The continued decline of right-wing anti-Semitism in 1997 was more than countered by a steep rise in anti-Jewish activity in the Muslim community. This culminated in the first physical attack on Jewish property in fourteen years, when the home of a Jewish book-seller in Cape Town was petrol-bombed. In other incidents, placards with anti-Semitic slogans were carried by demonstrators at anti-Israel rallies, and an Islamic radio station in the Western Cape was disciplined for anti-Semitic broadcasting.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

EXTREMIST PARTIES AND HATE GROUPS

Muslim-Jewish relations deteriorated significantly during 1997, due, in large part, to events in the Middle East.

Islamic extremist movements tend to have small but militant followings and are particularly active in the Western Cape. They include Qibla, which has ties with the Lebanese Hizballah; and Pagad (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), ostensibly an anti-crime body whose leaders have made anti-Jewish comments on a number of occasions.

Official statements from government and police sources indicated that Muslim individuals were receiving military training in other Muslim countries, such as Sudan, and then returning to South Africa.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES

It became clear during the course of the year that the real long-term threat to the security of the Jewish community was posed by extremist elements within the Muslim population. There were strong indications that Muslim extremists were preparing to move away from inflammatory rhetoric and planning actual attacks on Jewish property.

The most serious incident was the fire bomb attack on the home of a local Jewish book-seller in Cape Town, in July. No one was hurt in the attack although extensive damage was caused. The fire-bombing followed a series of demonstrations in Pretoria and in Cape Town against the "pig leaflet" incident in Hebron (see Arab Countries and below). Police discovered that the material used in the bomb was the same as that used by Pagad in other incidents in the Cape Flats. Pagad denied any involvement in the bombing.

Following the bombing, leaflets bearing slogans such as "Save the World, Kill a Jew" were found at a synagogue and at a Jewish home for the aged in Cape Town, and a fax was sent to the South African Board of Jewish Deputies (SABJD) declaring "Bookshop was first, you Jewish pigs."

In April, an official warning was sent to the Community Security Organisation (CSO) at the Board of Deputies, stating that information-gathering on Jewish installations was taking place and advising the community to increase its level of vigilance over the Passover period. In August, the CSO was warned of the possibility of a car bomb attack on a Jewish institution.

Propaganda

Two Muslim protest marches to the Israeli embassy in Cape Town took place following the "pig leaflet" incident in July. In the larger demonstration, on 12 July, some 2,500 Muslims chanted anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slogans. Qibla was allegedly involved in organizing these demonstrations. At other anti-Israel demonstrations in October in Pretoria and Cape Town, Muslim demonstrators carried anti-Jewish placards with slogans such as "One bullet, one Zionist Jew" and a call for a new Hitler to destroy the Jews.

A debate over Middle Eastern affairs between certain members of the Muslim and Jewish communities in the letters pages of The Star, a leading Johannesburg daily, frequently took on racist and religious overtones. It was eventually revealed that some letters were planted under a fictitious Jewish name in an attempt to discredit the Jewish community. When a letter under the same fictitious name appeared in The Sowetan, a newspaper mainly circulated among the black population, the editor was notified and he undertook to stop publishing letters from this source.

On the extreme right, a claim that the decline in political power of white Afrikaners was orchestrated by Jews appeared in the book Volksveraad (1997), by advocate P.J. Pretorius. The book was not widely circulated and appeared to have minimal impact.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA

To a limited degree, Muslim extremists have adopted Holocaust denial as a propaganda tool. In January, a guest speaker on the Islamic station Radio 786, the well-known Swiss Holocaust denier and convert to Islam Dr. Ahmed Huber made several anti-Semitic remarks, including a reference to "the Holocaust swindle." The station agreed to broadcast an apology, drafted by representatives of the Jewish community, four times on one Sunday after the SABJD complained to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission. At two of the rallies protesting the "pig leaflet" in Hebron, some of the placards bore the slogan "The Holocaust is a persecution myth."

RESPONSES TO EXTREMISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM

On the other hand, given the spiraling crime rate in South Africa and the inability of the current authorities to curb it, many Jews fear that they might have to rely on themselves to provide adequate protection for their community in the event of increased anti-Semitic activities.