Prof Madhi’s Israel tweets infected by hate

Professor Shabir Madhi, the dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), continues to share hateful anti-Israel material on social media. This despite recent criticism from the Jewish community for his persistent endorsement of contentious content.

Madhi’s biased online activity on the X platform includes reposts drawing comparisons between the events in Gaza and Nazi Germany and those that glorify Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the man responsible for orchestrating the 7 October attacks.

He latches on to well-known Israel bashers such as Jeremy Corbyn and Gary Lineker, and many others including Jewish anti-Zionists known to spread hateful content that demonises the only Jewish state. Several of the posts include references to the Holocaust, exaggerations that paint Israel as an aggressor beyond any reasonable scope, and language that delegitimises the entire nation.

One hateful repost he shared said, “The number one cause of child death on earth is Israel.”

Another said, “Israel is a Genociding Holocausting Pedophilic Rapist Sex Trafficking Organ & Land Stealing Child Murdering Terrorist Apartheid Ethno-State That Out Shames The Mother Fucking Nazis & You Western Cucks Bend The Knee For It All.”

Madhi, a professor of vaccinology, is well known for his work on two of the first COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials conducted in Africa; and is director of the South African Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit.

He is yet to respond to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD’s) demand for an unequivocal apology. This after he reposted a tweet by Bassem Youssef which said, “Yahya Sinwar was a resister, not a terrorist. Yahya Sinwar was defending his land against the most despicable people in history.”

The SAJBD said Madhi had exposed his “own deep-seated venomous agenda”, and his glorification of Sinwar was “unbefitting of a doctor, especially one responsible for training health professionals, including Jewish students”.

Madhi has reposted numerous tweets by United Nations’ special rapporteur for Palestinian rights, Francesca Albanese. Albanese has been accused of antisemitism by multiple United States ambassadors and the French and German governments, as well as for comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and stating that Hamas wasn’t motivated by antisemitism when it attacked Israel on 7 October.

The nature of these reposts by Madhi, has led many to question the suitability of his position as a leader within a top-class university like Wits, which prides itself on inclusivity and diversity. It raises broader questions about the boundaries between freedom of expression and hate speech, especially in academia.

Danny Mofsowitz, the Gauteng chairperson of the SAJBD, said Madhi had “completely transgressed the line between freedom of expression and wanton bigotry. The opinions shared by the professor are unbefitting of a medical professional, a man of science, or a dean of a university with a diverse student body and faculty.

“There’s a clear line between expressing a political view and adopting a position so extreme, it crosses the boundaries of rational engagement and enters the realm of hate and bigotry,” she said.

Reposting and thereby endorsing social media comments that glorify Sinwar “is abhorrent”, Mofsowitz said, “but for this to come from Professor Madhi, a doctor and the head of a medical school, is deeply disturbing.

“The posts, which include Holocaust references, atrocity minimisation, obscene exaggerations, and the dehumanisation of an entire country, are deeply upsetting for the Jewish community,” Mofsowitz said. “For a man in this position to cause such hurt to a constituency within his faculty is troubling. Jewish students and academics in this faculty in particular are now faced with serious challenges.”

Milton Shain, emeritus professor of historical studies at the University of Cape Town, said, “Professor Madhi’s posts are surprisingly vicious for a scientist. But I guess the emotion surrounding the war has got to him. One can understand his exasperation. But he must surely appreciate that both sides are suffering – and it was Hamas that launched the war. Madhi, of course, has only one side in mind and sees nothing wrong with Hamas. Does he not know that most Arab countries despise Hamas? Where was Madhi when the Egyptians virtually destroyed the Muslim Brotherhood, the progenitors of Hamas? Many level-headed commentators have described the late Sinwar as the head of a ‘death cult’.

“If he truly sees Sinwar as a resister not a terrorist, he should stick to his vaccinology which has earned him what I’m sure are justifiable plaudits,” Shain said. “But as a scientist, he surely knows that he must wait for results – in this case the legal process – to conclude whether genocide is or isn’t taking place in Gaza. But that won’t matter to someone who refers to Israelis as ‘the most despicable people in history’. It seems to me that [Madhi] is driven by a simple Jew-hatred. How else can one explain his empathy for such vile comment?”

Dr Martin Strous of the newly formed South African Association of Jewish Mental Health and Allied Practitioners (SAJMAP) said that while there was a case to be made for the role of professionals in supporting human rights issues, reposting inflammatory memes wasn’t becoming of the dean of a university faculty.

“It’s staggering that an eminent doctor and scientist can repost memes stating that the number one cause of child death on earth is Israel, not to mention memes that vilify the Israeli prime minister as the ‘Hitler of our day’, while glorifying Yahya Sinwar as defending his land against the ‘most despicable people in history’. Many Jews and members of the Wits community will view Professor Madhi’s reposting of such material as highly offensive and as a betrayal of his position of authority.”

Strous said SAJMAP was established earlier this year in response to anti-Israel social media content shared by different bodies in the medical profession. The association “is opposed to the misuse of professional bodies to advance any form of ethnic intolerance, including one-sided anti-Israel rhetoric”.

Madhi has ignored multiple emails and telephone requests for comment.