SOUTH AFRICA 2001-2

 

There was a pronounced rise in antisemitic sentiment in South Africa during 2001, largely as a result of the ongoing violence in the Middle East and the fact that South Africa was the host country for the World Conference against Racism, an event that became a vehicle for the propagation of virulent antisemitism by Arab and Islamic groupings. Nevertheless, the number of antisemitic incidents reported overall, as in previous years, was low. The overt anti-Israel orientation of the mainstream media, and even more dramatically of the South African government, became increasingly marked, even after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

 

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

South Africa has the largest Jewish community on the African continent, numbering approximately 85,000 out of a total population of some 43 million. Most Jews live in Johannesburg (55,000) and Cape Town (18,000), while the other main centers are Durban (2,700) and Pretoria (1,500).

The Jewish community, which peaked at about 120,000 in 1980, has been in steady decline. The political uncertainty and increasing violence that characterized the last two decades of minority white rule, as well as compulsory military service for white males during those years were the main causes of the outflow. Since 1994, when the era of non-racial democracy was inaugurated, emigration has continued, due, inter alia, to the unprecedented rise in domestic crime (particularly in Johannesburg), the introduction of affirmative action policies in the labor market favoring black applicants over white, and concerns over declining standards in the areas of public health and education.

Emigration has significantly weakened the community, both in terms of the loss of potential leadership and the general decline in morale and faith in the future which has resulted from the departure of many skilled and economically successful members, particularly from amongst the youth. Nevertheless, the community remains cohesive and well-organized, with a highly developed network of educational and welfare institutions. Some 80 percent of Jewish children are currently enrolled in Jewish day schools. The rate of intermarriage is under 10 percent and levels of Jewish identity, particularly in the religious sphere, are remarkably high.

The recognized Jewish civil rights organization is the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), which, inter alia, monitors levels of antisemitism in the country and takes action where necessary. While the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is committed to a non-racial and democratic society and has generally shown itself to be sympathetic toward the concerns and fears of the local Jewish community, it has demonstrated an increasingly overt anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian bias, notwithstanding its claim to be “even-handed” on the Middle East conflict. In the course of the year, a split in the Democratic Alliance, the official opposition in parliament, resulted in the ANC gaining control of the Western Cape, which has a large Muslim minority and a tradition of Islamist militancy. Ebrahim Rasool, the new ANC leader of the province, is himself Muslim and has over the years made several antisemitic statements publicly.

 

political organizations and extra-parliamentary GROUPS

Islamist Groups

There are about one million Muslims in South Africa, about half of whom live in the Western Cape, where Islamist groups are particularly active. They include PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs), ostensibly a civic anti-crime body, but in practice a front for Islamic militants); Qibla, which has ties with the Lebanese Hizballah; and the Islamic Unity Convention, which runs the militant Muslim community station Radio 786 (see below). The three organizations are closely linked. The counterpart of PAGAD in the Eastern Cape is PADAV (People against Drugs and Violence), which was reportedly running training camps for militants.

The Pan African Congress (PAC), although supported by only one percent of the electorate in the 1999 elections, is a radical and vocal presence on the South African political scene. There is a known connection between Qibla and the PAC, which in April 2001 sent representatives to a conference of radical Islamic groups in Tehran aimed at promoting the intifada globally.

In September, 200 workers of Carmel Farm near Bapsfontein went on strike after the Israeli owner, Yossi Kahlon, fired 39 of his workers. The workers accused Kahlon of mistreating his staff. PAC General Secretary Thami ka Plaatjie warned that the party would evict Kahlon and seize his farm if he did not reform. Specific reference was made to Kahlon’s Israeli origins and hence, to his alleged racism.

In the latter half of the 1990s, the Western Cape was rocked by a series of terrorist bombings, several of which were directed against Jewish targets. Islamist groups, in particular PAGAD, were believed to have been behind the attacks. PAGAD was declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department during 2001, although this has no legal consequences, unlike the category of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which falls under the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Since mid-2000 the urban terror campaign has largely ceased, apparently due to the loss of logistical, financial and training support as a result of the continued detention in South Africa of up to 70 activists. The focus of PAGAD has since turned to intimidating individuals within the criminal justice system in order to discourage them from prosecuting its members. A number of state witnesses have been killed before they have had a chance to give evidence.

