‘PEACE’
AND IT GETS WORSE
Unlike South Africans, who achieved peaceful resolutions to conflict through dialogue, negotiation, truth and reconciliation, the Political Head of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, emphatically insists:
“Jihad and armed resistance are the true and correct way… There will be no concession on an inch of the land”
The Hamas Charter openly and brazenly rejects peace initiatives and claims that Jihad is the only solution.
“Peace initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem, except by Jihad” – Hamas Charter
And it gets worse
In direct opposition to the South African Bill of Rights, Hamas has openly declared homosexuality a crime punishable by death.
Freedom of religion is treated with equal contempt.
In Gaza, Hamas stands accused of forcing Christians to convert to Islam, digging up Christian cemeteries and warning Christians to ‘cooperate’ under threats of violence – including the threat of rape to the wives and daughters of Christian men.
Hamas forces abduct, torture, attack and summarily execute those who oppose them.
And it gets worse
Virtually every country in the world, including most Arab states, deny entry to Khaled Mashal.
Hamas is unwelcome is Amman, Cairo, and Riyadh. All have closed their doors to Hamas leadership.
The European Union, USA, Canada, Australia and many democracies keep Hamas on their terrorism blacklist.
And yet, Hamas is warmly welcomed in South Africa.
Why? It defies logic.
Given their intractable position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and their fundamentalist interpretation of Jihad as holy war, what good can it bring?
WE urge the ANC to act as a credible mediator for peace in the Middle East and not to embrace a violent Jihadist organisation, by welcoming them into our midst.
A Hamas-style, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab ideology is the last thing South Africa needs.
Do you know who Hamas really is?
Find out more at www.realfacts.co.za

And here's what the people placing the unpublished ad say of themselves:

As a team of young South Africans, we have grown up through the very unique transition and very exciting times of the democracy of South Africa. In the eyes of many, including us, the majority of this transition has been due to the selfless work, perseverance and commitment of many important individuals with a shared vision and common goal.
Realfacts.co.za shares this same vision. Peace in the Middle East. A vision shared by five individuals wanting to make a difference.We emanate diversity at our very core and share one thing in common, a vision to spread the truth and facts about the situation in the Middle East.
All being former university students based in Johannesburg, constantly at the forefront of prejudice on both the sides of, Israel and Palestine, we wanted to create a platform where normal people that lead normal lives, can come to a website and actually educate themselves with Real Facts, with no bias or ulterior motives on the current situation
We all stand for PEACE. We all want PEACE in the Middle East. We all want to know and share the Real Facts.
Welcome to Realfacts.co.za

Hamas, proud of its blood-drenched Islamist heritage, has never been shy about advertising what it stands for and without visible apology: see The Hamas Charter. It has consequently been proscribed, banned and in various ways rendered an outlaw organization by many governments including the United States, the European Union, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and others.

Will the canceling of an anti-Hamas advertisement contribute to reverse such legal steps? Probably not. But to the extent that South Africans are getting a partial, and largely sanitized, version of what Hamas is and what it stands for, it's hard to see the Sunday Times getting bonus points for complying with its owners' code of conduct.

Everywhere, people need to be better informed of the corrosive impact of terrorism. On this challenge, and in measurable ways, South Africa appears to be taking several steps backwards.

20-Oct-15: Children and what a soulless society can do to them

Mandela [Image Source: UNICEF]

 "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."

Nelson Mandela 1918-2013, addressing the launch of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Pretoria, South Africa, May 8, 1995 [source]

Hamas, which more closely resembles a death cult than a functioning government, organized a rally this past Friday night in Rafah, Gaza Strip. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these representative photos below, published originally in Arabic-language channels and not (yet) syndicated by the major news agency names, sum up the self-inflicted tragedy of the Palestinian Arabs.

They also highlight the hypocrisy of those who ignore the evidence in front of their faces in the rush to embrace the Islamists and their "struggle" to "resist". So does the utter silence emanating from the many child-protection agencies around the world who published heart-rending images of under-nourished or war-impacted or genitally-mutilated children (as they should) but will not touch the rampant, highly public child abuse that is a daily reality in the world of the jihadists, and in particular the dark netherworld of Hamas. What they have done to their children is beyond forgiveness,

Now bear in mind as you glance at them what's going on in the late Nelson Mandela's homeland the last few days:

Khaled Mashal, Hamas' political leader since 2004, was invited to participate in a conference of South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), and will meet South African President Jacob Zuma. ANC said the conference will discuss "Palestinian identity issues, in addition to an independent, sovereign Palestinian state, free from Israeli occupation." [Xinhua, October 19, 2015]

