For the first time in my life, I’m afraid to be a Jew in South Africa. These exact words have been expressed to me through different platforms, several times over the past few weeks, by people I know and don’t. While the world saw an uptick in antisemitism following the latest flare-up in violence between Israel and Hamas, it seems a little more vitriolic and mainstream on the tip of the African continent.
Jewish leaders are sounding the alarm. There’s been a rise in verbal, physical and mostly online attacks against the South African Jewish community. Wendy Kahn, national director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), concedes that every time there is a conflict in Israel, local Jews become the recipients of hostility and anger.
“We saw it in 2008/9, in 2014 and to some extent in mid-2018,” Kahn says. “We are still responding to antisemitic incidents from previous conflicts. For example Bongani Masuku, a COSATU [Congress of South African Trade Unions) official, threatened Jewish students in February 2009 at the end of that war. His case currently sits at our constitutional court 12 years later awaiting judgment. Matome Letsoalo [a freelance writer] who said that the Holocaust would be a picnic compared to what he would do to us during the 2018 Gaza clashes, received his sentence in a Randburg court last year.”
Letsoalo was convicted of hate speech and sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five. It was the first ever criminal verdict in an antisemitism case in the country.
Ruled by the African National Congress (ANC), a liberation movement that’s arguably never quite come to terms with governance, many South Africans holding high office were educated in the former Soviet Union.
“They’re stuck in 1965,” charges Howard Sackstein, a communal leader who founded a South African Jewish anti-apartheid movement and arranged for the first visit of an ANC delegation to Israel as far back as 1992.
“What are the big foreign policy issues for South Africa? The Western Sahara and Israel. The fact that we’re a failing state, completely overwhelmed with corruption, have vaccinated less than two percent of our population and are currently living with rolling blackouts - I can have no electricity for five hours every single day and it’s been like this for weeks – doesn’t detract that we think we have the right to criticize others. Our president goes overseas to France and gives an interview. What’s his interview about? Israel and Palestine. There’s a lot to be said as to why South Africa is not relevant on the international stage but whatever credibility we have, we waste. We waste it talking about problems that really South Africa has no role to play in because it’s made itself irrelevant. It doesn’t even have an ambassador anymore sitting in Tel Aviv.”
During the recent conflict, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly column that what was happening in Israel reminded him of what had happened to millions of South Africans during apartheid. ANC deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, led a picket outside the Israeli embassy in Pretoria, telling the crowd, “We cannot be friendly with people who are genocidal” adding that the conflict wasn’t called a “genocide” because it “doesn’t suit” the World Trade Organization.
The country’s communications minister, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, addressed parliament about a video she had seen of an Israeli soldier with his knee on the throat of a young Palestinian and how terrible it was – except it had happened in Chile.
“There’s no desire or ability to even correct that,” says Sackstein. “When the president makes remarks and does not recognize any position of Israel whatsoever, other than as an oppressor, we have to realize that South Africa is irrelevant to Israel. The only weapon it has is as the victims of apartheid. When South Africans speak about apartheid, there’s some degree of credibility but we have allowed apartheid to be bastardized. We now talk about vaccine apartheid, Israel apartheid and everything is now an apartheid. We are losing the very meaning of the core of what happened under the South African system of racial oppression.”
Sackstein feels that by being so vocal on the Israel-Palestine conflict, the South African government has failed to protect its Jewish community. He also blames social media for giving people who shouldn’t be heard, a voice.
“I think we always realized there was a lot of antisemitism out there but it’s covered up,” he says. “People now have a platform to express their rabid antisemitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Israel, whatever you want to call it. What we’ve seen during this conflict is more propaganda and more disinformation coming from the pro-Palestinian side than ever before. Truth seems to have no bearing whatsoever in what they’re trying to propagate. And I think why the Jewish community in South Africa and Jewish communities around the world are feeling so victimized and vulnerable at the moment is because people aren’t standing up for them. One cannot say anything against a black person, a gay person, a trans person – you will be absolutely pounced upon and rightfully so. But if you say something against the Jew, well, that’s acceptable behavior.”
