The year 1998 saw the continuation of a pattern of the last few years, in
which traditional right-wing anti-Semitism has become an increasingly
marginal factor, whereas anti-Semitism in the Muslim community has
increased. There was intense anti-Jewish feeling during the period leading up
to Israel's 50th anniversary and late in the year a synagogue was bombed,
probably in retaliation for US strikes on Iraq. Strident anti-Israel views from
the general public, frequently tinged with overt anti-Semitism, surfaced on
numerous occasions in the printed and electronic media.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
There are approximately 90,000 Jews in South Africa out of a total
population of some 43 million. About 85 percent of the Jewish population
live in Johannesburg (56,000) and Cape Town (18,000), with most of the
remainder being distributed among Durban (3,200), Port Elizabeth and
Pretoria. The community has been in steady decline since reaching a peak
of 118,000 in 1970, due to the political uncertainty of the last decades and,
of late, to an unprecedented rise in domestic crime. Because mostly young
people have emigrated, South African Jewry consists of a relatively high
proportion of the aged. Moreover, the departure of wealthier Jews has
increased the communal burden of those who remain. However, the Jewish
community remains cohesive and well-organized, with a highly developed
network of educational and welfare institutions and a very high percentage
of Jewish children currently enrolled in Jewish day schools. The Jewish
Board of Deputies (SAJBD) is the umbrella body of Jewish communal
organizations countrywide.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY GROUPS
While white extremism remained a fairly marginal phenomenon, limited
mainly to the dissemination of propaganda by organizations such as the
Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party) (see below),
Islamic extremist groups, with small but militant followings, were active,
particularly in the Western Cape. They included Qibla, which has ties with
the Lebanese Hizballah, and PAGAD (People Against Gangsters and Drugs),
which poses as a civic anti-crime body, but in practice has become a front
for Islamic militants. There is a high degree of intimidation and civil strife in
the Muslim community, particularly in the Western Cape region, which
results in moderates being afraid to speak out. In a widely reported incident
Dr. Ebrahim Moosa, a Muslim academic at the University of Cape Town who
had been critical of the leadership of PAGAD, decided to accept a one-year
post in the US after his home was bombed.
In the Western Cape of South Africa, in particular, Western attacks on
Muslim targets in other parts of the world (following the bombing of the US
embassies in Africa and during the Iraqi crisis) resulted in retaliatory attacks
on institutions perceived to be part of a worldwide anti-Islamic conspiracy.
Two such attacks were directed against Jewish institutions (see below). A
third was the bombing of Planet Hollywood, an American-theme restaurant
on the Cape Town waterfront, immediately following the US attack on
suspected terrorist installations in Sudan in August 1998. The bombing
resulted in one death and numerous injuries.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
There is evidence of considerable anti-Semitic sentiment within the South
African Muslim community. This can be attributed in large part to events in
the Middle East, in particular, the ongoing breakdown of the peace process.
Western attacks on targets in the Arab/ Muslim world, as stated above, and
the celebrations marking Israel's 50th anniversary, provoked a spate of
violent and defamatory assaults on Jews and Israel in 1998.

Violence, Vandalism, Insults and Harassment
Two violent attacks against Jewish targets were recorded in 1998, one
apparently a direct reaction to Western action against "Islamic" targets (see
also ASW 1997/ 8). The combined US-UK attack on Baghdad was followed
immediately by the bombing of the Wynberg synagogue in Cape Town on
18 December. This resulted in extensive damage to the building but no
deaths or injuries. The second attack took place on the same day as the
Israeli Independence Day ceremony in Cape Town (29 April) when a Jewish-owned
tombstone manufacturing company in a predominantly Muslim area
was firebombed.
Two serious anti-Semitic incidents which occurred in public schools
received wide press coverage. At a sports day parade at Sasolburg High a
"Nazi-killing-Jews" theme was adopted as a means of inculcating house
spirit, which included pupils dressed up as Nazis herding "Jews" to be
"deloused" and "shot." At a meeting between the SAJBD and the school
board, it was agreed that an educational program on the Holocaust would
be presented to the pupils and teachers of the school, and this was
subsequently implemented. The principal and the school board both
apologized to the Jewish community. The second incident took place during
a rugby match between King David and Glenvista schools when several of
the latter team chanted "Heil Hitler" and gave Nazi salutes. The headmaster
of the school apologized to the Jewish community and suspended the
offenders for the remainder of the season. Die Afrikaner (see below)
responded by calling South Africa's Jewish community "the most vengeful in
the world."
