Gaza provokes tsunami of social media anti-Semitism

DAVID SAKS

In the main, this has manifested in the social media sphere, where comments posted by members of the public and occasionally even political leaders, have regularly included expressions of praise for the Nazis combined with wishing only that they had “finished the job”.

South African Jewry has also been charged with being an unwelcome fifth column that exploits the indigenous population, while acting at the behest of a foreign power guilty of acts of genocide.

Occasionally, demands for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador have been combined with calls for the SAJBD and other “Zionist apologists” to be expelled as well for having “supported the mass murder”.     

Rene Smit, an obscure ANC party worker in the Western Cape, achieved brief notoriety for her Facebook entry lauding the Holocaust and praising Hitler. The post, featuring an image of Hitler assuming a visionary pose and followed by the words: “I could have killed all the Jews, but left some of them to let you know why I was killing them.”

It quickly went viral, as did the SAJBD’s statement that it had laid a hate speech charge against Smit with the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC). Had it not been for the ANC link, however, the post would probably have attracted little attention, as Smit’s was just one of scores of similar such online comments that have surfaced over the past two weeks.

Affan Sosibo, secretary-general of the ANC Youth League in KwaZulu-Natal, twice provided a variation of the “Hitler was right” theme, tweeting: “Hitler: ‘One day world will curse me for every jew I left alive” (sent @sajbd) and “We miss u hitler. But we finish your job great man”.

Sosibo also asked: “Is SAJBD legal? They are anti-African, anti-ANC, rabidly jewish foreign agent. Bloody enemies of our people.”

Some will be familiar with Sosibo’s name because of a lengthy “open letter” he wrote to Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein (whom he describes at one point as a “Shylockian spinster” and accused of threatening the popularly elected ANC government on behalf of a foreign regime). In that same post, he asked how the Rabbi would like it were the Jewish community as a consequence to be treated as a “fifth column”, with their property being destroyed and citizenship revoked as had allegedly happened to Israel’s Arab minority. 

Despite the inflammatory nature of the online rhetoric, relatively few cases of face-to-face verbal abuse or intimidation against Jewish individuals have been reported. This is in contrast to much of what has been happening internationally, where numerous anti-Semitic attacks, including violent assault, have taken place since the conflict erupted. 

In addition to the Smit case, the SAJBD has also laid a complaint of hate speech with the SAHRC, as well as instituting criminal proceedings, against Ziyaad Kay, who posted the comment: “I think we should kill you S.A. jews and kill your kids and let you feel what the Palestinians are feeling”, on the Board’s Facebook. Regarding other anti-Semitic postings, the SAJBD is compiling a detailed log of all incidents and will be deciding on how to proceed on a case-by-case basis.

Together with the SA Zionist Federation, it has set up a hotline 071 921 0570 operating from 06:00 – 18:00 through which community members can report further anti-Semitic incidents as well as cases of media bias.