Among those in the online South African firing line have been school and university students, business people and professionals. Sackstein is seeking the suspension of a medical professor who posted a video on a professional WhatsApp group claiming that Jews were celebrating the destruction of Al-Aqsa mosque. Even after being alerted that his interpretation of the video was a fabrication, the professor insisted on sticking to his version of events.
Sixth-year medical student Dylan Rendel also had a run-in with his classmates after some-one posted on a class telegram group an advertisement to protest outside the Israeli embassy.
“I was really upset because it’s not the place for it. I replied with a very sincere message kindly asking the person to please refrain from posting any political related things which may be sensitive to others. The woman who posted replied that it’s always white men who want to refrain from politics and a whole load of students from the class started supporting her with emojis and stuff like that.”
Rendel took to Instagram and posted his perspective in a private post. Screenshots of his account were subsequently posted to the class telegram group with the following comments.
“I’m not sure why you feel sensitive about opposing a genocidal apartheid state but if those are your politics then I’m not sure why you should be in the business of saving lives. I also think it’s pathetic that you consider this a sensitive topic when 65 people, including 16 children, were murdered in Palestine… I understand that you may feel entitled to things since you support the racist fascist ideology of Zionism. However, this group isn’t yours to colonize.”
From then on Rendel was subjected to a campaign of abuse and defamation by fellow medical students. An anonymous person sent him a message on Instagram warning him to be careful when he got into his car as his number plate was known. With the assistance of the SAJBD, Rendel opened a case with the police and the university has since shut down the Telegram chat and is investigating the matter. But for Rendel, things will never be the same.
“I feel unsafe. If they saw me in person, you never know, people can become violent. And I mean, it’s not the place in a hospital to be getting into fights about politics like this. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” he says. “As soon as I’m done with my medical degree I want to make aliyah with my wife. I don’t want to have anything to do with South Africa anymore. Everyone hates us, our government hates Israel, and it’s just an extremely depressing situation to be in the medical field here. I want to be working in my own country helping the people of Israel.”
The South African government holds an ambivalent policy when it comes to recognizing Hamas. While a Palestinian ambassador resides in Pretoria, representing the Palestinian government of the rival Fatah faction, Hamas delegations have visited South Africa and met with government officials.
Freddie and Charlie (not their real names) volunteer with the Jewish Community Policing Forum (CPF) and relate that the threat level was raised by two during the recent Israel-Hamas conflict, one of the highest levels in years. Exacerbated by a wave of calls to boycott stores that cater to the Jewish community as well as companies that produce kosher food, they admit to feeling “very uncomfortable” at present.
Two shops in a Johannesburg neighborhood where many Jews live advertised they don’t want any Jewish customers. Posters in other stores proclaimed that Zionists were not welcomed, a throwback for some to Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah flags have been flown at a number of marches held countrywide.
“We’ve never had marches like this before,” says Freddie, who has worked in security for years. “I can’t talk for others, but I feel very alone because South Africa is on the tip of Africa and we are a dying community. That’s one of the reasons I volunteer. I know when our community dies here, that’s the end.”
Charlie feels much the same. “The Jewish community in South Africa is strong. We are probably one of the strongest communities in the world as far as resources and the systems we have in place, go. As long as we have our own ambulance service, our own medical service, our own fire service, our own security service, we’re okay. But if these things start losing shape we would be in serious trouble.”
Overall, antisemitism levels remain low in South Africa when compared to other Diaspora communities. The SAJBD recorded 69 for the whole of last year. But in May, there were just under half that number, more than January to April combined.
“Rises in antisemitism are a global phenomenon during conflicts between Israel and Gaza,” says Kahn of the SAJBD. “Jews around the world are held accountable and targeted for retribution. While our incidents increased, this was in line with the experience of global Jewish communities. We still do not experience the same level of violent antisemitism other Jewish communities experienced”
Aliyah figures are up, but according to Kahn, that has nothing to do with the recent conflict. “South Africans have anxieties around corruption, the economy and crime. This is what makes people consider emigration. This has been a phenomenon in South Africa for decades. What has changed is that the majority of Jewish people leaving South Africa are now going to Israel as opposed to other countries. Jewish life is still vibrant and active in this country and that is not the reason most people are leaving.”