And this:

Jacob Zuma (as head of the African National Congress) honors
his invited guest and arch-terrorist Khaled Meshaal
in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday [Image Source]

The ANC released a number of tweets chronicling the meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and the South African president and a press conference that followed. Photos shared by the ANC showed South African leaders exchanging gifts with Mashal as well as the signing of a letter of intent for the two governments to build a lasting relationship. Many of the tweets expressed solidarity with Palestine. One quoted South African politician Gwede Mantashe saying, "we will call on all progressive countries to support the cause of the Palestinian people." Another tweet said that the "ANC is always on the side of the oppressed. Hence we support Palestine and Western Sahara." [i24news, October 19, 2015] 

No immediate word on how firmly the ANC stands behind children with daggers or the adults who put them there. Or whether they subscribe, as Hamas does, to the uplifting value of viciously murdering unarmed Jews and other Israelis as part of its efforts to “free Al-Aqsa”.

The source of the photos of knife-clutching children below, all taken on Friday October 16, 2015 at a Hamas event on the streets of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, is Donia Al-Watan, a Palestinian Arab website that describes itself as "the first electronic Palestinian newspaper concerned with Palestinian affairs, along with the regional and global news... [and] classified as one of the most Arabic websites that enhance democracy."

Child victim

Child victim

Child victim

Adult role model

Universal Children's Day takes place on November 20, exactly a month from today. The annual event was initiated by the UN General Assembly in 1954 as a way of encouraging states to "to promote mutual exchange and understanding among children" and similar blah blah. But also "to initiate action to benefit and promote the welfare of the world's children", a noble and concrete goal that seems as far away from being achieved today as it ever was in the past. We don't say that the vicious and violent grip that Hamas has on the children on the Gaza Strip can be reversed by concerted action by the world's nations. That would be asking for too much, and it isn't going to happen. But that they remain utterly silent in the face of the murder-centric child abuse that goes on in front of the cameras daily and nightly in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip - that's beyond unconscionable. 

Not for the first time, we ask: where is UNICEF? Or Save the Children, or Defence for Children Internation­al-Palestine (DCIP) or Terre des Hommes, or the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement or even the dishonorable Amnesty International (on whom we have not yet entirely given up hope)? Or the other well-funded, high-profile public interest organizations that purport to care for the welfare of children but that take so little interest in the unfolding tragedy of the children of the Palestinian Arabs and the terror-obsessed jihadists cheating them of their future?

Some previous posts of ours (backwards, chronologically) on this very painful theme:

• 12-Feb-15: It's Red Hand Day. Do you know where the children are?
• 24-Nov-14: Destroying their own children's lives is not the worst option for the terrorists. In their eyes, it may even be the best
• 22-Nov-14: What youths and children are good for
• 02-Nov-14: Understanding what they really mean when the terrorists say children are their main concern
• 08-Oct-14: Children, innocence, rhetoric and savagery
• 15-Aug-14: Terror and children
• 27-Jan-13: Hamas' new army of children: Will the UN's and foreign funders' role in this scandal be critiqued by the news-reporting media?
• 24-Jan-13: Sacrificing the lives of an entire generation of adolescents on their altar of hatred, the thugs of Hamas boast of plans to create a children's army
• 21-Jul-14: War, civilians, children: what the terrorists of Hamas can teach us
• 2-Jul-14: Our side and theirs: an email to a well-meaning friend
• 27-Jan-14: In Gaza, a death cult celebrates its graduating class
• 15-Jan-14: When a society praises itself for turning its children into human bombs, whose problem is that?
• 8-Oct-13: Children and their indispensable role in the conflict
• 3-Jul-13: Educating the next generation: an early-summer reflection on asymmetry
• 18-Jun-13: They want their children to become killers and they say why. The rest of us are left with questions
• 4-May-13: So you thought the people who raise children to become "the fertilizer of their land" could sink no further?
• 29-Apr-13: Hamas demonstrates importance of solid education
• 17-Mar-13: A little village in the hills, and the monsters it spawns

07-Apr-15: In South Africa, they're pondering how children are converted into murdering terrorists

South Africa's Minister of State Security

From an Associated Press report published today:

South African security authorities say a teenager was taken off an airline flight because the 15-year-old girl was suspected to be leaving her home in Cape Town to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria... [T]he girl has been returned to her family's care... the State Security department was investigating how the teenager had paid for the flight and how she may have been recruited. [AP, April 7, 2015]

