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Anti-Israel Jews hijacked City Parks’ trees
ANT KATZ
Earlier this month SAJR reported that anti-Israel groups had brought in Palestinian visitors for a week of events to create awareness about the alleged planting of a forest over a Palestinian village in 1948; and that one such event was “what has been deemed an illegal gathering and tree-planting last week at a Johannesburg Park which occurred in the haze of confusion created by the ‘changing of the guard’ at the Council.”
The Report’s article stoked flames of wrath among the anti-Israel groups involved. Among the letters to the newspaper was from a scathing Merlynn Edelstein of SA Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) – an affiliate of the SA arm of the US-based NGO Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (Israel) group – BDS-SA.
RIGHT: Merlynn Edelstein whose group ‘hijacked’ the City Parks event – Picture: Ben Swartz
Edelstein wrote: “We had written permission from City Parks with us at the event and showed it to a number of officials and community representatives who were there.”
Not true, says the only Jewish communal representative present, Ben Swartz, national chairman of the SAZF. “Everyone knew who I was and nobody showed me anything,” Ben said this week.
Carol Haymann – a Savoy resident who serendipitously stopped to ask if they had permission to plant the trees, says BDS’ Ronnie Kasrils rudely flashed a fax in front of her, too quickly for her to read.
But the storm all seems to have been directed at the wrong teacup here.
The anti-Zionist groups are blaming SA Jewry but the complainants in this case were area residents, the Savoy Business & Residents Association (SBRA) chaired by Sydney Kanichowsky. He also wants to know why Edelstein has not produced the permission. SAJR sent a written request for the evidence to Edelstein, and the response received at the time of going to press was anything but conclusive evedence of permission to do anything but conduct a ‘gathering’ and specifically appears to have excluded having anything to do with City Parks’ trees.
In fact, the evidence provided mirrors exactly the wording provided by the Mayor’s chief of staff, Michael Beaumont, below, and suggests that there was an overstepping of the process .
Clarified by the Mayor’s chief of staff
All credit to chief of staff to Johannesburg’s Executive Mayor, Michael Beaumont, who conducted an in-depth investigation before replying to an Kanichowsky’s questions and a pile of objections from residents.
“The permission granted was exclusively for a gathering in the park, and it was specifically communicated to City Parks who communicated with the applicants and JMPD who were on the ground during the course of the event. It was specifically communicated that the permission was conditional on the instruction that no structures, trees or plaques, would be erected in the park,” wrote the Mayor’s right hand to Kanichowsky last week.
Beaumont said that the tree planting was due to “an unfortunate set of circumstances https://www.sajr.co.za/images/default-source/People/group/sajfp—r-s.jpg” class=”sfImageWrapper”>
ABOVE: Ronnie Kasrils of BDS supervises City Parks resouces at left while Suraya Dadoo of MRN documents the event at right. BDS-affiliated SAFP’s Merlynn Edelstein is at the centre, partly obscured by the City Parks staffers she is instructing. This picture, by BEN SWARTZ, when read alongside Michael Beaumont’s reply to ratepayers, would suggest that the events were illegal and opportunistic
What is clear is that City Parks planted the trees under the guidance of messers Kasrils and Edelstein. The City says this was illegal as City Parks and Metro Police on site had been informed the anti-Israel groups were not to plant the trees.
This ties in with what City Parks’ marketing manager Jenny Moodley had said on LotusFM the previous week – listen to the PODCAST.
Beaumont attached a letter from “the GM of New Business Development at Joburg City Parks and Zoo in this regard.” Louise Gordon, which backed up his statements. He saw how “the circumstances surrounding this event could have led to misperceptions being developed.”
However, let’s be generous and just say that they hijacked the trees” a resident told JR when asked if he thought the word illegal was too harsh.
Myron Robinson of Sydenham writes this week of the double standard whereby “international law would dictate that Israel inherited Lubya in May 1948” – but, he says, International Law applies to the whole world except Israel.
Kanichowsky told Jewish Report this week that he is still sceptical. “The coordination and timing of the event with the arrival of these trees was not at all coincidental. The event was advertised at a certain time and the City Parks truck arrived at exactly the correct time. There had to be co-ordination between City Parks and these above mentioned groups to pull this off,” says the ratepayers’ chair.
LEFT: Edelstein and friends from a picture on their SAJFP Facebook page
Another issue in the article in the Jewish Report that so offended Edelstein, she wrote, was that it “claims that it is merely ‘alleged’ or ‘purported’ that the SA Forest was planted over Lubya.” She then proceeds to give her account of history.
However the national director of the Jewish National Fund of SA, Amber Cummins, has written a letter which will be published in this week’s edition of the newspaper, in which she explains that Lubya was a Jewish settlement going back 2,000 years to Talmudic times when it was called “Luvya” in ancient Hebrew. Cummins explains how the village was abandoned by its Arab residents and stood empty for twenty years before the Jewish National Fund forested the area.
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