The daubing of swastikas on Jewish-owned buildings appeared to have
been an act of the extreme right. One such incident occurred at Crawford
College in Pretoria, formerly a Jewish day school and still retaining a large
Jewish student body. The words Jode vrek! (Jews die!) appeared on the wall
(the Afrikaans word vrek, which applies exclusively to animals, was used,
rather than sterf, which applies to humans). On another occasion a pig's ear
with a swastika painted on it was left outside a Jewish-owned department
store in Pretoria.
In the period marking Israel's 50th anniversary celebrations, anti-Jewish
and anti-Israel marches were organized by Muslim groups, such as Qibla and
MAGO (Muslims against Global Oppression), a shadowy extremist
organization, regarded as being a front for Qibla in Cape Town. At one
demonstration, Jews attending an event at Cape Town's Nico Malan theater
were harassed with slogans such as "One Zionist, one bullet" and "Viva
Hamas and Hitzballah," and in another, Muslim students marched on the
Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town.
Besides these incidents which aroused public attention, there were
occasional reports from individual Jews who had suffered anti-Semitic
harassment.

Propaganda and Holocaust Denial
The main source of anti-Semitic propaganda on the white far right is the
newspaper Die Afrikaner, a low circulation Afrikaans-language weekly,
which is the organ of the Herstigte Nasionale Party. It occasionally printed
letters or articles containing Holocaust denial and hostile references to
Jewish financial power. In November-December, Die Afrikaner published a
lengthy four-part "background article" by Zunata Kay, which tried to show
how the "Holocaust swindle" had been used to introduce the Jewish-controlled
"New World Order" (NWO) into every white country. A translation
of part of the conclusion reads: "The Jewish 'holocaust' has become a
religion for a humanity searching for something to believe in. This human
need has been exploited by Jewish agents of the NWO through equating
Auschwitz with Golgotha, [and through] designating the nazis and other
conservative whites as Satan." While Holocaust denial has often surfaced in
Die Afrikaner, the above is by far the most ambitious and comprehensive
exposition of this ideology to have appeared there.
Jewish conspiracy theories were another theme of right-wing
propaganda, an example being a letter entitled "Doen iets omtrent die Jode"
(Do something about the Jews) which appeared in Die Afrikaner and which
harped on the subject of the undue influence Jews had in the American,
British and South African governments.
Anti-Zionist propaganda most commonly took the form of hostile letters
to the press, which often bordered on outright anti-Semitism. In 1997, it was
reported that certain letters, purportedly from a Jewish person, were being
submitted under a false name in order to discredit the Jewish community,
and the newspaper concerned stopped printing this correspondence (see
ASW 1997/ 8). During 1998, letters written under the same pseudonym
appeared in other newspapers, as did other obvious forgeries such as an
anti-Israel letter purportedly written by a white Afrikaner and another
supposedly submitted by Colombia University Professor Edward Said but
which originated in Pretoria and was clearly not written by him.
While anti-Semitism was rare in the printed media, a growing cause of
concern was the dissemination of anti-Jewish sentiments over the airwaves,
particularly on radio talk shows. Frequent complaints were received from
listeners who reported that talk show hosts were giving too much leeway to
members of the public who called in to attack Jews and Judaism. The name
most frequently cited was Radio 702's Jon Qwelane, who allowed Muslim
extremists free rein in giving vent to their anti-Semitic opinions, while
displaying open aggression toward representatives of the Jewish community
who called to counter these views.
On 8 May Radio 786, a Cape Town Islamic radio station noted for its
extremist views, hosted Dr. Yakub Zaki of the Muslim Institute in London.
Zaki's prolonged diatribe against the Jewish state was interspersed with
numerous overtly anti-Semitic statements, including references to The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, blaming Jews for starting the two world wars
and denial of the Holocaust. The SAJBD lodged a complaint with the Independent
Broadcasting Authority, which in early 1999 was still considering the
matter. In addition, Tony Leon, the Jewish leader of the Democratic Party in
parliament, was occasionally the butt of anti-Semitic abuse.
There is evidence that Holocaust denial, long the preserve of the white
right, is being increasingly adopted by Muslim extremists as a propaganda
tool. A letter, including extracts from the Qu'ran and from the works of
French revisionist Roger Garaudy, was received by the SAJBD in Cape Town
in April. Both Garaudy and Zaki, whose Holocaust denial statements are
referred to above, were hosted by Muslim organizations in Cape Town in
July 1998. In addition, Muslim callers on radio talk shows in Johannesburg
during 1998 showed an increased tendency to preface the term Holocaust
with words like "so-called" and "alleged."
Nevertheless, Muslim Holocaust denial in South Africa remains the
exception rather than the rule. Radical Muslims tend to prefer acknowledging
that the Holocaust happened but equate it with the treatment of
Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. This is often done in a offensive
manner, with Jews who invoke the Holocaust often being depicted as
querulous and self-pitying.