In recent years the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), formerly regarded as a moderate organization, has taken an increasingly hard-line stance on the Middle East. MJC president Shaykh Ebrahim Gabriels, has made several extremely antisemitic statements. In October 2000 he had led worshippers in a Western Cape mosque in a chant from the commonly quoted Islamic prophesy that one day the Jew would hide and the tree or rock behind which he was hiding would say, “There is a Jew hiding behind me – come and kill him.” Interviewed by the local Sunday Times in November 2001, Gabriels claimed these were the words of the Prophet, and spoke of the final victory of the Muslims over the Jews in Palestine. He defended his view that Jews controlled the world media and economy. Both the MJC and the Ahlul Bait Foundation (ABF), an anti-Israel, antisemitic, Holocaust denying Shi‘ite organization with extensive ties to Iran, as well as other Islamist groups, were active at the World Conference against Racism (see below).

A particularly vocal radical Islamist grouping is the Media Review Network (MRN), originally established as “a group of letter writers” based in Laudium, Pretoria, but whose activities have since extended far beyond those of a mere media advocacy group. The MRN has established various front organizations such as the Free Palestine Campaign and the Palestinian Solidarity Committee. In April 2001, senior members attended the Tehran conference aimed at promoting the Palestinian intifada, where they met the leadership of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The Durban-based Islamic Propagation Center International (IPCI) distributed an antisemitic poster at the WCAR (see below). Former director of the IPCI Yusuf Deedat appeared on ETV and SABC TV news and defended Usama bin Ladin, with whom his family has had close links. The Afrikaans-language weekly Rapport (June) claimed that bin Ladin's family had been working for years to increase the influence of Islam in South Africa, specifically in the Zulu-speaking community, inter alia, in an attempt to convert Zulus in key legal and law enforcement positions to Islamic fundamentalism. According to Rapport, the Deedats have had close links with the bin Ladin family since first meeting Usama's elder brother Shaykh Bakr bin Ladin in 1986. Since then, many of the 27 bin Ladin brothers have contributed generously to the IPCI. Bakr alone gave the center $3.1 million over eight years to buy a building, print the Koran in English and Zulu, and print and distribute Islamic literature. In appreciation, the Deedats named their building on Durban's Victoria Street after the family in 1988. The facts reported by Rapport were confirmed when Yusuf Deedat admitted that the IPCI received substantial funding from the bin Ladin family, and that Deedat family members often traveled to Saudi Arabia and had met Usama several times. He said that whether bin Ladin was guilty or not, the US would “always use him as a scapegoat.”

Also based in Durban is the Iraqi Action Committee (IAC), which is known to have held training camps in the Eastern Cape and planned on sending fighters to defend Iraq against America during the Gulf War. In April 2001, 30 members of the group traveled from South Africa to Iraq and attempted to enter the Palestinian territories through Jordan. For unspecified reasons; they were denied entry and returned to South Africa. Abdul Dawjee, who also ran the Bosnia Holocaust Committee and the Palestinian Support Committee in Durban, leads the IAC. Dawjee was extremely active during the World Conference against Racism.

In addition to antisemitic expressions of activists of the abovementioned groups, other reports of such utterances by Islamic clerics were received, including a speech by Hamel Dien at the Kromboom Mosque in Rondebosch, Cape Town, in August. Dien justified suicide bombing, quoted from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and said Tony Leon (Leader of the Democratic Alliance in parliament) was a “Zionist Jew.”

Following the September 11 attacks, there were reports of several Muslim groups volunteering to send forces to Afghanistan. This was condoned but not actively supported by the MJC. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, Muslims purportedly danced in the streets and shopping centers. Several bomb threats on institutions known to be frequented by Jews in Cape Town and Johannesburg were received. Qibla reportedly “warned” President Bush to expect retaliation for attacking Afghanistan. Regular anti-American demonstrations were held outside the US consulate in Johannesburg. It should be noted, however, that three mosques around the country were vandalized or subjected to arson attacks in the weeks following the attacks. The perpetrators are unknown.

