By Dr Sheree Trotter on Newsroom…
Dr Sheree Trotter calls out a column published at IdeasRoom last week which she says equated the war against Ukraine with the situation between Palestine and Israel.
Prof Richard Jackson and John Hobbs’ thinly veiled attack on Israel, under the guise of concern for human rights, is particularly abhorrent given a recent spate of terrorist attacks. Up to 20 Israelis have been killed in the past few weeks, in six separate terror incidents, from drive-by shootings to axe attacks.
Their recent article implies an equivalence between Ukrainians and Palestinians. This is absurd. The unjustifiable attack on a sovereign democratic country by an authoritarian leader seeking to restore the Russian empire bears no resemblance to Israel’s attempts to defend its civilians from thousands of rockets and dozens of terrorist attacks.
In fact, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has drawn inspiration from Israel, precisely because it is a sovereign democratic state that, since its declaration of independence in 1948 at the end of British rule, has been forced to continually defend itself against Arab and Islamist rejectionism and imperialism.
Israel accepted the 1947 UN resolution (supported by New Zealand) that proposed the creation of two states in British-ruled Palestine – one for Jews and one for Arabs, while Arab leaders rejected the proposal. Upon declaration of independence, the reborn Jewish nation was invaded by TransJordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq.
Read the full article on Newsroom here.
