Animosity and extremism at Cape Town Palestinian solidarity march

TALI FEINBERG

He was one of a number of high-level politicians, including Chief Mandla Mandela, ANC Deputy Secretary-General Jessie Duarte and Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Lindiwe Sisulu, who spoke at the event.

There were hundreds of mostly Muslim people wearing Palestinian headscarves and clothes, while waving Palestinian flags and filling the streets leading up to Parliament in Cape Town in solidarity with what they called “the Palestinian struggle against Israeli Apartheid”.

Amidst cries of “Free, free Palestine” and “Legislate BDS” from the crowd, the ANC in the Western Cape and the Muslim Judicial Council of SA led a plethora of other groups, including the ANC Youth League, the SA Communist Party (SACP), COSATU and South African Jews for a Free Palestine. One protester held a sign equating the Israeli flag with a swastika.

Extreme anti-Israel rhetoric dominated the proceedings against the backdrop of Monday’s mass protests on the Israel-Gaza border which left 53 Palestinians dead and thousands injured.

Within hours of hearing of the dead and injured, South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel in a show of condemnation for Israel’s actions. The SAJBD and SA Zionist Federation called this move “outrageous and gross double standards”.

The date of the march was chosen because it was the culmination of the Palestinians’ Right of Return march on the Israeli-Gaza border, the day that US President Donald Trump declared that the US embassy will be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and it marks the anniversary of the day that Israel’s independence was declared in 1948.

The organisers had paid Metrorail to allow protesters to enjoy free train rides as long as they were wearing Palestinian-affiliated gear.

In the first speech of the event, Heidi Grunebaum of SA Jews for a Free Palestine called for the right of return for all Palestinians, ultimately ending the existence of a Jewish State. Every speaker after her repeated this call, saying that Israel has occupied the land since 1948.

Grunebaum also spoke of a “South Africa forest” planted by the Jewish National Fund over the ruins of a Palestinian village. To this, members of the crowd yelled: “Burn it down!”

Reverend Edwin Arrison of the National Coalition for Palestine lamented the lack of Christians at the event and urged Muslims to tell their Christian neighbours that modern Israel is not the Israel of the Bible. Muhammed Desai of BDS South Africa called for “an immediate downgrade of South Africa’s embassy in Israel by next week”.

A speaker from the SACP called to “boycott all Israeli businesses in this country” and vilified the DA for “its association with Israel”. This was echoed by Duarte, who told the crowd that “the DA’s constituency sends money to the Israeli killing machine in your name”. She added: “I don’t care if the Jewish Board calls us terrorists” and also called to “kick out the Israeli ambassador”.

She concluded by saying that Palestinians will not be free until they have “all the land, from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea” – in effect, the whole of the Jewish State.

A memorandum demanding an immediate and unconditional downgrade of South Africa’s embassy in Tel Aviv, the boycotting of Israeli products and the expulsion of Israel’s ambassador was ceremoniously handed to Sisulu and Mandela, grandson of the late president Nelson Mandela.

In accepting the memorandum, Chief Mandela said that Israel has committed “genocide and crimes against humanity”, and conveyed personal greetings from the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh.

Joshua Hovsha, director of the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies, said: “All South Africans have the right to protest peacefully. While our opinion may differ from the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) on the issue of Israel and Palestine, our major concern is that this international issue becomes conflated with anti-Semitism at a local level.

“As the SAJBD Cape, our role is to ensure the safety of the Jewish community and that their rights as South African citizens are upheld. It is with utter dismay that protesters have used this opportunity to post blatant anti-Semitic messaging on social media and online platforms.

“The Jewish Board of Deputies denounces these acts in the strongest terms. The resurgence of anti-Semitism is unacceptable and the difference of opinion, including on the status of Jerusalem, can never justify such acts. South African Jews need to feel safe and free in our society.

“While not all Muslims in the Western Cape should be tarnished with anti-Semitism, as the large majority reject it, our South African democracy is to be protected, and anti-Semitism needs to be exposed and combated by organisations such as the MJC and ours, rather than encouraged.

“We believe that our local communities should build on our similarities rather than our differences, and work together to make the Western Cape a better place for all.”