We have good friends, and they are Christian

The Jewish community may feel alone in South Africa, especially since the start of the war in Gaza. However, South African Christians constantly show up to prove we are not.

This is clear when listening to Marie Sukers, a member of the African Christian Democratic Party and former member of Parliament, and Tshegofatso Motaung, a former anti-Israel activist who is now a passionate Israel advocate.

“We know Israel is not an apartheid state,” Sukers told those at a breakfast organised by Koleinu SA and the Union of Jewish Women. “There is no parallel between what happened in South Africa and what is happening in the Middle East. If you perpetuate a lie, you are misdirecting the focus, and the solution will not come.”

She went on to say that, “It is grotesque and vulgar to say that Israel is like the apartheid regime. The coloured and black people in our country have no idea what’s happening in the Middle East. Their pain, their poverty, and their circumstances do not allow them to even consider what’s happening there. They are in a mode of survival. Our country is in the midst of a deep social and economic crisis.”

Sukers said she is deeply angry that the South African government has endorsed and perpetuated this idea, even going so far as to take Israel to the International Court of Justice. And this when the country has millions of people who need social grants and provincial health systems are collapsing.

Sukers said the forces against Israel are asking the wider South African population to remain unengaged in what is happening at home, and to forget the horrors of apartheid, to fuel their narrative.

Motaung got swept up in the anti-Israel fervour until, she said, she found out the truth. She explained that when she was growing up she heard about Israel only in reference to the Bible. It wasn’t until she had gone overseas to attend the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom in 2009 that she heard people speaking of Israel as an apartheid state. She was drawn into this thinking because those who were saying it supported South Africa.

“I realise in hindsight that the Lord allowed me to be blinded because I was not ready to respond, and I didn’t know just how vicious people get towards the Jewish people and to those who stand with Israel,” she said.

Motaung explained that after university, she educated herself about Israel and this gave her the courage to stand up for what she believes in.

She agreed with Sukers that it is wrong to compare what is happening in Israel to what happened to people like her and her family under the apartheid regime.

For her part, Sukers “never thought of Israel as an apartheid state, just by virtue of the fact that I read. What was important to me, however, was, as a political leader, to understand the dynamic.”

Motaung said she was deeply shocked by South Africa’s position against Israel. “The government does not represent us,” she said. “We have many problems in this country. This is the last thing that we should be engaging in, especially as people who believe in the Bible. We should fix what is in our backyard.”

Motaung said she couldn’t get her head around how people in the south of Israel were getting ready to celebrate Simchat Torah on the morning of 7 October and were then attacked and massacred. She couldn’t understand how the people of Israel couldn’t mourn but instead had to go fight. After all that, she said, they had South Africa taking them to court.

For Motaung, “the biggest problem is how there is such a determination to not acknowledge the truth”.

Sukers explained that we may not be hearing many opposition voices in government because it is costly for people in politics to stand up for Israel.

“The voices that are in power and the media houses will champion the most popular narrative – and now that is to be against Israel,” she said.

“We had better teach our children that this is the moment to choose your friends wisely,” said Sukers. “South Africa has decided who its friends are. We all need to decide who our friends are.”

Sukers advocates that we as a community need to mobilise and show our discontent, “Unless you become militant for your belief, they will continue to ignore your voice.”