UK terror attack also holds lesson for SA Jews

JEFF KATZ

Our response, as always, must be to constantly be aware of our surroundings, report anything suspicious or unusual to the CSO and your local police station and in general rigorously maintain efficient and sensible security protocols at all communal installations and events.

Terrorism, which by its very nature aims to inflict maximum deaths and injuries among unsuspecting innocent civilians, constitutes a particularly gruesome form of “hate crime”.

Fortunately, South Africa has in the course of this century largely been spared attacks of this kind. However, this is not true when it comes to other acts of violence that, while more limited in the scope of the damage caused, nevertheless also fall into the hate crime category.

What distinguishes hate crimes from other acts of unlawful activity is that hate crimes are motivated by feelings of prejudice on the basis of the victim’s intrinsic identity, whether on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality or other similar grounds. They range from verbal or written harassment to more serious acts of violence, including torture and murder.     

In the wake of the upsurge of xenophobic attacks against foreign migrants in 2008, a number of human rights organisations came together to form the Hate Crimes Working Group (HCWG) to monitor and campaign against various forms of racism in our society.

The SAJBD was a founder member of the body and continues to be active on its steering committee. Currently, the HCWG is conducting fieldwork visits in KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Gauteng, to gather data and prepare a report on various forms of hate crime that are occurring.

The Board has been working with them concerning some of the more serious cases of anti-Semitism which we believe should be included in their report. 

It is quite common for verbal abuse against Jewish community members to take the form of in-your-face Nazi slogans and gestures. As reported elsewhere in this issue, one such incident took place last week at an inter-school play competition, where King David Victory Park learners were subjected to “Heil Hitler” taunts and stiff-armed salutes, after performing the Holocaust-themed play “The Boy with the Striped Pajamas”.

On being confronted, one of the culprits sought to play down his actions by saying it had all been “just a joke”, with the teacher in charge unfortunately failing to treat the matter with any degree of seriousness.

The Board is working with King David in ascertaining what happened and deciding how best to resolve the matter when we meet next week with the principal of the school concerned.

Directing Nazi slogans and gestures against Jews is not a “joke”, as its perpetrators often try to claim after the fact; in both effect and intent, it is pure anti-Semitism and will be treated as such.    

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