Now here are extracts of some slightly fuller background as investigated by a South African news channel ["ISIS is here", and also "How 15-year-old SA girl was recruited by ISIS", published today, April 7, 2015]:

As details emerged about how the Kenwyn teenager was recruited through social media, the State Security Department last night said there had been other "possible recruitments". Brian Dube, spokesman for State Security Minister David Mahlobo, told The Times: "This is not the first case to come to the fore that we are currently investigating. "We have been picking up information about other possible recruitments in this country." He refused to identify other recruits...
[T]he teenager, whose mother is a medical doctor, was missing when she failed to answer her grandparents' call for her to come to breakfast. She had left the house after locking her bedroom door and escaping through a window, reportedly leaving behind documents linking her to Islamic State. It was initially thought by the police that she was a runaway and the family were turned away by Landsowne police, who told them, in contravention of police procedure, that they had to wait 24 hours before reporting her missing...
The entire family is being questioned by State Security to establish exactly how the girl, who lives in a neighbourhood of both Christians and Muslims, was recruited by IS and what her role was to be. Neighbours said many youths in the neighbourhood had been recruited... The girl, who cannot be named, was released into her parents' custody... The family of the girl, who lives in a modest double-storey house, refused to comment...
A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "There are a number of radical Muslims in the area, some of whom are extremists. But most of the Muslims here are moderates."
The girl was found aboard the BA aircraft, with a ticket to Saudia [sic] Arabia, moments before it was due to lift off for Johannesburg...
Her family, however, told Crime Line that she was active on social media. One of her last tweets, posted in 2012 read: "When Muslims are massacred daily, it's nothing, as soon as one Jew is killed, the whole world wants 'justice' i#PrayForGaza."
...Some reports suggest that up to 200 South Africans have been recruited. In February, The Times reported the UN Security Council's warning that about 11 international terrorists were considering using South Africa as a base. The UN said the 11 were linked to al-Qaeda and IS. Muslim Judicial Council spokesman Nabeweya Malick worried about teens falling prey to IS. "We need to find out who is involved."

Indeed we do. But not everyone sees it as a major concern.

For instance, there's this follow-up report ["SA is safe from terrorism: Mahlobo"] from South Africa's state broadcaster, published only this morning:

State Security Minister David Mahlobo has assured South Africans that they are safe from any form of terrorism. This after a 15-year-old school girl from Cape Town was taken off a flight to Johannesburg by police who suspected that she was going to board an international flight to join the Islamic State... He says terrorism is a worldwide problem, but security officials in the country are working tirelessly to ensure the safety of South Africans. "It doesn’t mean there are terrorists in South Africa, but the use of social networks and technology is a challenge. They are using technology to attract children. But we know our security cluster officials in this country are working tirelessly to ensure our people are safe. People must calm down. There are no terrorists in the country."

Actually the minister says much more in the video version of the interview embedded below.

The interviewer points out, before turning to the minister, that it's clear ISIS's recruitment drive is extensive, South Africa is not immune and the terrorists are making real inroads. What do we know, she asks reasonably, about the modus operandi of these people? How prevalent is recruitment in South Africa? If it can reach a fifteen year-old, there must be face-to-face interaction, she says. If a youngster is going to travel by plane, there must have been an adult in the story. 

Not so, says the politician. "They are trying to recruit people without putting their foot in the country." He says it's all about what he calls "access to gadgets and technology... Our biggest challenge is cyberspace... social platforms... The state alone cannot deal with this alone; we need the support of the parents... Let's not be more overstating the issue... They are trying to work on the minds of unsuspecting young people... the vulnerabilities of various communities in terms of unemployment, inequalities... using ideology for one reason or another..."

We don't know South Africa well. But we take off our hat to the self-confident Minister of State Security and his ability to explain the hottest story of today without once mentioning Islam, Islamism, or jihad. Nor does he refer to South African media reports from February 2015 ["Is this the first South African fighting for the ISIS?", Daily Maverick, February 22, 2015] profiling Abu Hurayra Al-Afriki who also "refers to himself as al-Hindi, ‘the Indian’, suggesting that he is a South African of Indian origin" [source].

As for whether the South African security apparatus is going to find practitioners, promoters and/or recruiters actively serving the terrorist cause, this might be hard to do if the agents know success will mean contradicting the brash senior politician in charge of their careers.

