SA Jews repelled by ANC government gone rogue

Israel doesn’t exist because of the Holocaust, but the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened had Israel existed. Her existence ensures Jews, both in Israel and in the diaspora, that there will never be another Holocaust, and provides a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution. Israel is a sovereign nation facing real existential threats with the necessity of defending herself from them.

Jews are intrinsically attuned to existential threats, and our long history has taught us that genocidal acts are always preceded by genocidal words. Words signal intentions, and when those who express words of violence acquire the means to act out their intentions, they’ll do so at a scale and intensity commensurate with their means.

Hamas is an organisation founded on committing genocide against Jews, and its charter makes this clear. It regularly repeats these intentions, and has carried out untold acts of terror and violence. On 7 October 2023, this murderous organisation executed its intentions on a scale unseen since the Holocaust.

Israel’s objective in its war of self-defence against Hamas is to end this genocidal threat. She has the legal right and moral obligation to defend her citizens, and her actions aren’t just fully consistent with international law and the laws of war, but offer an exemplary application that no other country comes close to emulating. The casus belli has been amplified by Hamas’ own words, which threaten to repeat October 7 again and again. Hamas exists to kill all the Jews, not only in Israel but everywhere, and would gleefully do so given the chance. It’s tragic that Palestinian civilians have been casualties of this war, and our humanity compels us to sympathise with those disastrously caught up in it. But Hamas is entirely responsible for the deployment of civilians as accessories to its murderous intentions.

South Africa’s referral of Israel to the International Court of Justice is intended to delegitimise the Jewish state’s need to prevent another Holocaust. Israel is the only country in the world that has to defend herself for defending herself. For if she were legally and morally unable to defend herself from future 10/7s and much worse, there would be no Jewish state and the state of world Jewry would be unthinkable. The African National Congress (ANC) government, lately the new vector for Iran’s entry into Africa, is its instrument for lawfare against Israel.

That the ANC government supports Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation in most democratic states, is undeniable. A Hamas delegation, including Khaled Mashal, was hosted by the ANC in Pretoria in 2015, where they signed a memorandum of understanding. In 2017, Hamas politburo members attended the ANC’s 54th conference, where it voted to downgrade diplomatic relations with Israel. In October 2023, this relationship crossed from party to government lines. Almost immediately after Hamas committed its atrocities on 7 October, Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) Minister Dr Naledi Pandor phoned to offer support and solidarity. A week later, President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC leadership shamelessly sported Palestinian keffiyehs to symbolise support for those who had so recently had murdered, raped, tortured, maimed, and kidnapped Jews. In December 2023, the ANC again hosted a Hamas delegation. At the same time, it shunned all contact with Israeli officials. The ANC government explicitly takes the side of Hamas in this conflict without a mandate from the population, and is now waging warfare against Israel to stop her from defending against the murderers of Jews.

This government no longer represents South Africa nor the values of our constitutional democracy. While many democracies around the world may support the Palestinians, they unequivocally condemn Hamas and acknowledge Israel’s right of self-defence. Regardless of where one stands on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, it’s wholly undemocratic to support an internationally designated terrorist entity. But, perhaps most foul of all is the government’s politicisation of genocide. Pretoria attempts to separate this most monstrous act of inhumanity from its meaning. It serves a historical injustice to those poor souls who were victims of genocide on the African continent and around the world, and protects the perpetrators. And it’s not even subtle. Within a week of the government accusing Israel of committing genocide at the International Court of Justice, Ramaphosa warmly hosted Sudanese leader Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo in Pretoria, one of the perpetrators of the Darfur genocide and countless crimes against humanity. It’s clear that this government has lost all moral authority on any issue of human rights or the right to make accusations about abuses in any international forum.

The South African Jewish community, proudly South African with an outsized contribution to this country and an intrinsic connection to Israel, is repelled by a government that takes a position so antithetical to its values. Dirco adds fuel to the fire by making an antisemitic accusation that Israel is “weaponising Jewish suffering” in order to “deflect criticism”. We’re left in no doubt about its obsession with Israel. While this government has no interest in Jewish suffering, it’s interested in defending the perpetrators of suffering against Jews. Our strongest response is to exercise our constitutional rights proudly as Jews, support Israel and its supporters in this country, and back the political forces dedicated to guiding South Africa towards a future of democracy, morality, and respect in the community of nations.

• Rowan Polovin is the national chairperson of the South African Zionist Federation