Board lays criminal charge against antisemitic Instagrammer

TALI FEINBERG

The SAJBD laid the charges on Monday, 1 June, through its legal representative, Ian Levitt Attorneys. “The charges are crimen injuria, which is criminal defamation,” said SAJBD Associate Director David Saks.

Kriel is a 28-year-old athlete and bodybuilder from Pretoria who identifies as Christian. Amidst a torrent of classic antisemitic accusations posted on 16 May, she said, “The f***n Jews are greedy as f**k and they will wage war against countries and races based on lies and deception to get what they want. There is a special place in hell for them, and not even that is good enough for what they are doing to this world! It was the Jews that bombed, raped, sodomised, and burned all people in Germany alive. Hitler is innocent. Our history has been twisted to favour the Jews without question.”

SAJBD National Vice-Chairperson Professor Karen Milner, in whose name the charge was laid, said that racist and inflammatory rhetoric of this nature is not only criminal but dangerous, and needs to be confronted as strongly as possible. This is particularly true in the climate of the coronavirus pandemic, when many are feeling anxious, frustrated, and confused.

“It’s at such times that conspiracy theories tend to flourish, and all too often, Jews end up becoming the scapegoats” said Milner, a professor of psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand. “The posts in this case portray, inter alia, Jews as being intrinsically evil, morally and spiritually corrupt, and enemies of humanity at large. As such, they constitute classic antisemitism.”

Milton Shain, South Africa’s pre-eminent antisemitism expert and emeritus professor of history at the University of Cape Town, weighed in: “If one thinks about the crimen injuria cases dealing with racial insults over the past couple of years – like the Penny Sparrow matter for example – one would imagine there is a case to pursue. To me, there seem to be no shades of grey. This isn’t anti-Zionism as a ‘fig leaf’ for Jew-hatred. This is old-style antisemitism, building on every trope in a long history of hatred. A whole people have been vilified by Simone Abigail Kriel.”

The SAJBD gave Kriel until the close of business on 19 May to remove the offending material and post an unequivocal apology to the Jewish community, failing which, legal and/or other appropriate action would be taken against her.

Since then, there has been no further interaction between her and the SAJBD. “She didn’t respond to our email beyond acknowledging receipt, obviously posted no apology, and instead posted further offensive material on her Facebook page while insisting on her Instagram profile that she had done nothing wrong and wouldn’t be silenced.”

Saks said that the SAJBD and its lawyers decided that crimen injuria was the best option to pursue. “As this is clearly a criminal case, we proceeded to lay criminal charges.”

Furthermore, “At this stage, the definition of what constitutes prohibited hate speech is a bit up in the air. This is because of a pending challenge to the relevant section of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act in the Constitutional Court. Because of this, it was felt that going the civil route – such as through the Equality Court or the South African Human Rights Commission – wasn’t the right option right now and instead, criminal proceedings would be more effective.

“The matter is now with the police, and it’s for it to decide if and when to prosecute,” said Saks. “Once the investigation has been concluded, the prosecuting authorities will make a decision on the procedure for the prosecution of Kriel. This can take some time. If it goes ahead, it will still most likely be a long process, in part because of the inevitable backlog of cases resulting from current circumstances. The Board, through our attorneys, will follow up regularly.

“It’s premature at this stage to speculate about what the court might decide regarding the lawfulness or otherwise of her conduct and what penalty, if any, should be imposed,” Saks said. “There is precedent for direct imprisonment, as in the Vicki Momberg case, where she was sentenced to two years in prison. From our point of view, the most important aspect of the matter is that Kriel is made to answer for what she has published in a properly constituted judicial forum.”

He said the community could support the SAJBD in this process by “letting us know about any further antisemitic behaviour by the perpetrator, whether on her social-media platforms or in other forums in case we miss it. In general, we rely on the community to be our eyes and ears and report to us any instances of antisemitism that come to its attention, always providing as much chapter-and-verse detail as it can. This includes taking screenshots in cases where the abusive behaviour takes place online.

“There is a growing body of case history to assist the courts in this area, a fair number of which originates with actions brought by the SAJBD over the years,” Saks said, “but legally speaking, it very much remains a work in progress.”

At the same time, “the law on crimen injuria has been developed over many years in South Africa, and we can say that in certain instances, particularly when racism is involved, the courts are taking a much harder line on the perpetration of these crimes. This is one such incident that we trust will be given the seriousness it deserves by the prosecuting authorities.”