Anti-Semitism in South Africa - 2007

This page is part of a section on "2007 List of Anti-Semitic Attacks" maintained by PaulaSays. This is only a partial list. If you know of an attack not reported on these pages, please send a note to attacks@paulsays.com.

SOUTH AFRICA

The following comes from: Antisemitism Report, 2007, for Institute of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism, Tel Aviv University

Antisemitism continues to be a relatively low-level threat to the South African Jewish community. Only 57 incidents were recorded during 2007, representing a 30 percent drop from the previous year (when the highest-ever number of incidents was logged since detailed records began to be kept some two decades ago). Most antisemitic activity took the form of verbal abuse and derogatory comments, with acts of outright violence being extremely rare. The regular vandalisation of Jewish cemeteries in the isolated country areas continues to be of concern, however, even though it is not usually possible to establish when these attacks are antisemitic or purely criminal in nature.

Extremist Groups

Far right white organizations are virtually dormant in South Africa, and no longer pose a realistic threat to the Jewish community. Antisemitism in South Africa today is largely confined to radical groupings within the country’s 800,000-strong Muslim community. Of those based in Cape Town, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) openly backs extremist organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah, and its leaders have made antisemitic statements on a number of occasions. Of particular concern is the MJC’s persistent agitation in the Muslim media and at public gatherings against alleged Israeli/Jewish plots to destroy Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. On Human Rights Day (21 March) the MJC hosted a program calling for the "liberation" of al-Aqsa Mosque at the College of Cape Town. The program was reportedly attended by hundreds of people from the Cape Town Muslim community, who were asked to rise and take an oath proclaiming their readiness to protect Jerusalem. In early 2008, the MJC was poised to bring out the radical Israeli Muslim cleric Sheik Raed Salah, who amongst other things regularly claims that Israel has made numerous attempts to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, for a two-week speaking visit. The Islamic Unity Convention (IUC) has been engaged in an extended court battle with the SAJBD over antisemitic broadcasting by its mouthpiece Radio 786 (see below).

Closely aligned with the IUC is Qibla, whose founding in 1979 was inspired by the Iranian Revolution. In her paper ‘PAGAD: A Case Study of Radical Islam in South Africa’ (Terrorism Monitor, Volume 3, Issue 17, September 2005), Anneli Botha, while acknowledging that Qibla is not a terrorist organisation, nevertheless claims that it is manipulated from a safe distance by the Iranian intelligence services, who use the organization "not only to propagate the world view of the Islamic Republic, but also as a cover to conduct espionage in RSA". In May, Qibla presented a memorandum to the Department of Foreign Affairs calling on the Government to cut diplomatic ties with Israel. The Pretoria-based Media Review Network, a Muslim media advocacy group which promotes the ideologies of Muslim extremist organizations the world over, continues to be a vociferous presence in the South African media and propagates antisemitic material, including Holocaust denial, anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and offensive cartoons, on its website.

While it eschews overt antisemitism, the Palestinian Solidarity Committee (PLC) is a vociferous anti-Israel voice that calls for the dissolution of the State of Israel. The PLC was active in calling for a countrywide boycott of Israeli products over the period marking the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War and was also active on Johannesburg’s Wits University Campus.

In a press briefing on 13 March, the coordinator of the South African National Intelligence Coordinating Committee Barry Gilder explicitly stated that South African intelligence agencies were watching individuals and organisations in South Africa who might be involved in international terrorism. Gilder stated that this included foreigners from countries like Pakistan, Somalia, Bangladesh and Jordan.

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

57 antisemitic incidents were jointly recorded in South Africa by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies and Community Security Organisation. This was the second highest number of incidents logged since detailed records began to be kept from the early 1990s, but it was significantly lower than the all-time high figure of 82 noted the previous year. A relatively quiet year on the Middle East front was probably the main reason for the decline.

More than half of the antisemitic incidents noted took the form of random verbal abuse, frequently directed from passing vehicles at Jews walking to and from shul on Shabbat. Verbal abuse was sometimes accompanied by threats of physical violence. One community member had a firearm pointed at him in the course of a ‘road rage’ incident while a Jewish family was subjected to gross antisemitic comments by suspects in the course of an armed robbery.

