Threatened, victimised, and isolated for supporting Israel

Pretoria teacher Sudesh Mooloo’s family member says he fears for his safety and that of his family after he expressed support for Israel and took a stand against Hamas during the recent conflict.

Mooloo was allegedly told by the principal of his workplace the next day that his contract was terminated with immediate effect.

“Sudesh wrote a WhatsApp status saying, ‘I’m not anti-Palestine. I’m anti-Hamas. I stand with Israel’,” says the family member, who couldn’t be named for their own safety. “He’s a person who will always express an opinion. He was coming from a biblical standpoint, not a political standpoint. He’s a Christian. He believes others feel the same, but are too scared to express it.”

Mooloo has taught Afrikaans, social sciences, and creative arts at Laudium Secondary School (LSS) in Pretoria for 25 years.

Within minutes of him posting the WhatsApp status, messages started streaming in, condemning his words. “There were so many death threats. Most of his family ‘wrote him off’. His children were victimised. He had to stop sending his little one to primary school. His daughter was attacked on social media, and his wife at her workplace. It came from all angles. He started getting calls from family members swearing at him. Within an hour, he put an apology on Facebook, but it wasn’t accepted.”

“You’re a Nazi like your beloved Israel. DAMN YOU”; “If you do not step down immediately I am coming to the school to make sure you out”; “My mind is focused on jihad, not football [on a soccer WhatsApp group]”; “SUDESH MUST GO. Our source informed us that Sudesh Mooloo the coward that he is left the school early in fear of our action against him”; “I would treat you the same way an Israeli soldier treats a kid in Palestine … you should feel disgusted about yourself. You whole reputation is gone down the drain. Shame on you!”; “I wanted to inform you that the contract between LSS and Mr Mooloo has been terminated. His last day at LSS was today” [by a member of the school governing body].

These were just some of the messages he received or were posted about him. An article in the Laudium Sun on 21 May 2021 headlined, “Calls for teacher supporting Israeli atrocities to be fired”, said: “Calls are now growing for Sudesh, an educator at Ladium Secondary, to resign from his post, as it is believed he could influence the youth with incorrect values.” In the article, community members also criticised Mooloo. “How do you go against an organisation [Hamas] that fights against an evil regime [Zionist Israel]?” asked Yusuf Mustapha of Radio 1584 and the Islamic Institute of South Africa.

“He is an upstanding member of his community who has worked closely with the youth,” says the family member. “He went to that school, so did his father and grandfather. It’s a huge loss to him, and he has a family to provide for. But even if they asked him to come back, he wouldn’t be able to. If he disciplined a Muslim pupil, or gave them a bad mark, it would be judged and scrutinised.”

The family member says the school governing body came under public pressure to fire Moloo. They “told him telephonically that his services would be terminated with immediate effect but his contract would continue until the end of the term. After a couple of days, they saw that the group ‘Stand with Sudesh’ was growing on Facebook, and he was getting support. So their story changed that his contract was never terminated and that he was just ‘off sick’.

“They saw that they needed to be careful. But he can’t go back because his safety isn’t assured. This was handled in such an unprofessional way without following protocol, so what safety does he have? He has sent an email to the school governing body and school principal asking for a sit-down meeting to discuss the way forward, but he hasn’t heard back.”

According to the family member, Grade 9 learners at the school organised a protest to show their support of their teacher. “But the principal quickly shut it down. They don’t want the kids to know that he was terminated because of his beliefs. They don’t want to paint that picture to learners.”

A community meeting was called at a local mosque on Sunday, 23 May, with dignitaries, religious leaders and the Pretoria Legacy Foundation. According to Maniza Essa, who wrote about the meeting on Facebook, “He [Mooloo] explained that he had no intention of offending anyone and that his support for Israel wasn’t from a political perspective but from a biblical perspective.

“He acknowledged that his biblical support for Israel didn’t mean he condoned its warfare actions against Palestinians, especially not against women and children. Sudesh further acknowledged that he didn’t expect his innocent post to garner such outrage from the community, and explained that he had come under extreme criticism from his own family, 90% of whom are Muslims, about the post.

“Sudesh appealed for forgiveness from the community, and welcomed those who had assisted him to get a clearer picture of the reality happening in Palestine. The meeting ended in unanimous support for resolution of the issue, and it was agreed that peaceful co-existence and social cohesion in the community should prevail.”

According to the family member, Mooloo wrote he was anti-Hamas because “it’s a terrorist group. But apparently you can’t say that. It gets people’s blood boiling.”

The family member says the Jewish community has shown Mooloo “great support”.

“He has never met anyone Jewish, and doesn’t have a single Jewish friend. But there have been so many messages from people who don’t know him that have offered a lot of comfort. He is humbled by them. Meanwhile, people who do know him refuse to say, ‘I may disagree with you, but I stand by you.’’’

The family member says Mooloo is horrified that the community calls for human rights for Palestinians, but takes away freedom of speech from its own fellow South Africans. The family member also wondered if speaking to the media might endanger the safety of Mooloo and his family.

Wendy Kahn, the national director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, says, “The dismissal of Mr Mooloo for ‘daring’ to have a different political view from those in power at the school shows the appalling intolerance and bullying prevalent at this time. To fire someone because they dissent from your views is unconstitutional. Our Constitution states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, and opinion’. Mr Mooloo is being deprived these basic rights.”