Cape Board takes Instagram influencer to Equality Court

“I just wish the Iron Dome malfunctions,” wrote Cape Town businesswoman Mariam Jakoet-Harris on the social media platform Instagram on 9 December 2023. She is one of four individuals that the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape SAJBD) is taking to the Equality Court on charges of hate speech.

Speaking to the SA Jewish Report, Cape SAJBD Executive Director Daniel Bloch says, “To those who continue to post antisemitic statements, their time in court will come, make no mistake of that. This is only the beginning.”

Jakoet-Harris was served by the court on 30 October and therefore her case is in the public domain, filed at the High Court of South Africa, Western Cape division. On her Instagram account for her cooking business, Cooked Inc, Jakoet-Harris has made numerous statements to her 37 400 followers that the Cape SAJBD says “could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be harmful, incite harm, and to promote or propagate hate”.

For example, in crude language, Jakoet-Harris implied on a post on 30 November 2023 that female hostages were “asking” to be raped by Hamas on 7 October. On 24 November 2023, she created a post describing how her child asked her, “Mama, can’t Allah just make them [Jews/Israelis] all extinct?” Also on 30 November 2023, she posted an image of a Star of David being thrown in a rubbish bin.

On 13 November, she engaged in 7 October denial, saying that Hamas couldn’t have committed atrocities because Israel chose not to show images of the dead. “Zionists say they cannot show us evidence of the atrocities [committed by Hamas on 7 October] because it would be disrespectful to the dead,” she posted. “But then why do they have Holocaust museums around the world showing us gas chambers, ovens, and piles of naked bodies?”

On 15 December 2023, alongside an image of a Jewish-owned business, she posted, “We boycott [Jews] because the only language they understand is money. The are driven by greed.” On 18 December 2023, she stated the blood libel that Israel harvests organs from Palestinians and people around the world. Back in November 2023, she told her followers not to buy from a local Jewish-owned business because it has “a gentle whiff of genocide”.

Even after she was served, Jakoet-Harris continued to make hateful statements. On 4 November, she invited her followers to a cooking course on Middle Eastern food, stating “Before Shitrael [Israel] claims these dishes as their own, let’s learn how to preserve the culture, history, and identity of these countries.” She called this “a delicious act of resistance”, accompanied by inverted red triangles, which are widely recognised as symbolising terrorist attacks.

The Cape SAJBD says her posts frame Jewish people as “evil, morally corrupt, and wicked”. The posts imply that “Jewish people should be exterminated, killed or made extinct; that Jewish people and Jewish women in particular should be raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by Palestinian men; that Jewish people illicitly, by force, and without consent harvest organs; and that Jewish people and their businesses should be boycotted or made to suffer reprisals or revenge for the harm suffered by Palestinians.”

The Cape SAJBD also says her posts imply that “people who hold Zionist beliefs should be exterminated, killed, or made extinct; that people who hold Zionist beliefs and their businesses should be boycotted or otherwise made to suffer; and people who hold Zionist beliefs and women in particular should be raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by Palestinian men.”

Jakoet-Harris intends to oppose the application. The Cape SAJBD has asked the court that her statements be declared harmful, inciting harm and propagating hate, amounting to hate speech. It also asked that she tender an unconditional apology to the South African Jewish community, that she donate R25 000 to the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre, and that she pay the costs of the legal application.

“For the past year, we have witnessed a rise in antisemitism,” says Bloch. “The vitriol as well as the incitement to violence taking place outside our schools, shuls, places of business, residences, and community centres as well as online, has reached a breaking point, and we will no longer allow these hate-filled individuals to intimidate and verbally abuse our community. We believe now is the time to enforce our community’s rights to be protected from speech that incites violence and promotes hate.

“The Equality Court was established to promote our rights as set out in the Constitution, protecting individuals and communities from hate speech,” says Bloch, on why his organisation chose this route. “It’s more robust, and matters are resolved more speedily than in other courts. We feel that for these cases, the Equality Court provides the appropriate platform.”

Bloch emphasises that the dehumanisation of a community starts with speech and propaganda. “Once a community is dehumanised and ‘othered’, it becomes easier to spew hate towards them. This can lead to physical violence, and we would like to stop this now. These individuals have crossed the line on more than one occasion, verbally attacked our community, and they continue to do so. We cannot allow antisemitism or any kind of hate speech to go unpunished.”

Social media, he says, allows hate to flourish. “This is where we have seen the main increase in antisemitic rhetoric, and social media platforms don’t do enough to punish offenders. Therefore, we need to take action. Hate speech and incitement to violence can never be justified or validated. People need to understand that actions have consequences, sometimes even unintended consequences. Too many people are spreading misinformation, rumours, and lies and posting classic antisemitic tropes.

“We cannot wait until something terrible happens for people to realise that their hate speech may incite violence against the Jewish community,” says Bloch. “Ideally, we would like the respondents to see the error of their ways and understand just how offensive and potentially dangerous their comments are.”

To the community, he says: “We encourage our community not to share antisemitic posts, as they only exacerbate the situation. By clicking on certain links, you are influencing the algorithms and contributing to the success of these posts. In some cases, individuals make money off clicks and views. So please stop sharing, viewing, and clicking these links.”

The SA Jewish Report reached out to Jakoet-Harris for comment. Her attorney, Ashraf Mahomed, responded, “We do not wish to comment on the merits since the matter is sub judice. Suffice to state at this stage, Ms Jakoet-Harris denies that she holds any hatred towards Jews and rejects those who engage in antisemitism or any form of Jew-hatred. Her ‘statements’ and posts on the genocide that is taking place in Gaza were taken out of context, and she intends addressing this with the SAJBD in due course.”