There were several cases of telephonic harassment, with two kosher butcheries in Johannesburg being threatened with a boycott of Jewish businesses. The latter coincided with a nation-wide campaign against Israel to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Six Day War. Taken as a whole, however, anti-Israel activity was largely a fringe phenomenon and made minimal impact on the Jewish community.

Other forms of antisemitism included graffiti, hate mail, derogatory comments made in the public realm and the dissemination of offensive literature. An example of graffiti was the daubing (in lipstick) of the words "Murderers" and "Pigs" in the King David Victory Park visitors’ book at a schools exhibition in Sandton City. There were only two reported cases of antisemitic abuse being accompanied by physical violence.

On rare occasions, attacks on Jews surfaced in the public realm. Speaking at the launch of the second annual FNB Islamic Finance Business Awards for 2007, prominent Muslim business leader Solly Noor called on Muslims to follow the Jewish example and adopt their own world domination programme along the lines of the "Protocols of the Elders Zion". He further urged Muslims to wrest control of South Africa from alleged Jewish control by adopting the same methods of infiltrating the media and government that the Jews were supposedly using.

Badih Chaaban, an African Muslim Party counsellor in Cape Town city counsel, was accused of making various racist remarks about blacks, coloureds and Jews in the course of a City of Cape Town council investigation. He is alleged to have said, "There is something about Jews that everyone wants to f**k them", that it was time for the Jews to be "f**ked again" and that the final solution would be when "five or six million Jews are bombed in one day". It was also revealed that Chaaban had allegedly been recorded in various formats offering councillors business opportunities, money and well-paying positions in the City to cross the floor and join a new party, the National People’s Party, that he claimed was being formed. Chabaan was removed from office and now faces various criminal and civil charges.

An ongoing problem is the vandalisation of Jewish cemeteries outside the main urban centres. Ten such cemeteries were reported vandalized during 2007, with the damage rendered being accompanied by Satanic graffiti in the cases of Nigel and Kimberley. In the absence of overtly anti-Jewish motifs, however, it was not possible to determine beyond doubt whether the attacks were antisemitically motivated or purely criminal in nature.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

Yet another chapter was written in the nine-year-long battle between the SAJBD and Radio 786 on 7 December when the Constitutional Court dismissed on all counts an application by the Islamic Unity Convention to strike down certain provisions of the Independent Communications Authority of SA legislation relating to complaints and adjudication. The application was the latest attempt by the IUC to prevent the implementation of sanctions imposed by the Broadcasting Monitoring and Complaints Committee (BMCC) of ICASA against its radio station, Radio 786.

The SAJBD’s complaint dates back to 8 May 1998, when Radio 786 broadcast an interview with Islamic scholar Yakub Zaki who denied that the Holocaust had taken place and further blamed Jews for being behind some of the worst disasters in modern history. Over the next eight years, there ensued an extended series of court cases and appeals as the IUC pursued every possible legal avenue and stalling tactic in an effort to avoid the issue going to a formal hearing. The hearing finally took place in February 2006 and in May that year the BMCC upheld the SAJBD’s complaint.

In 2006, the SAJBD lodged a complaint against the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) after it was revealed that its chief executive for news and current affairs, Dr Snuki Zikalala, had banned Paula Slier, a Jewish journalist, from reporting on the Middle East as she was not considered to be sufficiently pro-Palestinian. After meeting with Zikalala, the SAJBD decided to withdraw its complaint in return for which the SABC would engage an independent media monitoring organisation to evaluate and report on its Middle East coverage for one year so that any problems of bias against Israel could be properly evaluated and addressed.

On Wits University campus the SA Union of Jewish Students, supported by the SAJBD, launched several well supported counter campaigns in response to the activities of the Palestinian Solidarity Committee.

At the behest of the SAJBD, a book store in Eastgate removed antisemitic literature, including Henry Ford’s notorious The International Jew, from its shelves.