ANT KATZ

The SA Zionist Federation has come under fire in the community for encouraging Jewish voters to Vote for the “fundamentalist Christian party” – the ACDP, according to an article published in the Israeli daily Haaretz and written by one of the top SA Jewish journalists, Jeremy Gordin.

Gordin’s comprehensive piece in Haaretz appears below, as does a letter written by SA Jewish Report reader Bernard Katz. This is followed by a response by Fed director Benji Shulman to both items and, finally, a copy of the advert that ran in the Jewish Report.

Thereafter, in the words of well-known Jewish Jurist Judge Dennis Davis in closing his weekly TV programme ‘Judge for yourself’: “You be the Judge!”

SAZF: Vote for fundamentalist Christian party

South Africans go to the polls on May 7 for the fifth election since the end of White rule in 1994.

By Jeremy Gordin and originally published in Haaretz

The South African Zionist Federation, one of the leading representatives of South African Jewry, has recommended that the country’s Jewish community vote for a fundamentalist Christian party with minimal public support in next week’s general election.

South Africans go to the polls on May 7 for the fifth election since the end of White rule in 1994. But it is the first time that the ruling African National Congress finds itself under serious pressure from an increasingly angry and restive population.

The country is bedevilled by a lame economy, massive unemployment (the official figure is 25 percent, but is understood to be some 15 percent higher in reality), and inflation. South Africans are increasing blaming ANC corruption for failures in the delivery of housing, education, medical treatment, clean water, sewage and electricity.

In an email titled “Are you voting for a friend of Israel?” the Zionist Federation recommended that voters choose the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP,) which is given 10 out of 10 points by the federation’s researchers for its attitude to Israel.

The ACDP is a tiny party, consisting, according to Wikipedia, of “mainly conservative Christians and its doctrine concentrates mostly on social issues, such as abortion, homosexuality and pornography.”

Led by Reverend Kenneth Meshoe, the ACDP garnered 0.81 percent of the national vote in the 2009 general election (down by some 50 percent on its 1, 6 percent in the previous election) and thus holds three seats in the 400-seat national assembly.

If the ACDP is a little much for South Africa’s Jews, the federation’s second choice is the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which receives 9 out of 10 points for its attitude to Israel. Both the ACDP and the IFP are classed as “good friends” of Israel in the email.

The IFP is a Zulu nationalist party, headed from inception by the aging Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, 85. In 2004 it won just under 7 percent of the vote and held 28 seats in parliament, slumping to 4, 6 percent of the vote and 18 seats out of 400 in 2009.

The ruling ANC received just two points from the federation and was classed “not a friend” of Israel. The Democratic Alliance (DA), South Africa’s official opposition with 67 seats and just under 17 percent of the vote in 2009, received a lukewarm seven points.

Traditionally, the DA has been “the Jewish party” – given that its forerunner was led by the iconic Helen Suzman and its previous leader, Tony Leon, was Jewish. Its present leader, Helen Zille, a former journalist, notes very proudly that her maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were Jewish.

But the DA has apparently irritated the established Jewish community with certain criticisms of Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians. It has also become apparent that members of the DA’s parliamentary caucus, especially young black ones, are not prepared to rubberstamp Israeli policy.

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a new party which is tipped to surprise everyone with widespread support from the dispossessed, was apparently not considered “kosher” enough as an option for Jewish voters. Nor was the Dagga (marijuana) Party.

The federation’s allocation of points was based on three criteria: Policy and Approach to Israel (accepts Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, etc.); Public Support for Israel (senior party members attend Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations https://www.sajr.co.za/images/default-source/People/single/betar-winter-camp-home-9F9E4BDE413B.jpg” />The above advert appeared in the Pesach edition of the Jewish Report