ANT KATZ

Snowy Smith decided to represent himself in the Durban Equality Court (against SAJBD complaints) in November, telling the court that he was not an anti-Semite and that all he was doing was distributing what was already on the Internet and YouTube, most of it posted by “the Jews”. He cited a list of what he described as “experts”, mostly Holocaust denialists, whose work he said he had researched and established to be the truth.

Magistrate Aletta Moolman didn’t agree with him and issued an immediate temporary “Shut-up”order at that time.

RIGHT: SA Jewish Board of Deputies’ national director, Wendy Kahn, tweeted this copy of the morning’s poster for “The Mercury” in Durban. 

 
Smith, who has denied that Jews are of Middle Eastern origin and challenged the Board to prove otherwise, also asserted that he could not be accused of being anti-Semitic because he supported the Palestinians, who were themselves “Semites”.

Today, Moolman issued her full judgment – PDF OF FULL JUDGMENT – which JR Online has published in a 14-page PDF form so that users can download it, read it later or forward to friends and family.

Smith’s original e-mail recipients included a Durban attorney, a Cape Town news editor, a Cape Town teacher and a prominent South African businessman and former high court judge. What he probably didn’t know about, or care, was that all were Jewish and lodged complaints.

In April, Smith had threatened to sue the SA Jewish Board of Deputies for R10m for defamation after they had lodged a complaint on behalf of the Jewish community with the Equality Court.

The e-mail’s content included the following:

• “The enemy is Zionist Jew, freemasons, communism, fascist, military dictatorship new world order. Most Zionist Jews are freemasons.”
• “The Zionist Jew NWO (new world order) orchestrated and systematically planned the downfall of every White Owned, White Run Country in Africa, including South Africa using communism.”
• “The Zionist Jew NWO orchestrated and systematically planned the last World War and almost every war and or major revolution in history.”
• “There is only one group of terrorists in the world today and they are Zionist Chabad Freemasons, Illuminati Jews and the Billionaire Wall Street Bankers. We know exactly where they are.”

In referring to the e-mail contents, the Board had maintained that “every idea and statement expressed,” as being an example of hate speech.

David Saks’ story on November 18 on JR Online (CLICK TO SEE: SAJBD confronts ‘Smith’ on hate speech) explained how the Board had acted against right-wing conspiracy theorist Snowy Smith whose case had finally got underway in Durban’s Equality Court on November 16 and 17.  

The Board sought an interdict preventing Smith from packaging and distributing what it termed “extraordinarily offensive” racist, anti-Jewish propaganda.

The following day, Magistrate Aletta Moolman took the unusual step of granting an immediate interim interdict, prohibiting Smith from sending out anything referring to people of the Jewish faith until the final judgment was handed down.

Today, December 15, the Durban Equality Court handed down its judgment.

It recognised Smith’s anti-Semitic e-mails as having impinged adversely on the dignity of the Jewish people and constituted hate speech. The final interdict permanently prohibits him from disseminating any further hate speech.

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies welcomed the finding against Smith, today, said President Mary Kluk in a statement.

“The hate-speech complaint was lodged by the SAJBD in April 2013 following mass e-mailings by Snowy Smith of dozens of anti-Semitic e-mails over the previous three years, including to Jewish individuals and institutions, journalists, and news editors.”

Crossed the free speech line

In her evidence before the Equality Court, Kluk, stressed that “while the SAJBD fully supported the right to freedom of expression, the nature of the material disseminated by Snowy Smith crossed the line and could not be tolerated in a free and democratically-based constitutional democracy.”

LEFT: SAJBD National President Mary Kluk

This was confirmed by the Equality Court Magistrate, Aletta Moolman, who ruled that “the e-mails distributed by Smith impinge adversely on the dignity of the Jewish people and constitute hate speech against people of the Jewish faith or belief and ethnic origin”. 

Kluk today applauded the ruling – saying that racism in this country will not be tolerated and that religious, ethnic and minority groups are, and remain, protected within the laws of this country by this important ruling.

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