Our guards must stay up

Any relief we feel following 30 June should be qualified, as the rhetoric and intimidation left a sense of real fear across our country. We also need to acknowledge that lives were lost, property was damaged, vulnerable people attacked, and thousands were forced to flee their homes. The democratic right to protest is a crucial element of any democratic society, and as a community we respect and honour this right. However, we reject without question violence, intimidation, and criminality that is perpetuated under the guise of protest. 

In the lead-up to 30 June, and throughout the day, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies worked closely with our KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Council president, Alana Pugh-Jones Baranov, who also serves as the South African director of HIAS. Formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS is the international Jewish humanitarian agency that stands for a world in which forcibly displaced persons find welcome, safety, and opportunity. 

HIAS is rooted in the Jewish values of tzedek (justice) and tikkun olam (repairing the world). HIAS South Africa opened its national office in Durban in October 2023. It works with its local partners to provide free legal assistance to refugees and asylum seekers; run attorney training workshops and “know your rights” campaigns; run mental health and psychosocial support workshops for refugee women, youth, and LGBTQ+ refugees; and to advocate against xenophobia. 

Alana has spent much of her career working with refugee, asylum seeker, and migrant advocacy groups, protecting and advancing their rights in this country. Her networks with other civil society organisations allowed us to track, in real time, where the need was most acute and to respond accordingly. HIAS SA and our KZN office were on the ground providing relief from the local community in that deeply affected province. Alana also identified areas of need in Cape Town and assisted with connecting groups on the ground there, such as the Union of Jewish Women and the Mensch Network, while our Johannesburg office dealt with urgent needs on the East Rand. This is our community at its best: organised, capable, and present when it matters. In any crisis, the Board prioritises a process of analysing needs on the ground so that relief is effective and relevant. 

Tuesday 30 June did not happen in a vacuum. Much of the underlying anger has its roots in the government’s failure to deliver basic services, and this has opened a door to a rage that is understandable in its origin but misplaced in its scapegoating of foreign nationals. 

For the past three weeks I have tracked, commenting in this column with growing unease, the conspiracy theories linking these disruptions to our community. That unease was warranted. The rhetoric has swiftly unravelled into something far uglier, including a video now circulating in which a commentator claims that Action SA is “funded by Israelis” and that former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba installed an “Israeli spy machine” inside the city council, the clear inference being that this funding is working to divide South Africans. 

The conspiracy theorists who suggest that there is Israeli interference in South African local affairs are simply trying to divert attention from South Africa’s real problems and lay them at the feet of a country they are determined to libel. This is a campaign driven by hate and should be rejected with the contempt it deserves.