Cape Town Jews doubly victimised as antisemitism rages

Many Capetonian Jews woke up on the morning of Saturday, 14 October, grieving the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists exactly a week earlier. On Shabbat, and at the very time that they were commemorating one week since the attack, they were greeted with heinous antisemitic graffiti in Sea Point, a suburb where many Jews live.

The Western Cape has experienced increasing extremism from the anti-Israel lobby since the beginning of 2023, ranging from the burning of Israeli flags to calling for the deaths of Zionists; protests outside a Jewish community centre that includes a shul; and openly expressing support for Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah and proudly displaying their symbols. A building in the Bo-Kaap area of Cape Town called BDS:Hamas on Google Maps, is flying a Hamas flag and has the words: “Hamas: From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.” The building is less than a kilometre from the Cape Town Jewish community’s main campus.

As soon as Hamas unleashed its bloodbath on 7 October, this extremism flared in the Mother City. But such blatantly antisemitic graffiti hasn’t been seen before. The graffiti lined up with the vandalising of a kosher store in London and the marking of homes of Jews in Berlin with Magen David stars, all in the wake of Hamas’ terrorism which gave the “green light” for other acts of antisemitism.

“This morning was the Cape Town Marathon 10km race, and on our route, this is what we were greeted with,” wrote one community member on Facebook, sharing a photo of the word “Holocaust Oct ’23” in red spray paint on a white wall. “The run was the ‘10km peace run’, and sadly this is what we encountered on our peace run. Truly frightening.” Another community member wrote, “How can this be happening now? This is taunting. This is terrorism. This is hate.”

Two Israeli flags were painted on the seafront wall, one with the words, “I stand with genocide,” and another saying, “Israel Est. Never” (Israel: established: never).

“Regardless of your views and beliefs, there’s no justification for this kind of hatred, antisemitism, and acts inciting violence,” said the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape Board) in a statement. “We call on all South Africans to unite against hate, and work towards peace for each and every one of us.”

Daniel Bloch, the executive director of the Cape Board, told the SA Jewish Report, “On Saturday morning, our antisemitism hotline was sent a variety of pictures. We appreciate the community sharing the information. We would advise everyone to message the hotline as a first port of call. Please don’t post and share on social media, as all you’re doing is giving the vandals more air time.

“We have a good relationship with the City of Cape Town. Graffiti is illegal. So, whether it’s antisemitic or illegal graffiti, we report it to the City of Cape Town, to the various ward councillors in the areas, and their graffiti departments go in quickly and remove the graffiti.

“This was done on Saturday. We put the call out, and it was quickly painted over. Our thanks to the City of Cape Town for swiftly removing it. We’ll continue to monitor the situation. Unfortunately, we don’t know who did the graffiti but we’re looking to see what cameras are available in the various areas so we can examine the CCTV footage. If we’re able to identify the culprits, we’ll take appropriate action against them.”

Ward Councillor Nicola Jowell said, “It cannot be that city infrastructure and public spaces used by all South Africans are defaced in this way.” She said no arrests had been made.

In addition, extremists in Cape Town hosted a protest outside the main Jewish community centre in Cape Town on Wednesday, 11 October, shouting, “One Zionist, one bullet!” The campus includes a shul, a Holocaust museum, the South African Jewish Museum, a kosher restaurant, and a Jewish library. The protest was clearly designed to intimidate the Jewish community at a site that had nothing to do with Israel. Advertising for the event said it was at the “Israeli consular office”. However, no such office exists there.

“The BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] movement is again covering its real intent, which is antisemitism, discrimination, and hatred against the Jewish community by stating that it was coming to the Israeli consulate,” says Bloch. “Because by doing so, they’re trying to say that this is an anti-Israel rally, not one against Jews, but because there’s no Israeli consulate or embassy in Cape Town, they just renamed the building the Israeli consulate.”

A much larger march to Parliament took place on Friday, 13 October, where some protesters wore Hamas T-shirts, waved Hamas flags, and arrived on motorbikes, imitating the Hamas terrorists who committed the massacre. Speakers, including Mandla Mandela, called for South Africa to end sports, cultural, academic, and other links with “apartheid Israel and corporations complicit in Israeli apartheid”, and “declare the Israeli ambassador in Pretoria persona non grata and sever diplomatic relations”.

“The apartheid state of Israel’s embassy is no longer welcome in South Africa,” said Mandela. He called on the transport minister to cancel the rights of Israel’s national airline, El Al, to fly into the country, and called on Ramaphosa to support Hamas and “the Palestinian resistance”.

Mandela told the assembly that “as long as the land of the Palestinians remains occupied, for as long as their rights are ignored and their dignity denied, [such] peace will remain elusive”.

“We stand with you [the Palestinians] as we face the axis of evil, supported by the imperialist regimes and all those who support apartheid Israel and its war crimes, crimes against humanity, its ethnic cleansing in Gaza, and all over occupied Palestine,” he said.

“Since last Saturday, there’s been a number of rallies,” Bloch says. “There has been quite a lot of SAPS [South African Police Service] and law enforcement in the area to make sure that everything remained peaceful. We work with the relevant authorities and security to make sure that people are protected.

“We also organised a peaceful community rally attended by more than 2 500 members, not just of the Jewish community, but friends of the Jewish community and friends of Israel. There were consulates, embassies, interfaith groups, religious groups, there were political parties, all coming to show solidarity with our community and Israel. That’s just what our community does. We get together in times of need, we come together to pray, to comfort each other.”

Bloch expects there to be more anti-Israel rallies in the Cape in the weeks ahead. “They will be all over. Please don’t engage with them. We all have this need to express ourselves, to stand with Israel and speak out against terrorism, but we’ll have more chances to come together as a community. For now, stay away [from anti-Israel protests], and we’ll continue to update the community as much as possible.

“We are continuously monitoring and investigating acts of antisemitism, and encourage members of the community to report incidents of antisemitism to our hotline: WhatsApp 079 994 5573. You should also report any suspicious activity or potential threats to the Jewish community or communal facilities to the 24-hour Community Security Organisation control room on 086 18 911 18.”