ANT KATZ

Semites of the Torah long gone

We’re Jewish converts not Semites

“Jews per se are peace-loving people” said PE lawyer Maureen Jansen this week – after the SA Jewish Board of Deputies last week laid a complaint of hate speech with the SA Human Rights Commission (HRC) against her for saying Jews are ‘monsters’ who should be ‘exterminated’ for their support – whether active or passive – of Israel.

According to the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), Maureen Jansen shared a news article in December on her Facebook page titled “Israel caught receiving stolen oil from ISIS militants” with the comment: “Bloody Israelis should be exterminated along with all the ‘Jews’ everywhere who support Israel by action or silence. The Semites of the Torah are long gone. These monsters are Jewish converts not Semites.”

There were allegedly a number of anti-Semitic posts on her profile.

RIGHT: A screen grab of a SpotlightingSA graphic on the anti-Semitic “Wall of Shame” which appears on on Facebook

Readers can catch up by reading JR Online’s STORY LAST WEEK – “Jews are monsters to be exterminated.”

But this week, after the HRC confirmed it had received the SAJBD’ complaint, the PE attorney announced that she was pressing charges against them for accused her of making racist and anti-Semitic statements. Jansen denied the allegation that she called for the extermination of all Jews but would not give any further details as the matter was sub judice.

According to the SAJBD, Jansen posted a news article on her Facebook page in December, headlined “Israel caught receiving stolen oil from Isis militants”.

She accompanied it with the comment: “Bloody Israelis should be exterminated along with all the ‘Jews’ everywhere who support Israel by action or silence. The Semites of the Torah are long gone. These monsters are Jewish converts not Semites.”

There were allegedly a number of anti-Semitic posts on her profile.

Zionists strike back

The SAJBD said it was informed of the posts by members of the community. There was a closed support group for Jansen on Facebook as well as a group calling for a boycott of Jansen.

A description on the support group, which had 863 members, read: “This group was created to counter the negative and defamatory propaganda that has and still is being spread by the Zionist lobby that wants Maureen [Aadiela] Jansen taken off the roll as an attorney, destroyed financially and the lives of her son, Likhona and herself ended because she airs her views regarding the merciless killings of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere by Israel, its IDF and the huge settler population.

“Please do support this group and voice your disapproval of the Zionist threat to the lives of her son and herself.”

The support group called “Boycott Jansen – attorney”, which had 54 members, posted Jansen’s contact details and office address in its description and called for people to protest.

SAJBD National Chairman Jeff Katz said Jansen’s comments were another instance showing how certain hate-filled individuals “confidently propagated virulent racism against their fellow citizens.

“Goes against our democracy”

“Such hate-mongering goes beyond defaming and threatening any particular group of people; they go against the culture of non-racialism on which our democracy is founded, and as such are an attack on all South Africans,” he said.

Racist comments such as these “are an attack on all South Africans”, said Katz.

The Board reiterated that “it strongly condemns all racist comments, such as those by Penny Sparrow, Velaphi Khumalo and Nicole de Klerk” in recent days.

“No cause, whether political or otherwise, can ever justify incitement to violence, particularly when based on race, religion, ethnicity or other such grounds,” said Katz.

The PE attorney told News24 this week that she liked “the Jews who remained in Palestine after the sacking of Jerusalem… and did not join the diaspora in Europe and elsewhere.”