 

The White Right

The White Right has been largely inactive since the transition to multiparty non-racial democracy in April 1994. Die Afrikaner, a far-right orientated weekly under the auspices of the Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party), continued to print antisemitic articles on a regular basis, including both Holocaust denial and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories (see below).

 

ANTISEMITIC ACTIVITIES

Vandalism and Violence

Despite a pronounced rise in antisemitic sentiment, largely as a result of the ongoing violence in the Middle East and the fact that South Africa was the host country for the World Conference against Racism (see below), the number of antisemitic incidents reported overall, as in previous years, was low. The most serious instance of antisemitic violence took place in September when an elderly Jewish doctor in Cape Town was assaulted in his rooms by three men wearing keffiyahs. The assailants reportedly told the doctor: “You Jews are the ones making trouble in the Middle East.”

Incidents of antisemitic vandalism included damage to the Jewish cemetery near Cape Town and a window broken at a Johannesburg synagogue.

 

Harassment, Intimidation and Insults

There were ten reported incidents of antisemitic harassment (insults or threatening behavior) or the receipt of antisemitic hate mail.

A remark made by the minister for public service and administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, during a parliamentary debate, aroused protests in the Jewish community. Moleketi contrasted the ANC’s commitment to non-racism and non-sexism with the behavior of “Shylock, the Jew, in The Merchant of Venice.”

 

Propaganda

The Media

Overt antisemitism in the press usually took the form of readers’ letters during 2001. Following the September 11 attacks and America’s military campaign against the Taliban, a large number of extremely anti-Israel letters, frequently with antisemitic overtones, appeared in the Muslim and general press. For example, in the July issue of the Lenasia Times, which caters mainly to Johannesburg’s large Indian community, a letter criticizing the visit of a ten-person parliamentary fact-finding mission to Israel/the Palestinian Authority, was published. The letter twice referred to “those murderous barbarian Jews.” In October, the paper published a series of crudely drawn cartoons, constituting an Islamic extremist’s “most wanted” list. The accompanying text for Yassir Arafat, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger was extremely antisemitic. "The Golden Calf of Judaism,” by Cape Town imam Shaykh M F Gamieldien, which appeared in the independent daily Cape Argus in September, opened with a quotation from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Letters and a full-length article on the real origins of The Protocols were subsequently published.

A virulently antisemitic letter (“Peace if US quits Muslim Countries,” by Nasrudeen Campbell), appeared in the mainstream Eastern Province Herald on 13 October. The writer made no distinction between Jews and the American government, alleging that not just America but “the Jews” were “the ultimate coward terrorists,” having “killed millions of people the world over, from Iraq and Palestine through Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Vietnam,” all because of “their satanic lust and passion for monetary and land gain.” While Usama bin Ladin at least killed in the name of God, he continued, “American and Jewish terrorists kill in the name of money and usurping other’s land.” It should be pointed out that not since the 1930s has such an anti-Jewish attack appeared in a respectable mainstream publication in South Africa. Following a complaint by the SAJBD, the editor of the paper noted that Campbell’s letter had been published in order to expose the depth of extreme anti-American and anti-Jewish feeling in South Africa.

There were clear parallels between antisemitism in Die Afrikaner and that emanating from sectors of the Muslim community, suggesting that the two groups were influencing each other. For example, a lengthy two-part article, published in the 12 and 19 October issues of Die Afrikaner, suggested similarities between the Pearl Harbor attacks which, the author Zunata Kay alleged, were used by the American government to bring the US into the war on the side of the communists, and the September 11 attacks, which were supposedly orchestrated by the Jews/Illuminati so as to justify an all-out war against Islam. Two years previously Kay had written a series of articles aimed at depicting the Holocaust as a myth created by Jews in order to better impose their so-called New World Order.

