SA’s xenophobia crisis blamed on Israel

South Africa’s growing xenophobia crisis couldn’t have less to do with the Middle East, and yet the hatred on the streets is being blamed on the world’s only Jewish State. Conspiracy theories abound, from the idea that Israel is fuelling unrest in retaliation for South Africa taking it to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to Israel trying to weaken South Africa so that it can “take over” the country. 

The recent resurgence in xenophobic sentiment has seen vigilante groups targeting foreign nationals, mostly Africans, giving them a deadline of 30 June to leave the country. Protests have resulted in violence and looting. The crisis has led to diplomatic tensions with and emergency repatriations by other African countries. 

But according to people like social media influencer TJ Katana, “If South Africa withdraws from the ICJ case against Israel, xenophobia will disappear like the night when the sun rises.” 

It’s not only at grassroots level that such narratives are being spread. Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola said last week that “with South Africa’s role in the international space, including our case at the ICJ, you cannot exclude state and non-state actors trying to erode the human rights standing of South Africa”. 

While the minister did not name Israel directly, he explicitly linked his suggestion of coordinated foreign interference to the ICJ case. The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) wrote to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to express alarm at the remarks. 

“South Africa’s moral standing is being eroded by leaders who reach for conspiracy theories instead of taking responsibility for what is happening at home,” says SAZF National Chairperson Craig Pantanowitz. 

The conspiracy theories are spreading like wildfire on social media. TruVision International, which describes itself as the “Pan-African Voice of Africa” and has 68 000 followers, states that “Xenophobia in South Africa is an engineered crisis. The Greater Israel project is not a conspiracy theory. When the Middle East is finally subdued and the empire needs a new battlefield – the guns are already being pointed at Southern Africa.” 

The message says that after fomenting chaos in South Africa, Western powers will take over and open its doors to “white Europeans, Americans, and Israelis”. They will then “rebuild the country in their image, systematically pushing the black population to the margins”. 

Local antizionist hate group Mothers4Gaza, said in a post in May, “Imperial powers have always understood that divided people are easier to control. The US and Israel have openly shown hostility toward South Africa’s positions on Palestine and global justice. Destabilisation does not only happen through bombs and sanctions. It also happens through manufactured fear and social fragmentation.” 

Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, who has 767 000 followers on Facebook, wrote on 31 May, “South Africa took Israel to the ICJ, and now Israeli groups are funding anti-immigration groups to cause chaos in South Africa, creating the kind of instability that those who wish South Africa harm would like to see.” 

A post shared on the Facebook group UDF Remembered, which has 10 000 followers, surmised that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has redirected shipping around Cape Town, so foreign powers are looking to control the Cape, and are punishing South Africa for its foreign policy. The post describes this destabilising power as a “Third Force”, along with an image of a sinister figure and Israeli and US flags. 

And in an opinion piece entitled “South Africa’s colonial hangover: Demonising Africans while courting Western parasites”, published on IOL News on 1 June, Howard law professor Ziyad Motala stated that anger at migrants should not be directed at Africans, but at Israelis and Westerners who immigrate to South Africa. 

Emeritus professor of history at the University of Cape Town and antisemitism expert Milton Shain says that scapegoating Jews is “the same old playbook. We saw this repeatedly in the 19th century. The classic example is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” 

Now, we see the same old tropes, says Shain. “The description of a ‘Greater Israel’ is a new mutation of the Protocols. Ideas are adapted to new circumstances.” 

Norman JW Goda, a professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida, says painful moments of flux have been blamed on Jews throughout history. 

However, “the Israelis have better things to do ‒ like fighting a multifront war against jihadists hoping to destroy them ‒ than thinking about South Africa’s problems”, says Goda. “Israel is not pleased with South Africa’s ‘genocide’ case, but it is so poorly constructed that it will collapse from its own lack of merit.” 

Alana Pugh-Jones Baranov, country director of refugee support organisation HIAS South Africa, has seen the xenophobic violence firsthand, describing it as “a coordinated campaign of intimidation and violence directed against fellow Africans”. 

Foreign nationals have been targeted, with businesses and goods confiscated or destroyed, and South African-owned businesses threatened with violent consequences if they don’t fire refugees and asylum seekers and employ South Africans. 

“People haven’t been able to earn an income and have been barricaded in their homes,” says Pugh-Jones Baranov. “In response, HIAS South Africa, together with the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) KwaZulu-Natal Council, launched an emergency fundraising appeal in the Jewish community. We raised money to purchase food parcels and have worked with refugee-led organisations to distribute them. We’ve assisted more than 120 families, and hope to assist many more.” 

Pantanowitz says that South Africa has a well-documented history of xenophobic violence. The suggestion that this is “somehow the product of foreign coordination is unsupported by evidence and serves only to distract from the country’s own failures”. 

“Xenophobic violence did not begin with the ICJ case. South Africa experienced devastating xenophobic attacks in 2008, resulting in more than 60 deaths and the displacement of more than 100 000 people.” 

Similar outbreaks have occurred repeatedly over the past two decades. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has recognised xenophobia as a longstanding problem in South Africa. 

“Instead of confronting that reality, Lamola chose to introduce a narrative that invites South Africans to look abroad for culprits,” says Pantanowitz. “This creates fertile ground for old antisemitic tropes.” 

But blaming Israel “will not protect a single migrant or address any of the underlying causes”, he says. “The victims of xenophobic violence deserve accountability, not conspiracy theories.” 

SAJBD National Chairperson Professor Karen Milner also says that resorting to conspiracy theories is deeply unhelpful in addressing the scourge of xenophobia. “Minister Lamola’s and others’ suggestions that the international diplomatic outcry to this xenophobia is being ‘coordinated’ by foreign actors seeking to undermine South Africa is a troubling deflection. The diplomatic fallout is the consequence of that violence, not its cause.” 

Milner says the Jewish community carries a long history of displacement, refugee status, and persecution. “That history compels us to stand in solidarity with migrants and refugees, and we reject scapegoating in all its forms.” 

Invoking “vague foreign manipulation” to explain a domestic social failure is “deceitful, shifts focus away from the real problem, and mirrors the suspicion and scapegoating that lies at the root of xenophobic violence itself”, she says.