LETTER: Israel and China are comrades in oppression

Allan Wolman’s concern for the human rights of the Uighurs of Xinjiang is commendable. (“Rights bodies must condemn China for its Uighur abuses”, June 24). However, it is perplexing that Wolman chose to condemn human rights violations 6,000km away from Tel Aviv without apparently noticing the flagrant and gross human rights violations perpetrated on his doorstep. 

Israel and China are comrades in oppression. And yet they differ in their abuses of the subjugated. Israel operates about 100 fixed checkpoints to control the movement of Palestinians; China does not have them. Israel has separate roads for the exclusive use of Jews; there are no roads in Xinjiang designated solely for Han Chinese use.

Israeli settlers, with the assistance of the Israel Defence Force  regularly destroy Palestinian trees and crops; China does not indulge in such acts of vandalism. Since 1948 Israel has destroyed more than 130,000 homes in historical Palestine; since 1949 China has not displayed such destructive mania in Xinjiang. Israel has used aerial bombardment to wreak death and destruction on unarmed civilians; China has not used air power on Uighurs. 

But the two states do have much in common. Both are supremacist regimes, one Zionist and the other Han Chinese. Both are involved in changing the demographics in their favour — Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while China has used mass Han Chinese migration to overwhelm the Uighurs. In addition, they both practice mass arrests and incarceration, detention without trial and brutal repression against those who resist the occupier. 

So, while I agree with Wolman that “human rights abuses anywhere across the world are anathema,” we must not be afraid to sweep in front of our own door before pointing our finger elsewhere. In SA civil society is determined to safeguard its hard-won human rights. 

Gunvant Govindjee 

Ormonde

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