Saturday, October 23, 2010

SuperVic?

Faster than a speeding (IDF) bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's SuperVic! Yes, it's SuperVic - strange visitor from apartheid South Africa who came to Australia with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. SuperVic - who can change the course of mighty Mandelas, bend Australian politicians with his bare hands, and, disguised as Vic Alhadeff, mild-mannered former Australian Jewish News reporter turned Israel lobby supremo, fights the never ending battle for Strewth, Justice (Israeli-style) and the Zionist Way:

"Vic Alhadeff is the current chief executive officer of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and an outspoken supporter of Israel. Vic grew up in South Africa after his parents managed to escape from the Holocaust in Europe, but his childhood was still full of anti-Semitic experiences. In later years, as a crusading journalist in South Africa, he played a role in uncovering a scandal which brought down the prime minister of the day. Firmly opposed to apartheid, he worked against it and even confronted Nelson Mandela personally when he felt the great man had been hypocritical... He worked in South Africa where, as chief sub-editor of The Cape Times he played his part in exposing the biggest scandal of the day. 'It was an exciting time, but it was also a time where one could at least feel that one was opposing this horrific racist system and doing what one could. When my wife and I were getting married there was never a doubt in our minds that we would leave South Africa [this was still 1984]. We simply did not want to bring our children up in a country which judged people on the colour of their skin'. They moved to Israel, but Vic knew he couldn't stay there for too long. 'Socially, we were extremely happy there. It's a very robust democracy, and being a journalist at heart I very much appreciated that, and we very much enjoyed the open lifestyle. The problem for me as a journalist was the language. Professionally, I knew that I needed to get back into an English-speaking country'. After moving to Australia, he became editor of The Australian Jewish News. 'It wasn't just writing another story, it was dealing with issues that I care about. That's what took me into Jewish journalism - [issues] ranging from discrimination and anti-Semitism to giving me a platform to promote and advocate on behalf of human rights issues, whether or not they were intrinsically Jewish'." (Former journalist Vic Alhadaff, abc.net.au, 22/1/08)

Nah, it's just a bird:

"Vic Alhadeff, CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, was a sub-editor on The Cape Times newspaper in Cape Town at the time of the Soweto Riots. Then 24 years old, his version of the dark chapter in South Africa's apartheid history is through a journalist's eyes. 'Under the apartheid regime, South Africa had a draconian system of laws, which tightly restricted every word that appeared in the media', he said. As a sub-editor at The Cape Times, Alhadeff's task was to select stories for publication, edit them and design the pages. 'We consistently erred on the side of caution because we knew from harsh experience what the penalties were for violating the censorship laws. Journalists were monitored, banned, arrested, deported', he said. Such close monitoring affected the journalists' choice of content for the paper. Reporting an anti-apartheid demonstration could be construed as promoting the aims of a banned organisation, and it was also an offence to quote banned people or publish their photographs. Such restrictions meant opportunities for whites to hear the voices of the oppressed majority were scarce. 'All of which meant that a lid was kept on awareness of the extent to which anti-apartheid sentiment was brewing. When the Soweto riots erupted therefore, they were a shock to the system', Alhadeff said. He mentioned the earlier watershed protest, when thousands of blacks gathered outside the Sharpeville police station in 1960, and 69 were shot dead. 'Soweto was the other major signal that the iniquitous system called apartheid could not be sustained - that despite the suffocating authoritarian controls, a mass of people was desperate for its place in the sun and could not and would not be denied'." (Riots of change, The Australian Jewish News, 26/6/09)

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