‘We were played,’ says Krengel

NICOLA MILTZ

Zev Krengel, vice-president of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), was the only Jewish representative invited as a guest to the 2017 ANC elective conference, held at Nasrec in December.

He told SA Jewish Report this week that the international relations commission tasked with addressing the controversial downgrade issue was an “orchestrated, staged” affair. He said it had a “predetermined outcome” and culminated in a verbal anti-Israel “bloodbath”, in which South African Jewry were hung out to dry.

“It was a sad day; my lowest point as a community leader,” he lamented. “There were no discussions. There was only one narrative.”

He fingered the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, saying: “The ANC international relations commission was captured and hijacked by a minority force using its relationship with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which goes back years, to further its agenda.

“We were definitely played,” said Krengel. “There was dishonesty in the process. We were misled by the leadership of the ANC international relations committee to believe that our submissions would be heard and debated. We thought there would be thorough, intellectual debate about the possible benefits for the Palestinian people.

“There was no commitment to looking for solutions to help the Palestinians get their state, or how to help them in any way. It was only about isolating and demonising Israel.”

On the day of the controversial decision – Tuesday, December 19 – the ANC policy conference had been rocked by a serious voting dispute over the election outcome of the party’s secretary-general. This overshadowed the euphoria of the previous night, following Cyril Ramaphosa’s election as new leader of the party, and went a long way in upstaging the international relations commission. The day was characterised by numerous delays and pandemonium as delegates debated the outcome of the election.

“The international relations commission was almost like a non-event,” said Krengel, counting only about 150 present (out of 4 700-odd delegates) in one of the side halls set up specially for commissions. He said he battled to find the right hall, as did several others, and it was delayed by hours.

Eventually, Krengel saw the international relations commission chairperson, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, and asked where the commission was being held. “She replied: ‘Why can’t you do something about your prime minister?’ To which I replied: ‘I only have one president.’ I took it she was referring to Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and I knew then that we were on a hiding to nothing.”

Only a week before the ANC made its decision about Israel, US President Donald Trump unilaterally announced a decision to declare Jerusalem the official capital city of the state of Israel. This decision, Krengel said, was “the last red rag to the bull”.

A host of well known anti-Israel lobbyists and BDS supporters were present. They included Mandla Mandela, the grandson of former president Nelson Mandela, who is outspoken in his pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli views; BDS board chairperson Professor Farid Esack, who was involved in the University of Johannesburg’s academic boycott of Israel; BDS co-founder and director Mohammed Desai, known for justifying the singing of Shoot the Jew; struggle activist Mohammed Dangor, who is a former ambassador to Libya, Syria and Saudi Arabia; activist Braam Hanekom; and Bongani Masuku, the international relations spokesperson for labour federation Cosatu who has a hate speech ruling against him for threatening the Jewish community.

Each took to the stage and encouraged an embassy downgrade.

“I went there, believing there would be real intellectual discussion, after which I thought it would go 50/50,” said Krengel. “I never for a minute thought it would be so one-sided. I really thought there would be robust debate with opposing views.

“There was no discussion. It was purely orchestrated to be vindictive and make Jews feel less welcome in South Africa. There was absolutely no discussion on how a downgrade was going to help the Palestinians.”

Krengel said he would have felt differently if the ANC had come to its decision following two to three hours of constructive debate. “That was my disappointment.”

He sat alone while speaker after speaker, sporting non-voting delegate observer status badges, lambasted Israel in what he described was a “hate fest for Jews”.

What struck Krengel as particularly disturbing was the lack of attention given to other major international atrocities, conflicts and human rights violations in Africa and the rest of the world. “These seemed to be side issues,” he said. “The commission barely touched on the problems in Morocco and the Western Sahara; and it briefly touched on Swaziland’s King Mswati III.

“Not a word about the Libyan slave trade, or the civil war in Syria, or the Rohingya persecution in Myanmar, or the coup in Zimbabwe, or the instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instead, it was clear that every speaker was there purely to make sure the downgrade happened.” 

Only a handful of the 34 speakers in the hall of about 150 people touched on other issues, he said.

The last to speak, former president Kgalema Motlanthe – “the only ANC heavyweight present” – demurely gave some balance by saying that the “Israeli-Palestinian issue is very complicated”. He also asked about policy relating to South Sudan, but it was brushed aside.

Krengel said commission chair Molewa and International Relations and Co-operation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane appeared “happy and comfortable” while all this was unfolding.

“I left saddened and disillusioned by the ANC,” he said.

There was just “one lone voice” in the crowd who called for further investigations, but this wasn’t explored. “If there were any other Israel supporters, they would have been drowned out and intimidated,” he said.

Asked why he didn’t raise his own voice in opposition, he said he wanted to see “how things played out first” and wasn’t sure if he was allowed to have his say. “By the time the sixth speaker came up, I realised it was a bloodbath. I realised there was absolutely no point in speaking. I was the only man wearing a yarmulke, so if they wanted to hear my views, they could have asked. They didn’t. It would have been like going to the Vatican and preaching the Koran.”

After this, the international relations committee presented what they heard to the ANC plenary, which made the final decision to downgrade the embassy to a liaison office “immediately and unconditionally”.

Wendy Kahn, national director of the SAJBD, and Ben Swartz, chairperson of the South African Zionist Federation, said the two organisations had spent months engaging with the ANC, government and civil society. The board held a number of high-level symposia on the issue, always inviting government’s participation and forwarding relevant findings.

It is uncertain whether the international relations commission considered any of it.

Meanwhile, Krengel said that although they had “lost this round”, it wasn’t a “train crash, it was more a bruising”. He added that the SAJBD would discuss the way forward in the coming months.