praag.co.uk

Well-known Israeli activist Avigdor Eskin is visiting South Africa to further the Afrikaner struggle for freedom and to build upon the historic Israeli-Afrikaner relationship of cooperation.

Eskin was met at the Johannesburg airport by a delegation from PRAAG, the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group, and discussions on how to counter anti-Semitism and anti-Afrikaner discrimination in South Africa were held.

Both Eskin and Dr. Dan Roodt, leader of PRAAG, expressed their contempt for “the anti-Semitic and anti-Afrikaner fascist Desmond Tutu who first prepared the way for Afrikaner genocide with his flawed and one-sided Truth Commission and who is now fomenting anti-Jewish hatred with his calls for economic, cultural and academic boycotts of Israel”.

The Russian-born Eskin who now resides in Jerusalem said: “Afrikaner intellectuals must not be taken in by the anti-Semitic propaganda of Tutu and others, calling for academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.” He was referring to a recent petition supported by Kader Asmal, Allan Boesak, Breyten Breytenbach, John Dugard, Antjie Krog, Mahmood Mamdani, Barney Pityana and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in which the University of Johannesburg was urged to sever its ties with the Ben Gurion University in Israel.

Eskin strongly supports the Afrikaner movement towards self-determination and a volkstaat, as advocated by the Freedom Front Plus and a host of Afrikaner civil society groups. He will be meeting with a variety of Afrikaner organisations and dissidents, from the Boeremag to the Freedom Front Plus and will be addressing the Nation of the Covenant rally in Bothaville over the weekend, bringing a special blessing from Jerusalem.

According to Eskin, “Israel is a religious and spiritual society that has much in common with Afrikanerdom. There is a lot of sympathy among Israelis for the plight of Afrikaners who are being dispossessed of their land, institutions and birthright in the country which they themselves fought for and developed over centuries. Whereas the language rights of Palestinians are respected with public signs in Arabic throughout Israel, I have yet to see a single public sign in Afrikaans in ANC-ruled South Africa. After only my first few days in the country, I can attest to the profound alienation and sense of being second-class citizens expressed by most of the Afrikaners I have encountered. They also fear for their lives and their property and have no faith in a corrupt, ineffectual police force.”

Eskin also expressed his concern about Afrikaner political prisoners, following the refusal of medical attention to former Conservative Party MP Clive Derby-Lewis whose leg became gangrenous as a result, as well as the recent arrest of Willem Ratte who is apparently being mistreated in the Witbank prison and not getting food, water and medical attention. “I will certainly notify the appropriate human-rights authorities both in Israel and in Russia where I still have relationships at government level about the conditions under which dissidents are being held in South Africa.”