The world press is covering Israel's problems over the
upcoming World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South
Africa, at the end of this week, but South Africa's own Jews
are having related troubles of their own that have so far been
ignored in the general press.
South Africa's 80,000 strong Jewish community continues to be
subjected to what may be the most virulent anti-Israel
propaganda in the country's history in the buildup to the
conference. The United States announced that Secretary of
State Colin Powell will not attend, and that it may not even
send a lower-ranking delegation if offensive items are not
deleted from the agenda.
If the U.S. does not attend, it will rob the conference of
much of its prestige.
However, as preparations for the high-profile UN conference
are completed, anti-Israel activity country-wide in South
Africa has been raised to new levels, including hostile media
coverage, demonstrations and protest prayer gatherings. For
the first time, South African Jews have also begun to be
singled out for attack for their traditional support of the
Jewish state.
Earlier this month, a spokesman for the South African
Communist Party expressed his party's concern at allegations
that the South African Jewish community was helping to
"finance the oppression of the Palestinian people."
The Jewish Board of Deputies released a press statement
strongly condemning these statements while pointing out that
funds raised by the local Jewish community for Israel were
used for humanitarian purposes only. The Communist Party,
which is numerically small but which has traditionally
exercised considerable behind-the-scenes influence with the
ruling African National Congress, claimed its spokesman had
been misquoted and that it had only been referring to certain
sectors of the Jewish population.
Ronnie Kasrils, a Jewish member of the Communist Party and
current Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs, commented in
the press that while many individual Jews had been in the
forefront of the struggle for democracy in South Africa, they
had mostly been atheists and supporters of the Palestinian
cause.
In Cape Town, the biggest protest rally to have taken place in
South Africa in over half a decade was held with about 15,000
people, mostly Muslims, taking to the streets to call for
South Africa to sever all ties with Israel. Shortly
afterwards, the Anglican church in Cape Town held an inter-
denominational solidarity prayer meeting to express support
for the Palestinians. During the preceding week, the
virulently anti-Zionist academic Uri Davis was in South Africa
to promote his book Israel and Apartheid. Davis, a
former Israeli who now lectures at Nablus University, was
given wide coverage by all sectors of the local media and also
addressed several gatherings at the University of the
Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Russell Gaddin, National Chairman of the Jewish Board of
Deputies, urged the Jewish community to be strong in the face
of the propaganda onslaught, saying that he believed the
levels of anti-Israel rhetoric would drop once the Durban
conference was over. The Board of Deputies is coordinating the
efforts of various international Jewish organizations at the
conference, including the World Jewish Congress, Anti-
Defamation League and American Jewish Committee.