On radio, the Tim Modise Show featured a number of guests with anti-Jewish theories. Dr Matola Motsega, an authority on African indigenous religions, claims that all religions have their origins in The Book of the Dead, the main text of the primal African faith, and that the Jews usurped these ideas to found their own racist creed centering on a “Chosen People” concept. According to this notion, Judaism and Zionism were the root cause of religious intolerance and racism in the world. Qibla founder Ahmed Cassim appeared twice on the show, during which he intimated that Jews had plotted the terror attacks on the World Trade Center. Numerous Muslim callers on radio talk shows made similar accusations in the aftermath of 11 September.

 

The Internet

A local Muslim website (sycon.co.za/users/wtc) disseminated a variety of antisemitic material, which included references to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and to the myth of 4,000 Jews who allegedly did not turn up for work at the World Trade Center. The site was the subject of a radio program on a Cape Town Muslim radio station and the author was praised for “getting the truth out.” Another local {Muslim} antisemitic website was islam.org.za, which included Holocaust denial and information purportedly proving Jewish control of the South African economy and media.

In May, an article by the American Holocaust denier MacKenzie Payne, entitled “The Dirty Little Secret,” was posted on the Biko-Tiro e-mail chat group, widely circulated among members of the black nationalist Azanian People’s Organisation (AZAPO) (Azania is an African name for South-Africa).

 

Antisemitism and Criticism of Israeli Policy

During 2001, Israel came under attack in South Africa as never before, both in the media and at government level. At times the line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism became blurred. As the year progressed, the ANC’s pro-Palestinian stance became increasingly overt, with comparisons between the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the fight against apartheid becoming common currency. Diplomatic sources suggested that the radical tone of ANC statements reflected a growing division within government between the leadership, which favored a more nuanced position on the Middle East and the grassroots, which demanded a more radical pro-Palestinian stance. Moreover, a few Jewish leftists, too, severely condemned Israeli policy. Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs Ronnie Kasrils and Max Ozinsky, a member of the Cape Provincial Legislature, co-authored a “Declaration of Conscience on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” which caused a lengthy, bitter debate in the Jewish and general press. The authors embarked on an energetic campaign to persuade “South Africans of Jewish descent” to sign the declaration, which asserted that the fundamental causes of the Middle East conflict were “Israel's suppression of the Palestinian struggle for national self-determination and its continued occupation of Palestinian lands.” Both the SAJBD and the Union of Orthodox Synagogues rejected the document as being biased and inaccurate. Some 220 people, including many veteran anti-apartheid activists, had signed the declaration by the end of the year.

Far more extreme than the ANC in their attacks on Israel were leftist parties, such as the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the South African Communist Party (SACP), the Azanian People’s Organisation and the PAC. These mainly black-supported groupings vied with one another in issuing statements delegitimizing Israel and calling for South Africa and the international community to turn it into a pariah state. In August Mazibuko Jara, a spokesperson for the SACP, requested an audience with the minister of foreign affairs. He claimed the purpose of the meeting was to discuss allegations that the South African Jewish community was “financially assisting the Israeli government to suppress the Palestinian people.”

Numerous anti-Israel rallies in which antisemitic expressions were heard as well, took place countrywide during the course of the year, notably in the period of the WCAR and after the 11 September attacks. At an al-Quds Day rally in Cape Town in December, Qibla founder Ahmed Cassim, said “What was seen as the final solution for the Jews in the Diaspora, that is, the creation of the Zionist Terrorist State of Israel, has become its worst nightmare and possibly its final nightmare.”

 

World Conference against Racism

The World Conference against Racism (WCAR), which took place in Durban from 27 August to 9 September, alarmed the Jewish world because of the way in which it was highjacked to become a forum for the propagation of extreme anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiments and political demands. The conference demonstrated the strength and capabilities of local Muslim groups in South Africa, which were able to coordinate their activities with international organizations and states on a number of levels. The media campaign directed against Israel had maximum exposure and was extremely successful.

