With hostility against Israel at an all-time high, the South
African Jewish community and its attitudes to the Middle East
conflict have increasingly come under scrutiny by the South
African media.
Two of the most publicized incidents have been the Jewish
Board of Deputies' recent clash with the Government over the
latter's `one-sided' criticism of Israel and a television
debate featuring Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris and Water Affairs
Minister Ronnie Kasrils.
The question of Jewish attitudes has been kept at the
forefront by an aggressive signature campaign, spearheaded by
Kasrils and aimed at persuading "South Africans of Jewish
descent" to sign a Declaration of Conscience condemning
Israel for its "occupation" of Palestinian lands. Kasrils,
who is Jewish and a long-standing member of the South African
Communist Party, has regularly appeared as a speaker at
radical Muslim demonstrations and at one such rally this past
Yom Hashoah, Kasrils was photographed carrying a placard
reading "Zionism is Nazism."
To discredit the Kasrils lobby, and also to rally the
community behind Israel, several local communal
organizations, with the assistance of Chief Rabbi Harris,
embarked on a counter campaign asking Jews to endorse a
statement expressing solidarity with the Jewish state. Over
11,500 signatures were eventually collected, after which a
press conference was called.
Only 287 people have signed the Kasrils declaration to date.
Some of the signatories are not Jewish (such as gentile
spouses of Jews) and others were overseas since the 1960s. A
number of signatories have also since distanced themselves
from the Declaration, which they claim they endorsed on the
basis of false information.
Despite all this, the mainstream South African media foster
the impression that South African Jewry is seriously divided
on the Israel issue.
Thus far, the increasingly raucous anti-Israel voices and the
Jewish response have fortunately not led to any physical
attacks on Jewish people or institutions. The most serious
incident in recent weeks took place in the coastal city of
Port Elizabeth, home to a small Jewish community of around
500, in which a truckload of Muslims halted outside the
shul on Shabbos Tazria-Metzorah and shouted
slogans such as "Death to the Jews" through a bullhorn. The
incident was preceded by a rally through the city center, in
which placards bearing slogans like "Hitler Six Million Jews
-- Why not More?" were carried. Permission to march past the
shul was denied by the authorities, who implemented
extensive security measures in consultation with the Jewish
community leadership prior to the event.
