Leaders praise politicians for decline in SA anti-Semitism

NICOLA MILTZ

Members of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) last week held separate private meetings with National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise, interim Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen, and Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

The meetings were held at the Parliamentary precinct before and after Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered the national budget speech in Parliament, Cape Town, on Wednesday, 26 February.

Zev Krengel, the vice president of the SAJBD, together with the board’s parliamentary and diplomatic liaison, Chaya Singer, expressed the fact that levels of anti-Semitism in the country had decreased in comparison to the resurgence of anti-Jewish sentiment around the world.

They attributed this decline partly to the absence of anti-Semitic sentiment by leaders in Parliament.

“There is a direct link between the way political leaders talk and behave, and rising levels of anti-Semitism. South Africa is going the other way, and one of the reasons is because political parties and leaders aren’t attacking South African Jewry and aren’t making anti-Semitic remarks in Parliament,” said Krengel.

Flagrant displays of anti-Semitism have played out in recent weeks, most notably in places like Spain and Belgium. In Aalst, Belgium, a street parade included caricatures of Jews with hooked noses, obsessed with money, and dressed up like insects. And in the small Spanish town of Campo de Criptana, a troupe danced through the streets dressed as Nazi officers and concentration camp prisoners, accompanied by a float bearing a menorah and two crematorium chimneys.

“We don’t experience this in South Africa. This has a lot to do with the fact that politicians aren’t trying to make Jews the enemy of the country. We wanted to get this across, and say that it doesn’t go unnoticed,” said Krengel.

Echoing this, David Saks, the board’s associate director, said, “The Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon certainly suggests that political leaders who either make inflammatory statements themselves, or condone or ignore altogether such statements when they come from representatives of their favoured political causes, gives the green light to anti-Semites.

“In Belgium, there has been much concern about how people in positions of influence or authority dismiss or condone anti-Semitic attacks even when they are quite blatant.”

Krengel said the aim of last week’s meetings was to “keep the lines of communication open, and convey how this was having a positive impact on the local community”.

All three politicians had “received them warmly

When comparing anti-Semitism levels in different countries, the respective size of the Jewish community must be taken into account, said Saks. “Larger communities logically provide more potential targets for anti-Semitic abuse than smaller ones.”

Hence, communities like Canada, the United Kingdom, and France, which roughly number between 300 000 and 550 000 Jews, record many more incidents than those of the Netherlands, where the numbers are about 30 000, and Denmark, with 7 000 to 8 000. Saks said in 2019, the UK recorded just more than 1 800 incidents, the Netherlands 182, and Denmark 45.

“What all three countries have in common is that these figures all represent a steep rise – in the case of the UK and Netherlands to the highest levels since detailed records began to be kept from the early 1980s,” he said.

In addition, Saks said the statistics included a substantial number of acts involving physical violence: 123 in the UK, and four out of the 45 in Denmark.

With a Jewish community believed to number about 60 000, South Africa averages 50 to 55 incidents a year, rarely involving violence. Last year, this figure dropped to 36.

“Proportionate to the respective Jewish populations, had anti-Semitism rates in the UK last year been the same as in SA, [the UK] would have logged about 180 incidents. In fact, it recorded ten times as many,” said Saks. Likewise, the Netherlands would have had just 18 incidents instead of more than 180.

“The fact that anti-Semitism levels have consistently been on the rise in virtually all countries with a reasonable Jewish presence since the beginning of the century is today the greatest problem that the Jewish world has to deal with. South Africa has also recorded more incidents relative to pre-2000 figures, but the increase has been much more modest. For Jews, that has to be seen as one of the major positives of living in this country, for all its problems,” said Saks.

In a December 2018 survey on the experience and perception of anti-Semitism in Europe, the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency found that 89% of Jews living in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK felt that anti-Semitism had increased in their country over the past decade,.

Said SAJBD National Director Wendy Kahn, “The fact that our Constitution limits freedom of expression when it advocates hatred is important in terms setting parameters against hatred.”