Protesters ‘intimidate’ South African Jews

Official for trade unions group linked to assault: Jews cannot "cry foul" of violence when Israel "murders and occupies."

By SAM SOKOL
South Africa Jews 370 (photo credit: Reuters (file))
South Africa Jews 370
(photo credit: Reuters (file))
The South African Zionist Federation complained of “intimidation” and a “violent assault” by protesters affiliated with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) against the Jewish community during its Independence Day celebrations at Johannesburg’s Gold Reef City amusement park.
The protesters “threw stink bombs into the audience, attacked and injured an elderly woman and forced themselves onto the stage, where they attempted to attack the performers,” the SAZF said in a statement, explaining that it views such actions as “blatantly infringing [upon] the right of the Jewish community to celebrate its culture and heritage.”
The SAZF addressed a formal complaint to the police, which they say are considering “appropriate charges.”
“It has become a typical ploy of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in South Africa to provoke ugly confrontations and then falsely claim to have been victimized,” the organization added.
In response to the SAZF’s complaints, COSATU’s international relations secretary Bongani Masuku told The Jerusalem Post, “They celebrate in South Africa, but murder, occupy and brutalize in Palestine. What justice and freedom can they talk about? “Apartheid South Africa was never free anywhere in the world – why would apartheid Israel expect a different treatment?” he asked, saying that there can be “no celebration for some and genocide for others.
“Our freedom should be the freedom of all,” he stated. “It’s indivisible and not selective. No one shall celebrate until all can celebrate.”
The SAZF and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies are “hypocrites,” Masuku said, adding that they cannot “cry foul” so long as they “are behind the state that murders, occup[ies], colonize[s] [and] practice[s] apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”
Furthermore, he said that South African Jews who serve in the IDF are breaking the law by engaging in “mercenary activities.”
“State terrorism and occupation cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world, so why would it be here in South Africa?” he asked.
Israel has long-denied accusations of apartheid, stating that it ensures social freedoms and civil rights for all of its citizens regardless of race or religion.