Board of Deputies comes to Deep Fried Man’s defence

NICOLA MILTZ

It was so bad, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) came to his defence. “I have not witnessed such hatred on such a large scale for a long time,“ said Wendy Kahn, the board’s National Director.

Friedman, who is the Citizen’s online news editor, has been unfairly lambasted for a video he made in 2015 that was allegedly manipulated to make it look as if he was mocking farm murders. His original video was a recording of a song he wrote and performed in 2013 – and had nothing to do with the highly sensitive and emotive issue of farm murders.

Afrikaner rights activist Willem Petzer posted his tweaked and provocative version of the video on YouTube, allegedly designed to misrepresent Friedman and make it seem that he was making fun of farm killings. This resulted in a seldom seen, frenzied backlash of personal attacks which turned into anti-Semitic hate speech levelled at the comedian and the community.

According to Friedman, there is no love lost between himself and Petzer. He told the SA Jewish Report that this was “a smear campaign that worked”.

It stems from an article Friedman published online which exposed Petzer for being the host of a Discord chat room in which racist content was being shared and discussed.

The SAJBD entered the fray when social-media attacks on Friedman turned into what it called “a Pandora’s Box of hate”, which spiralled into a racist, anti-Semitic onslaught opening the floodgates of hate on all fronts.

“Petzer’s provocative and inflammatory video caused the public to vilify Friedman, which then ignited a spate of anti-Semitism, and resulted in the board coming out in defence of Friedman whose life and family has been threatened,” Kahn said.

In a Facebook post last Friday, the board said, “The anti-Semitic responses that were levelled against comedian Daniel Friedman after his 2013 satirical song was manipulated by Willem Petzer are unacceptable and should be condemned unequivocally. This is a clear case of the demonisation of a Jewish community member, which resulted in him, as well as the broader Jewish community, being harassed and demeaned because of his Jewish identity.

She said that the board had also received countless racist and anti-Semitic posts, which it had removed due to their sensitive content.

Love him or loathe him, Deep Fried Man has controversial views on most things, including Israel.

Speaking to the SA Jewish Report, he said he had often disagreed with the board in the past, but despite this and his views on Israel, he was “touched and moved” by how the board had handled the situation.

“Politics aside, it is an effective organisation in dealing with anti-Semitism.”

He was particularly moved by an article published in the Citizen written by the board’s David Saks, who came to his defence.

Saks described the “fall-out” from Petzer’s “stunt” as “exceedingly ugly”, saying that the many hateful messages received by Friedman would have been bad enough had they been levelled at him personally, but “many went a great deal further by using his Jewish background as the basis for their vitriol”.

“The increasing readiness of people of all backgrounds to make Jews the scapegoat of their country’s problems by peddling crass anti-Semitic conspiracy theories is symptomatic of a deeply unhealthy society,” Saks wrote.

Friedman wrote earlier on his social media pages, “I stand by the [original] video, which satirises white South African fears of genocide, a word which most rational people realise is a ridiculous way to characterise farm murders – a very real and shocking crime which has been politicised and divorced from the other horrific forms of crime that all South Africans face daily – by people with an agenda.”

Friedman said this week the response had been frightening, and had made him want to take a step back. He described the incessant bombardment of hate and vitriol on social media as “highly shocking”.

“I’m not a religious person, but this has made me realise and understand how much anti-Semitism is out there. The personal hatred directed at me was one thing, but all this Nazi stuff was the thing that shocked me the most. I had no idea so many South Africans had so much hate in their hearts. It made me feel sad and despondent. It is so hard to change people’s minds from this blanket hatred based on race or religion. It was very scary,” he said.