Somewhat surprisingly, the barrage of anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda during the WCAR did not translate into a rise in violent antisemitic acts (see above). The most serious harm to the Jewish community was the extent to which the labelling of Israel as a racist and apartheid state became entrenched in the public consciousness. Numerous pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held. Some 20,000 Muslims and supporters took part on 21 August in the biggest march of its kind since early 1994. At the event, organized by the MJC in Cape Town, the crowd was whipped into a frenzy of anti-Jewish emotion and an ETV news clipping showed a member of the crowd shouting “Jews are the scum of the earth.”

Antisemitic literature of the most virulent kind was circulated by pro-Palestinian groups at the WCAR. The banned publication, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, was sold by the ABF. The book, published in Iran, contained a new introduction describing Jews as “professional criminals of history” and Israel as a “deadly cancerous tumor” and “satanic enemy.” The introduction also asserted that South Africa was dominated by Jews and denied the Holocaust by referring to the “Jewish Holocaust with all its fictitious recreations.” The IPCI published and distributed a poster bearing an image of Adolf Hitler and the slogan “What If I had won? There would be no Israel and no Palestinian’s blood shed. The rest is your guess.” Other antisemitic material distributed at the conference included cartoons depicting hook-nosed Jews with fangs dripping blood. Mary Robinson, UN high commissioner for human rights and a prime mover behind the conference, publicly condemned the cartoons, saying, that when she saw such material it made her a Jew too. On the other hand, her acceptance of the draft of the Asian Preparatory Meeting (held in Tehran) for the conference contributed to the virulent anti-Israel and antisemitic atmosphere.

Jewish participants at the parallel non-governmental organization (NGO) Forum were subjected to continual harassment, vilification and abuse. A press conference and the Antisemitism Commission, organized by the Jewish caucus group at the conference, including the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center, had to be cut short after being disrupted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, and a workshop on Holocaust denial was cancelled altogether after a planned march by 10,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the Durban Jewish Club resulted in the premises having to be evacuated. Jewish groups walked out of the final session of the NGO Forum, during which a virulently anti-Israel statement was adopted. The South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) was overtly pro-Palestinian and on one occasion, its president, Mercia Andrews, physically accosted and verbally abused a Jewish delegate who was distributing T-shirts with the slogan “Fight Racism, Not Jews.” The final NGO resolution was so extreme that, for the first time at a UN conference, Mary Robinson refused to recommend that it be adopted at the main, governmental one.

Israel and the United States sent lower-level delegations to the conference in protest against the anti-Israel wording of the draft statement. In the middle of the main governmental conference, both recalled their delegations, the US delegation saying it would not continue working in such a “racist, antisemitic atmosphere.”

 

Zimbabwe

Across the border in Zimbabwe, where the economic and political crisis steadily worsened as long-serving President Robert Mugabe sought to hang on to power, there were disturbing echoes of classical antisemitism as the embattled regime sought scapegoats for the country’s problems. At the end of August, Mugabe accused South African Jews of trying to take control of Zimbabwe's industries, saying “Jews in South Africa, working in cahoots with their colleagues here, want our textile and clothing factories … to close down.” In November, an article in the pro-government Bulawayo Chronicle alleged that “prominent members of the Jewish community with controlling stakes in most companies in the city were behind the closure of most industrial companies in Bulawayo – ostensibly to cripple the economy and force the government out.”

           

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTISEMITISM

The SAJBD has been engaged in a protracted legal battle with Radio 786, a Muslim community radio station in Cape Town run by the Islamic Unity Convention (IUC) since May 1998. The SAJBD’s complaint arose from an hour-long program broadcast by Radio 786 on 8 May 1998, which featured many instances of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. After a series of applications and counter-applications, the matter reached the Constitutional Court, where it was heard on 22 November. The ruling is expected to have important implications for determining the limits of freedom of speech in South Africa.

While the rise of global antisemitism has yet to directly affect the local Jewish community in any significant way, there is a growing awareness of the increasingly hostile climate in which world Jewry is operating. This was naturally exacerbated by the brief but traumatic World Conference against Racism period, whose impact was, however, lessened by September 11 and its aftershocks.