Board slams ANC over support for IAW, BDS

ANT KATZ

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies’ response was towards Jessie Duarte’s “hostile rhetoric and unadulterated prejudice” towards Israel, said Kahn in a statement today. It is out of synch “with the President’s commitment to South Africa playing a role in the resolution of the conflict”, said Kahn, as well as being counter to former-President Mandela’s “commitment to continuously dialogue in areas of conflict”.

In what she referred to as “the annual propaganda circus known as ‘Israel Apartheid Week’,” Kahn said that it had consistently shown that its aim was not pro-peace “or even pro-Palestinian”.

Referring to the US-based NGO Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) organisation that runs IAW worldwide but requires a strong showing from South Africa and the likes of Duarte to give credibility to their apartheid analogy, Kahn said their motives were merely to “be viscerally anti-Israel”.

RIGHT: National executive director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, Wendy Kahn, says that once again the ANC’s obsessive hostility towards Israel has seen the ruling party aligning itself with a movement that routinely promotes hatred – not merely against Israel – but against SA Jewry

SA is welcome to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, said Kahn, but this need not take the kind of “radical anti-Israel, and frequently anti-Semitic, form” that Duarte has used.

Kahn was reacting to a statement posted by Duarte, the ruling African National Congress’ (ANC) deputy secretary general, on the official ANC website and which can therefore only be considered to be representative of the ruling party as a whole. The post was entitles: “ANC’s participation in Israeli Apartheid Week (7-13 March 2016) and was published on March 5.

“It is without any hesitation that the ANC will be participating in Israeli Apartheid Week,” said Duarte. Duarte referred back to the ANC’s January 8 statement, when President Zuma stated “We reiterate our solidarity with the people of Palestine and … discourage travel to Israel for ANC leaders, members and representatives for business and leisure purposes.”

LEFT: A Jewish design house produced a series of posters such as the one at left for the SA Union of Jewish Students (SAUJS) to display on campuses around the country – see more full-width versions below story. JR Online will showcase all the posters and other paraphernalia during this week

Kahn was livid. “We are witnessing mounting instances of anti-Israel rhetoric crossing over into overt anti-Semitism,” she said today, “particularly on the university campuses.”

Last week, says Kahn, attempts were made to disrupt a religious learning session for Wits Jewish students, “with the speaker being rudely interrupted and participants subjected to offensive verbal abuse (such as that ‘Jewish money’ controls the university).”

SEE MORE PICTURES BELOW THE STORY

Regarding BDS’ 2016 IAW which started today, said Duarte, the ANC was proud to be a participant and that the ruling party “particularly welcome(s) the involvement of members from the South African Jewish community who will be participating.”

Kahn, responding for SA Jewry, reminds the ANC of the “intimidation, incitement and threats against Jewish students on South African university campuses over the past few years during the IAW campaign” and says the Board believes that the ANC’s statements are “irresponsible, provocative and dangerous.”

RIGHT: ANC Deputy
Secretary-General Jessie Duarte

They serve only to import a fraught and highly divisive foreign conflict into SA society at a time when there is a particularly pressing need to promote a culture of national unity and tolerance in our country, Kahn said.

She also takes the ruling party to task for making such statements at a time when a “volatile situation prevails on our university campuses, significantly contributing to prevailing tensions and heightening the risk of further explosive confrontations.”

Read the OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY ANC BACKING IAW (PDF) on Jewish Report Online. It has been posted in a PDF format so that users can download it to print or send to family and friends by attaching it to an e-mail.

In their statement, the ANC boasts that members of its National Executive Committee (NEC) will be speaking at various IAW events across the country.

LEFT: The official BDS logo for IAW 2016

Rather than supporting this hate-filled IAW week, Wendy Kahn appeals to Duarte to instead support the week of “dialogue, learning, exposure to different perspective and, ultimately, of reconciliation” that Jewish students will be offering. “This, surely, is the true South African way,” says Wendy Kahn.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW PICTURE…

ABOVE: SAUJS was ahead of the game on Sunday, getting pride of place by painting this image of their campaign on the official Wits IAW Graffiti Wall

The previous tête-à-tête started over Gaza. Follow it on SAJR and search Jessie Duarte for more:

11 Jul 2014: ANC’S DUARTE ISSUES A ‘VENOMOUS AND INSULTING STATEMENT’
“(We) are reminded of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, surely we must ask the people of Israel: has the term ‘lest we forget’ lost its meaning?” asked Jessie Duarte, deputy secretary general of the African National Congress. The SAZF and the SAJBD lashed out against what they call “the ANC’s venomous and insulting statement”. Read this tit-for-tat war of words…

13 Jul 2014: CHIEF TO DUARTE: PUT UP OR SHUT UP “RETRACT OR DEBATE ME!”

16 Jul 2014: KATHRADA FOUNDATION SLAMS CHIEF RABBI’S ‘THREATS’ TO DUARTTE

17 Jul 2014: ANT KATZ INTERVIEWS MANTASHE WHO REFUSES TO REMOVE BLINKERS

06 Aug 2014: ‘MISSING’ PUPPET CHESTER GETS ANC TO RESPOND TO CHIEF RABBI

28 Nov 2014: ABBAS REITERATES TO ZUMA – ‘DON’T BOYCOTT ISRAEL!’

Examples of the posters SAUJS have hung in campuses:

Follow Jewish Report Online’s daily coverage of IAW this week and see see the full range of these magnificent A1-sized posters