ANT KATZ

The story of the 16 remains high on the list of top mainstream media news as their battle with their parent ANC-affiliated organisations and BDS-SA (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (Israel) heats up with much mud-slinging on all sides.

Wits student and ex-SRC member Klaas Mokgomole, PICTURED RIGHT, is an ANC Youth League (ANCYL) member and one of two of the sixteen who went to Israel who had been part of the infamous Wits-11 SRC members who were disciplined for anti-Israel behaviour..

They were sanctioned by Wits University for their participation in the BDS-led hooliganism that caused a concert by Israeli-born pianist Yosi Reshef to be abandoned last year.

Today, Klaas is fast-becoming the de facto spokesman for the vociferously anti-BDS group of peace activists. They may not all have changed their views on Israel and Palestine, but all sixteen blame their ostracism on BDS and not on the ANC.

Hear Rolene on the radio: ‘An epic BDS fail!’

Jewish Report’s Israel correspondent, Rolene Marks PICTURED LEFT (RoRo to her friends), did a radio interview on The Josh Hasten Show on The Voice of Israel Tuesday on what she called:

“An epic BDS fail!”

“What happens when you bring 16 young leaders from SA where they have been fed a steady diet of BDS b.s?” asks Rolene. “An epic BDS fail! I was absolutely delighted to join the Voice of Israel’s Josh Hasten on air,” she said today. LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW.

Tour attendees, ANCYL member Klaas Mokgomole and now-suspended Sasco Wits branch chairman Nthabiseng Molefe, told The Star newspaper the group went in their own capacity and not under any ANC auspices.

“We wanted to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the ground for ourselves. You can’t be a good leader without seeing two sides to the situation,” Mokgomole said.

The sixteen had not come back pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, but pro-peace, they said. They see the occupation of Palestine as wrong, but they also see Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israelis as wrong.

The sixteen youth leaders, whose names Jewish Report was the first to publish (with their permission) this week, include several who are vocal anti-Israel, from the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) and the South African Student Congress (Sasco).

According to Mokgomole and Molefe, BDS made several attempts to stop the leaders from going on the trip. “They kept sending intimidating e-mails saying that disciplinary action would be taken against us if we went. They tried to make us feel guilty,” Molefe told The Star.

Apart from the intimidation, some of the sixteen have told Jewish Report that BDS offered them R40 000 if they pulled out.

RIGHT: BDS later denied the claim and suggested it was the fault of the “Israeli lobby”.

Mokgomole insisted that there was no resolution banning South Africans from travelling to Israel or Palestine. “South Africa has strong diplomatic relations with both countries. Our government believes in a two-state solution.”

He said the SAIF organised the trip to give future South African leaders a legitimate opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “We need to open dialogue, this is the only way peace can be achieved.”

Related reads on Jewish Report Online

• WED LATEST: RORO ON RADIO & BDS DENIED OFFER
• ANC ADVANTAGED BY KEEPING YOUTH IN DARK
• BDS TRIES TO REACH SAJR USERS WITH VIDEO Putting the record right
• BLOG: WHO IS CALLING THE SHOTS ON SA’S MIDEAST POLICY?
• WHO ARE THE DEFIANT SIXTEEN FUTURE LEADERS?
• LATEST ON BATTLE BETWEEN ANC-16 & BDS – 22 July
• BLOG: ANT KATZ TAKES ON LUBNA NADVI
• ALLAN WOLMAN: THE WORLD IS ROUND!
• YOUNG PEOPLE WON’T BE BROWBEATEN – Mary Kluk
• WITS-11’S KLAAS SLAMS BDS AGAIN ON SUNDAY
• WHAT MADIBA ACTUALLY SAID & THE BDS MISQUOTE
• BOARD’S DAVID SAKS ASKS….
• SIXTEEN REBELS STAND FIRM, BLAME BDS “TOP READ!”
• BOARD NOT DONE. NOT BY A LONG SHOT
• SASCO SUSPENDS THOSE WHO WENT TO ISRAEL
• BOARD, FED JOINT STATEMENT TO BAPELA
• ANC SPEWS AFTER YOUNG LEADERS VISIT ISRAEL

BDS CEO Mumammed Desai insists that his organisation did not offer the students R40 000 and the Sixteen claim BDS is intimidating them at every turn