Gareth Cliff sides with Israel following deadly shootings in mass Gaza protest
2018-05-23 20:11
Jenna Etheridge
Gareth Cliff. (Twitter)
Radio personality Gareth Cliff has courted controversy again, this time by declaring that Israel is entitled to protect itself from Palestinians "clearly hellbent on violence".
And he has pointed a finger at South African media for "complete bias" in the way it has interpreted what is happening.
A voice note of him sharing his views on his Cliff Central online radio morning show on Wednesday was widely distributed on social media.
The online radio website describes Cliff's 06:00-09:00 show as providing uncensored, real conversation that is meant to be provocative.
"I looked at what was going on over there and I have done quite a lot of reading with quite a lot of the news articles from around the world and this claim that Israel shot demonstrators is just a blatant lie. It's an absolute falsehood," Cliff said.
"This was an attempt to invade a sovereign nation and border communities to indiscriminately slaughter civilians."
At least 60 Palestinians were shot dead and thousands injured after Israeli troops fired from across a border fence at a mass protest in Gaza, according to an Associated Press report.
It reported that the high casualty had revived criticism from around the world of Israel's open-fire policies, with numerous countries calling for a probe of the violence.
Cliff claimed that a successful "border breach" would have resulted in "real carnage on both sides".
He said thousands of people would have streamed through the fence "and there would have been fires set, communities would have engaged in war".
"What must Israel do? Let it happen? Let their citizens be killed by a bunch of people who are clearly hellbent on violence? Tell me how that's an equal situation for both sides. It really isn't."
While some Twitter users applauded Cliff for sharing his views, many criticised him for siding with Israel.
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