The debate over Justice Goldstone continues – The Atlantic correspondent Jefferey Goldberg and Jonathan Chait at The New Republic both recently wrote about Goldstone’s time as a judge in apartheid South Africa. Sasha Polakow-Suransky again draws attention to Israel’s own involvement with the apartheid regime, which involved several decades of arms business.
***********
Hizbul Islam attacks clinic outside Mogadishu – In addition to pushing resident pirates out of Haradhere last week, members of Hizbul Islam killed several staffers and disrupted aid distribution at a health center near the Somalian capital. The clinic, run by Dr. Hawa Abdi for over a decade, had become the nucleus of a sprawling refugee camp. Support from Médicins Sans Frontières and the UN World Food Program allowed Dr. Abdi to distribute food and medical aid to thousands of Somali families. She hired guards, built a prison, and defended against raiders. Hizbul Islam is now holding several staffmembers hostage, and they also stole much of what was in the clinic’s storerooms. So – while Hizbul Islam fighters disapprove of pirating, they also can’t allow a woman to run a vital source of food aid and medicine for Somalia’s refugees.
