Government-supported anti-semitism rises dramatically in South Africa in 2006/2007August 12 2007 -- Anti-semitism has risen to an unprecedented level in South Africa in 2006 and new incidents are reported frequently this year, too -- even though there's only about 80,000 of the 1980's original 120,000 Jews left in South Africa, a report from the international Jewish Board of Deputies has noted.
In fact South Africa recorded its highest number of antisemitic incidents since the start of detailed record keeping on this subject in SA two decades ago.
Hostile atmosphere at government level:
The prevalence of strong anti-Israel sentiment within the mainstream South African political, media and NGO culture clearly contributed to a more hostile atmosphere towards Jews and Jewish institutions and was the obvious motivation for at least half the incidents recorded.
Antisemitic activities peaked during July-October 2006 -- a period coinciding with the war in Gaza and Lebanon and its aftermath. Incidents were of a more direct nature than in the past, including a sharp increase in instances of verbal harassment and intimidation.
Seventy-nine antisemitic incidents were recorded in South Africa in 2006, a more than three-fold increase on the previous year’s total.
The July-October period by itself saw twice as many antisemitic incidents recorded in four months than in the whole of 2005.
Incidents were also of a more in-your-face nature, including verbal abuse, threats and intimidation (40 cases), assault (four), vandalism (seven, cemeteries mainly being targeted) and bomb threats (two). Only a few instances of anonymous hate mail being received were recorded, in contrast to previous years when this was the main form that anti-Jewish harassment took.
More than half of the incidents took place in Johannesburg, with Cape Town accounting for most of the remainder.
The Jewish population is primarily located in the two main urban centres of Johannesburg (50,000) and Cape Town (18,000).
Other Jewish population centers include Durban (2,700), Pretoria (1,500), Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, East London and the Greater Plettenberg Bay area.
Cases of assault included a Jewish youth being struck in the face with a bottle in a Johannesburg pub after objecting to an antisemitic joke and of Durban youths being drawn into an altercation at a Durban nightclub in the course of which one was called a "**** Jew" and another stabbed in the face with a screwdriver.
Threat by farmer - A Pretoria man who is converting to Orthodox Judaism and wears a kippah and tzitzit was threatened and insulted by a farmer for whom he was doing building work. The latter called him a "Judenvark" ("Jewish pig") and pointed his rifle at him.
Anti-Jewish propaganda in the public realm occasionally surfaced.
At a mass Muslim march in Cape Town (most Cape Town-based Muslims are Afrikaans-speaking) protesting against cartoons portraying Mohammed in Danish and other European newspapers, placards reading "Die Grootste Mites: Israel, Die Holocaust, Vryheid, Demokrasie" ("The greatest myths: Israel, the Holocaust, freedom, democracy") were amongst those displayed.
A journalist interviewing some of the marchers recorded (Die Burger, 18/2) that many Muslims blamed the Jews for the cartoons.
Now-retired Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon’s Jewish background was again used against him and his party in the course of a municipal by-election in Cape Town in June 2006. A pamphlet was distributed in the name of the African Muslim Party (but in fact not endorsed by it) prior to the election reading:
- "Did you know Tony Leon and his Israeli wife are supporters of the Racist and Murderous Israeli Government policies...Tony Leon and his wife are Zionists themselves!!...As Muslims, we are warned through the Quran to fight against oppression." The DA nevertheless won the by-election comfortably.
At an academic seminar in Pretoria, sponsored by the Iranian government in December, an ANC Member of Parliament, Farida Mohamed, cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a 'credible historic document' and inferred that the 'historical authenticity of the Holocaust was a matter of debate'.
An ANC spokesman subsequently reiterated his party’s position that 'the Nazi genocide should be condemned with the contempt that it deserves".
Boycots of Jewish business: There are ongoing efforts by Muslim groupings to organize boycotts of businesses that support Israel and sell Israeli produce. During the year, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the umbrella organization for the local trade union movement that claims a membership of two million issued numerous strongly worded statements calling for South Africa to break off all relations with Israel.
In November, COSATU supporters combined with those of the militant Muslim group Qibla in a protest march in Cape Town. A memorandum calling Israel an "illegitimate, terrorist state, racist, expansionist and chauvinistic and has no right to exist" was handed over to the Foreign Minister.
Following objections from the SAJBD the Johannesburg branch of the Goethe-Institut, the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institution operational worldwide, cancelled a scheduled seminar on the Israel-Lebanon conflict, at which Minister Ronnie Kasrils was keynote speaker.
The Board protested against the extreme anti-Israel bias of the organizers of the event. Kasrils had previously likened 'Israel’s tactics in Lebanon to those of the Nazis'.
In the course of strike action against Karan Beef, a Jewish-owned company, antisemitic remarks were made by a representative of the S A Commercial, Catering Workers Union, viz. "this boer is insolent, maybe he's Jewish, I don't know if he's Jewish, but if he's Jewish comrades, we are going to force him to go back to Israel.... If he's Jewish and loyal to Israel its obvious how he came to own a place like this". The SAJBD lodged an official complaint with the Union, which has refused to apologize.
Anti-Jewish employment bias at SABC - A commission report into bias at the SA Broadcasting Corporation revealed that a number of political analysts had been blacklisted by Snuki Zikalala, the chief executive for news and current affairs.
The commission found eight instances in which Zikalala restricted the use of commentators or analysts.
Included in the blacklist was Paula Slier, a Jewish journalist.
Zikalala, as cited in the commission report, justified his ban on the use of news items produced by Slier by saying, "from the movement where I come from we support PLO. But she supported what’s happening in Israel. And then I said to them Paula Slier, we cannot use her on the Middle East issue because we know where she stands". Zikalala’s views contradict the official policy of the SABC, which is to be non-partisan in its news reporting.
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