Firing exposes News24 columnists’ ‘glorification of violence’

When the editor of media giant News24 dismissed Jewish columnist Howard Feldman, it exposed what appears to be double standards at the widely read South African news site.

Editor Adriaan Basson told Feldman that “in light of your recent tweets about the pager explosions in Lebanon, I have decided to terminate your column on News24. News24 can in no way be associated with writers who glorify violence, which you did, in my opinion.”

But News24 is, in fact, associated with writers who glorify violence. In April, columnist Iqbal Jassat, who regularly calls for the destruction of Israel and openly supports Hamas, glorified the 13 April Iranian attack on Israel, calling it a “heroic mission” and a “just cause”, saying “it will be recorded in history as momentous”. He was writing on extremist anti-Israel website the Media Review Network (MRN), of which he is a founder.

At least three News24 columnists blame Israel for Hamas’s atrocities of 7 October, and one expresses approval of it. “While some will call it Palestinian terrorism, an examination of the facts will lend itself to the fact that these are actually acts of resistance in response to the real terrorism,” wrote News24 columnist Dr Aayesha Soni, in a MRN piece titled “Israel has no-one to blame but itself” on 9 October. “Meticulously planned and bravely executed, the Palestinian resistance is showing the world that they are willing and more than capable of defending their own land and people.”

On 29 December, the day South Africa took Israel to the International Court of Justice, Soni retweeted a statement by Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq, calling Hamas “heroes of resistance”, and expressing approval of “Al-Qassam’s slogan: ‘It is a jihad of victory or martyrdom’”.

South African Jewish Board of Deputies national director Wendy Kahn notes, “News24 has published an opinion piece by [former Cabinet minister] Ronnie Kasrils justifying Hamas’s indiscriminate killing of civilians on 7 October. Yet, it chose to fire Feldman over a tweet on his own platform, justifying the killing of terrorists. We believe this is double standards.”

In his most recent piece for News24, Jassat also blamed Israel for 7 October. On 11 October, former News24 assistant editor and current columnist Qaanitah Hunter wrote a News24 column titled “The violence in Israel didn’t just happen. Consider the context” also blaming Israel for the Hamas massacre.

Jassat’s account on X (formerly Twitter) was suspended for violating the platform’s rules, but his MRN account tweeted, “No safe writing spaces for Zionazi terrorists” in response to Feldman’s dismissal. His MRN website released a statement on 7 October applauding Hamas’s atrocities, and published Hamas’s own statement that day. MRN regularly features Hamas statements and published a 16-page document by Hamas explaining its atrocities.

Kahn says Feldman’s dismissal “is indicative of the narrowing of space for Jews to express opinions on the Middle East. While every innocent death in this conflict is a tragedy, there should be space for Jews to support Israel’s war against terror, without fear of being intimidated or cancelled.”

South African Zionist Federation spokesperson Rolene Marks says, “It is important to hear Jewish voices in South Africa. Feldman’s tweet about his dismissal has garnered more than 810 000 views, as there is growing concern about the cancellation of people who have views that differ from mainstream media. We hope News24 will continue to have pro-Israeli voices, as it certainly features those who are pro-Palestinian, and treat both sides honestly and fairly.”

She adds, “There is also a widespread misunderstanding by the South African media of the pager attacks on Hezbollah terrorists. Hezbollah has the largest military of any non-state in the world. It has rained rockets on Israel for 11 months, displaced more than 60 000 people, and is shooting rockets further south, endangering millions.

“Israel has to defend itself and when it does – by targeting terrorists with pagers – those who are pleased do not condone violence. Instead, they are relieved that Israel is protecting herself in a way that avoids hurting innocent people. Israel has the right to defend itself from an army that seeks to annihilate it and has been at war with it for 11 months. Recognising that does not equal the promotion of violence.”

Feldman says he was “floored” when he received the message from Basson. “It’s not like I don’t have a relationship with him. He could have handled it very differently. He could have messaged me to say, ‘Please can we have a conversation, because I’m worried about what you are tweeting.’

“In a way I wasn’t surprised, because my sense is it’s been quite difficult for News24 to give me a platform,” he adds. “I think there is tremendous pressure to appear not to be supporting Israel in any way. I have noticed in my articles [on News24] that if I referred to Hamas’s sexual assault of Israeli citizens, I would have the word ‘alleged’ [added to the text]. But somehow nobody needed to qualify Hamas’s claimed numbers [of deaths]. I was never allowed to refer to Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

“So, I had to be very cautious about what I wrote and made sure that everything was verifiable. Whereas if you see some of the other columns as recently as the weekend, with vitriol against Jews or Israel, it goes unchecked.”

Feldman is referring to City Press editor Mondli Makhanya’s piece published on News24 on 22 September, in which he stated: “A [Jewish] community that produced some of the 20th century’s most courageous advocates for justice has overwhelmingly (at least from the outside) become a cheerleader for a genocidal regime.”

Makhanya went on to describe Israel’s pager attack as “the worst terrorist attacks by a legitimate state”, conveniently ignoring Hezbollah’s daily terrorist attacks against Israelis, including the murder of 12 Druze children.

While some have commented that one shouldn’t celebrate the misfortune of others, Feldman said, “I think it needs to be contextualised. I was never told which tweet was the offending one. It may have been when I said Israel’s attack was genius, and at the end I said it was ‘really cool’. Maybe it was wrong to say that. I certainly don’t think I was celebrating someone’s misfortune. I think it is simply about the fact that Israel had a ‘win’, and the anger about that gets misdirected at me.”

Feldman writes for many publications but doesn’t think another South African publication would welcome him, as he believes the media in South Africa operates on a “groupthink” level. “But thankfully my voice is still heard,” he says.

To the community, he says: “Obviously, it’s upsetting, but the reality is, it is not about me. We are living in a world that requires us to be resilient. We’ve done that for thousands of years. We are fighting for truth. I’m so confident about that, that this is just another day in the fight for good.”

The SA Jewish Report reached out to Basson for comment but did not receive a response by the time of going to print.