Survé defends his papers against anti-Israel claims

VANESSA VALKIN

“We as a group absolutely give voice to everybody,” said Survé. “We don’t have a policy of being pro-Israel or pro-Palestine and we would guard against that.”

The community has been quite taken aback by some recent content, in particular an April 13 editorial in the Cape Times congratulating Iran and the P5+1 nations (China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the UK and the US) for the nuclear deal signed.

RIGHT:,Survé at Davos

Eric Marx, chairman of the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies, pointed out in a letter published in the Cape Times two weeks later: “Many long-standing Cape Times readers have been frankly baffled, not to say even angered, by the overtly partisan stance taken by the paper.
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“Anyone reading the editorial would think that Iran is the innocent victim of an Israeli-led international vendetta.”

The editorial had called the deal “a crushing defeat for the war-mongering Zionist generals who had been hell-bent on bombing Iran’s nuclear capability to smithereens” and concludes with the question: “Can the long night of the generals be far off for Israel?”

This was probably a reference to the “Night of the Long Knives” in 1934, when Hitler ordered the deaths of 85 people deemed an obstacle to his absolute authority, including leading figures of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party and leaders of the paramilitary Brownshirts.

Days later a letter appeared in response to Marx by a C M Mathey, titled “Maybe it’s time for Israel to humble itself”. It called for Israel to “come down to the level of the goyim (the human cattle), as we are all being called” and points to “those horrible pictures of death and destruction in the Gaza concentration camp”.

Mathey’s letter sparked the ire of David Hersch, a prolific commentator on Jewish issues, who sent out an e-mail to a fairly sizable list, where he wrote that “with the takeover by Iqbal Survé’s Sekunjalo Group, it [Cape Times] quickly plummeted into an intellectual abyss”, which has “fired almost all remaining white journalists, columnists and editors and has become a pro-ANC and pro-Muslim/Islamic propaganda paper. This newspaper group has become the Izvestia and Pravda of the new South Africa.”

The paper, he continues, is “increasingly propagating an Islamic agenda. We could say it is to be expected as the paper is owned by a Muslim, its purchase was funded by Saudi Arabia, The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), I read ANC, is a shareholder, and its editors and staff are mostly Muslim.”

Speaking in response to Hersch’s letter, Survé told the Jewish Report that the letter contained various factual errors. “The funding comes from Sekunjalo. There is no funding from Saudia Arabia” and surmised that the incorrect link to Saudia Arabia was perhaps made because he is chairman of the SA-Saudi Business Council.

Survé said he found Hersch’s letter quite disconcerting and pointed out that he had “incredibly close friends in the Jewish community”. He also noted that he was “instrumental” in helping to get Professor Cyril Karabus out of the United Arab Emirates, where he had been detained for months.

Early last month an article appeared on the front page of The Star with a follow-up article the next day, where three Ethiopian patrons at the coffee shop in the KosherWorld Centre in Glenhazel, accused the owners of racial profiling and claimed they were harassed by security.

Readers were vocal in the Jewish Report and on social media that it was puzzling that The Star reporter and photographer just happened to be at the coffee shop to capture the incident. Others questioned how The Star gave such prominence to this incident but gave no coverage to the assault of three Jewish teenagers at The Zone in Rosebank a few weeks prior.

Survé says his advice to the Jewish community is to be extremely proactive and ensure that the editors of the Independent’s various newspapers consistently receive news and opinion pieces from their organisations.  

He said that the Cape Town Jewish Board had recently met with Cape Times with a very positive outcome and added that he would also welcome any opportunity to meet with representatives of the South African Jewish community.