On the other hand... Just four weeks ago, the South African media carried reports - like this and this - warning about

11 international terrorists who may consider South Africa their safe haven. The 11, including two terrorist organisations, have been labelled by the United Nations Security Council as being directly linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) of Iraq and Syria. South African authorities have been instructed to be on the lookout for them. This week, the Presidency published a proclamation in the government gazette listing the 11 people and groups, identified as financiers, recruiters and logistics supporters, from France, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq... South Africa has been used as a base for terror activities in the past. Hussein Solomon, a senior professor at the University of Free State’s political studies department, said South Africa had played a key role in global terror networks since the 1990s. “Al-Qaeda has had a presence here since 1997. “By 1995, there were five Hezbollah camps in South Africa. The list of the who’s who of the terrorism zoo in South Africa goes on and on.” Solomon said that in 1999 the FBI had arrested a man at Cape Town International Airport for the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. “The 2007 London bombers got their orders to launch their attack from a terror cell in Johannesburg.” More recently, he said, during the 2010 Fifa World Cup an al-Shabaab terrorist attack against US and UK teams and supporters, to be launched from Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township by Somalis, was foiled. “It was foiled after a cellphone call from South Africa was intercepted by US authorities monitoring al-Shabaab in Somalia.” Solomon said when Osama bin Laden was killed, documents penned by him were found in his Abottabad compound authorising operations to be conducted in South Africa because it was an “open country”. “The attack on Kenya’s Westgate Mall, organised by UK national Samantha Lewthwaite – the White Widow – who used a South African passport, has brought huge pressure on our government.” ...Explaining why South Africa was a viable base for terror groups, Solomon said the country’s high corruption levels and ease at which passports and identity documents could be obtained were motivating factors... He said the country’s intelligence agencies were focusing their resources on journalists and tender scandals instead of targeting terror groups. [HeraldLIVE South Africa, February 20, 2015]

6-Feb-13: At the United Arab Emirates foreign ministry, they want you to know their hands are tied

The updated Karabus page on the UAE foreign ministry website

Here's an update to our posting of a week ago ["31-Jan-13: UAE's foreign ministry is "closely following" Prof. Karabus' nightmare"] about how the diplomats of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are seeking to soft pedal the disgraceful treatment being meted out as we speak to the distinguished retired South African doctor, Prof. Cyril Karabus. [For links to the background - see the end of this post.]

Visitors to the UAE foreign ministry website will have seen a short, even terse, statement about Prof. Karabus' case, highlighting the offences with which he is charged in relation to a three year old patient: "failing to give her a blood transfusion" and "forging a medical report". There's little there of an informative nature other than the headline which may leave some readers wondering what sort of "closely following" the UAE's diplomats are doing if they fail to take account of the long list of deeply disturbing aspects of the Karabus case we mentioned in our post.

Readers who go back to the UAE foreign ministry's website now will see a longer treatment of the Karabus case. Under the identical headline, they have added words and sentences but neither insight nor honesty; it's just self-justification of a kind that many will find distasteful. The key addition is this specious argument:

As is the case in South Africa, the judicial process in the United Arab Emirates is independently and wholly overseen and managed by the Federal Supreme Court.  The Government of the United Arab Emirates cannot and does not interfere in the independent judicial process. 
The UAE Constitution states that: “All persons are equal before the law, without distinction between citizens of the Federation in regard to race, nationality, religious belief and social status”.  Professor Karabus will be tried on this basis and in accordance with international standards. 
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE will continue to keep South African Authorities up to date with developments regarding this matter
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs understands the difficulties involved for the family of any person who is on trial, especially when a trial is taking place in a country that is not their own. However, it is imperative that the proper judicial process is followed. 

We think the double-talking and hypocrisy of these foreign office apologetics speak far more eloquently than the pseudo-diplomatic tone. 

The frail 77 year-old doctor who was originally prosecuted in his absence without ever being notified of the charges or afterwards of the conviction, has been a prisoner of the UAE since August 2012. The prosecutors have still not produced the evidence file and his case has been adjourned without a substantive hearing 16 times. 

The crushing injustice of the Karabus case shines a harsh light on how life is lived in those oil-and-money-drenched corners of the world where democracy, open government and legal due process are far-off and foreign notions. In the UAE, you can get your hands on most things that money can buy. But that has never included justice or decency, not even in their bursting-at-the-seams duty-free shops.

