KZN newspapers pressured to muzzle Afrika Tikkun

Afrika Tikkun, a non-profit organisation that has fed and educated millions of South Africans since 1994, is being targeted in what appears to be a concerted antisemitic campaign to silence and banish Jewish organisations from the public arena in South Africa.

The organisation isn’t the only target, so too are newspapers that write about it.

South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) Chairperson Dr Faisal Suliman wrote to the chief executive of the Rising Sun Newspaper Group, Mr Vijay Maharaj, questioning his newspaper group running stories about Afrika Tikkun and accusing the company of being on the “wrong side of both ethics and global conscience”; abetting “genocide” in Gaza; and being part of “charity washing” by Israel supporters.

Wendy Kahn, the national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), told the SA Jewish Report, “The SAJBD will not be quiet when these intimidation and bullying tactics are aimed at our community. There have been concerted efforts to silence the Jewish community and to deny it spaces in mainstream areas, exacerbated after 7 October 2023. We will call them out when we see them. We need to expose organisations like SAMNET for playing this bullying role. Any organisation that has the interests of children at heart would applaud [Afrika Tikkun’s] initiatives, not threaten publications not to cover them.”

Milton Shain, emeritus professor of history at the University of Cape Town and an antisemitism expert, said, “The actions of SAMNET betray a deep moral depravity. It must be desperate. Does it really believe aid from a philanthropic Jewish organisation to those who need it will harm its efforts, whatever these are? Whitewashing genocide? Oh dear! Paranoia? Afrika Tikkun has for years been doing wonderful work. SAMNET should see it for what it is. Why should it harm the beneficiaries of a wonderful charity? Is it because it hates Jews? Seems so.”

Rising Sun, part of Caxton & CTP Publishers and Printers, runs newspapers on the KwaZulu-Natal North and South Coasts, and in Chatsworth, Overport, and Lenasia. The SAMNET letter said, “Durban and surrounding editions of your publication frequently feature coverage of Afrika Tikkun’s activities” that occur in far-flung provinces.

“It’s a matter of public record,” Suliman wrote, “that the vast majority of organised Jewish institutions in South Africa including the South African Jewish Board of Deputies; the South African Zionist Federation; Friends of Israel; and affiliated bodies have provided political, financial, logistical, and human resource support to the Israeli Defense Force (sic) [IDF]. This is the same IDF that the International Court of Justice [ICJ] has found to be committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

These allegations are nonsensical and totally misconstrue the ICJ proceedings. No such judgement has been delivered.

The letter continues, “Such organisations and those who partner with them are complicit in enabling and sustaining a grave crime against humanity. Their efforts to sanitise their image through strategic media placement, including in your publication, appear intended to obscure this complicity and to deflect public scrutiny from their involvement in the ongoing atrocities in Palestine … Do you wish your publication to be viewed as a willing participant in the whitewashing of genocide?”

Suliman said, “The Rising Sun is aligning itself with a political agenda that seeks to sanitise and normalise apartheid and genocide under the banner of ‘charity’. Advertisers and community members are well within their rights to withdraw their support, both financially and editorially, in protest against complicity in crimes against humanity.”

Suliman’s letter described SAMNET as “an NGO [non-governmental organisation] and PBO [public benefit organisation] actively involved for over 15 years in promoting social justice, activism, education, media advocacy and monitoring, and fostering engagements for a better South Africa and world”. Based in The Berea in Durban, its website is a single page “under reconstruction”. SAMNET’s Facebook page has 2 200 followers, and nothing has been posted for almost a year. The page features the chilling image of a masked man poised to throw a bunch of flowers.

Afrika Tikkun Chief Executive Marc Lubner said, “Afrika Tikkun was started 30 years ago by the late Chief Rabbi Cyril Harris and my late father, Bertie Lubner. It started off as a charity initiative looking at various community needs across the country. Approximately 20 years ago, I joined Afrika Tikkun as chief executive. Together, we fashioned what came to be known as the ‘cradle-to-career’ model, where we develop children from early infancy through early childhood development centres, providing an after-schools programme as well as the lead into job-skills training and job placement.

“We have about 45 000 young children and young adults going through the programme at any point in time, and we have partnered with government entities from the National Skills Fund; the Department of Social Development; and Department of Basic Education,” Lubner said. “Our funding comes predominantly from corporate South Africa as well as international organisations who are all committed to one expressed purpose: getting young people socially and economically empowered, such that they are productive contributors to South African society.

“We have no funding arrangements into Israel or from Israel,” Lubner said. “The claim that Afrika Tikkun is an organisation that supports the IDF is absurd. We, as a Jewish-led organisation – and proudly so – look at the Jewish community’s responsibility to help uplift communities in need. The principles of tzedakah rule supreme as we marry them together with principles of ubuntu.

“Any claims that we are advertising in various newspapers within the Caxton group are also preposterous,” Lubner said. “We do not pay for coverage as a non-profit organisation.”

Wendy Kahn said in a Facebook video, “Afrika Tikkun has for over 30 years empowered children in impoverished areas such as Diepsloot, Alexandra, Orange Farm, Mfuleni, and Delft. Hundreds of thousands of children have been given hope. Mr Suliman dictates to the media that coverage of Afrika Tikkun is forbidden, threatening to pull funding should they provide coverage to a Jewish outreach initiative. His assertion that the coverage is paid for is ludicrous and a complete fabrication. No, Mr Suliman, who would prefer a country where our media is Judenfrei [Jew free], that’s not how it works in South Africa.” She criticised SAMNET’s approach as unconstitutional and un-African.

A senior employee of Rising Sun who requested anonymity said, “This is a very sensitive matter. We try keep our papers apolitical and try to be impartial at all times and report without fear, favour, or prejudice. We don’t want to import conflict to this community. We aren’t paid to run stories, and we have rubbished those claims.”

SAMNET wrote a seven-page response and said, “SAMNET responded to all questions posed for this article and offered a complete and comprehensive response (with links and quotes) to the questions posed by Mr Steven Gruzd.” Although SAMNET requested that their response be published in full, this would not be practicable for the purposes of a balanced article. The SA Jewish Report has however published the key submissions of SAMNET in this article so that both points of view are presented.