Minister Pandor takes a dig at Board of Deputies

OWN CORRESPONDENT

The board had written a letter to Pandor last week – who was this week moved from her science and technology ministerial portfolio to that of higher education – asking to discuss her recent anti-Israel statements in Parliament.

When she stood up to speak in memory of Wolpe, in front of a packed audience at Temple Israel in Green Point on Friday, Pandor said: “It is a very interesting moment. I am Muslim South African, in a synagogue, in a temple, and who has just made the Jewish Board of Deputies very angry with her. They have written to me, they say on behalf of all the South African Jewish community, which I don’t quite believe. Nevertheless, I am a recipient of such a letter.”

This all started when Pandor stood up in Parliament last Tuesday and announced: “The majority party has agreed that government must cut diplomatic ties with Israel.”

She went on to say that the decision was based on “the absence of genuine initiatives by Israel to secure lasting peace and a viable two-state solution that included full freedom and democracy for the Palestinian state”.

Her announcement came as a surprise, given that it was made during the debate on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address and he had not mentioned Israel-South Africa relations or any foreign policy issues at all. The debate was meant to focus on discussions around the president’s address and was not a place for grandstanding, as explained in last week’s SA Jewish Report.

The SAJBD then wrote to Pandor, requesting a meeting to discuss and clarify her remarks. It simply referred to her statement, saying that it “has caused great distress amongst members of the local South African Jewish community”.

Says Wendy Kahn, SAJBD’s national director: “Our letter was respectful and non-confrontational.”

The SAJBD was amazed that Pandor chose that venue and event to address this issue, specifically when she was meant to speak about Wolpe’s illustrious career in the field of human rights activism and her important contribution to defeating apartheid.

“The minister claimed we were ‘angry’ with her. Nothing could have been further from the truth,” said Kahn after the memorial. “Our letter was courteous in our request for a meeting to engage with the minister.Surely, as the representative body of one of the South African stakeholder groups, this was the correct recourse in addressing what we believed to be distressing to members of our community?

“The minister further questioned the credentials of our 115-year-old, democratically elected, representative body of the South African Jewish community. Since the minister has chosen to interact with us in the public domain, we too are forced to respond in this way,” said Kahn.

“Furthermore, we fail to understand why it was relevant to draw attention to the fact that she is a Muslim South African speaking in a synagogue. Those who had come together for the occasion were not doing so as Jews or Muslims, whites or blacks, but as fellow South Africans wishing to pay tribute to someone whose life had been devoted to bringing people together, not dividing them.

“Moreover, the implied suggestion that there was something very unusual in a Muslim person speaking in a Jewish place of worship is entirely incorrect. The Jewish community regularly holds interfaith events in our places of worship and joint prayer services.

“The SAJBD remains committed to engagement and dialogue,” she concluded.

The SA Jewish Report attempted to get comment from the minister, but she has not responded as yet.