Some of our previous posts about this painful subject for your further reading:

• 26-Sep-12: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai
• 15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans
• 21-Oct-12: Update on Prof. Cyril Karabus and his ongoing nightmare in United Arab Emirates
• 5-Nov-12: Travel update: Additional things you might want to know about transiting through Dubai
• 13-Dec-12: Kafka would certainly be proud: Update on the doctor arrested at Dubai airport
• 25-Dec-12: The Emirates scandal: the missing evidence turns up
• 1-Jan-13: Prof. Cyril Karabus faces his thirteenth hearing in a United Arab Emirates court tomorrow
• 2-Jan-13: For readers concerned with what is still being done to a distinguished healer of children with cancer
• 7-Jan-13 [UPDATED]: Karabus affair: UAE attorney-general "failed to turn up"
• 29-Jan-13: A development in the scandalous UAE 'prosecution' of Prof. Karabus
• 29-Jan-13: UAE "Justice" officials fiddle: The scandalous treatment of Prof. Karabus goes on and on
• 31-Jan-13: UAE's foreign ministry is "closely following" Prof. Karabus' nightmare 

13-Dec-12: Report from Dubai: Making Kafka proud

"The Trial", the nightmarish novel of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, was written in 1914 and is one of Franz Kafka's best-known works. A contemporary variant of that nightmare is unfolding in Dubai.

When the Australian airline Qantas recently announced a commercial deal with the Gulf-based airline Emirates, we started researching what this might mean to ordinary travelers to and from Australia. Then we began understanding its possible impact on Jews and Israelis. Then we came across the ongoing, scandalous and worrying story of a gentle, frail and very distinguished South African doctor caught up in the kind of nightmare that can only happen in places where the rule of law and transparency in the imposition of power are a form of inside joke.

While it's an affair that directly affects just one man, the implications (as we noted in a previous post) of what is being done to Prof. Cyril Karabus are horrific. We feel air travelers planning to fly Qantas at some future time need to know them. The background is in these three earlier posts:

• 26-Sep-12: Dubai, Dubai, Dubai
• 15-Oct-12: Back to Dubai: Australian travelers might want to factor this report into their plans
• 21-Oct-12: Update on Prof. Cyril Karabus and his ongoing nightmare in United Arab Emirates

In brief: Prof. Karabus is a notable and honored professor of medicine with a lifetime of service to the community in his native South Africa. He is now 78. He passed through Dubai airport in the UAE on August 18, 2012 en route to his home after taking part in his son's wedding in Canada. In Dubai, he found himself under arrest; he was notified that he had been convicted a decade earlier on charges arising from the death of a three year old child he had treated for terminal cancer. No notification had ever been given to him at the time of the child's death or since then. He knew nothing about it until he was arrested in transit at Dubai airport. In court, having been obliged to hire lawyers, he denied any involvement in the charge of killing a young leukaemia patient. The prosecution was unable FOUR times to bring the files on the basis of which the elderly doctor was convicted to court. So four times, his application for bail could not proceed and he remained incarcerated in an appalling prison. Then finally he was granted bail, but was and still is unable to leave Dubai.

Now this week's update, via a limited-circulation South African newspaper:

South African paediatric oncologist Prof Cyril Karabus (78), of Claremont, Cape Town, held on bail in Abu Dhabi since August 18 on a 10-year-old charge for which he was tried and found guilty in absentia, relating to the death of a child patient from leukaemia, is again in the ignominious situation of having his trial postponed for a further week, until December 13, due to a “missing folder” with details of the case history. Said his daughter, Sarah: “There is still no sign of the missing folder, and we are certain that it will never be found. If they find it, it will show the world that they convicted him erroneously, so we suspect it will remain ‘missing’. “I am not sure how long this farce will continue - even our lawyers are not sure of that,” she added... At the time of going to press on Wednesday, Michael Bagraim, the attorney representing Karabus, explained: “The trial is destined to reconvene tomorrow, Thursday December 13. At the last hearing, the prosecution, once again requested a postponement of a further month due to the fact that they were still unable to find the paperwork and the necessary hospital file. “Prof Karabus did address the judge by stating that he thought the request was an insult to the court and a waste of the country’s money. The judge tended to agree with this statement, and addressed the prosecution harshly about the continual postponements. “The judge then said that he would only agree to a seven-day postponement and he wanted a full explanation from the prosecution as to why they wanted to continue prosecuting without any paperwork. We are feeling quite hopeful about the appearance tomorrow, but obviously we are in the court’s hands. “There was a medical scare at the last hearing as Prof Karabus did indicate chest pains in the middle of the trial. He now appears to be alright, but certainly is very frail. We have hope in that even the newspapers in the UAE are indicating that Prof Karabus might not be guilty,” said Bagraim.

We're trying to learn the outcome of today's hearing.