Stifling voices and promoting antisemitic tropes

We find ourselves amid a troubling controversy stemming from a contentious interview conducted by South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) journalist Juliet Newell with Dr Mamphela Ramphele of the Desmond Tutu Foundation. During the exchange, Newell challenged Ramphele on her claim that Israel was perpetrating a “Holocaust” in Gaza. This regrettable incident casts a stark light on two deeply concerning trends: the rise of Holocaust inversion; and systematic efforts to stifle voices that dare to challenge entrenched anti-Israel narratives.

Holocaust inversion inverts reality – portraying Israelis as aggressors and Palestinians as the “new Jews”; and morality, framing the Holocaust itself as a moral failing of the Jewish people. As historian Deborah Lipstadt describes it, this is a form of “soft-core denial” that inflates any perceived Israeli wrongdoings by an astronomical factor while diminishing the horrors inflicted by the Nazis to a comparable degree.

The subsequent suspension of Newell is alarming for our community, as it forms part of a greater campaign to silence and censor voices who would oppose the accepted anti-Israel base position. This has been evident throughout the media, and the SABC is no exception. Though the broadcaster professes dedication to “a plurality of views” and “universal access to credible content”, this commitment appears selective, often amplifying fringe anti-Israel perspectives within our community while sidelining the mainstream Jewish voice.

With all that said, the most egregious element of the interview with Ramphele was the SABC’s editorial decision to display a banner at the bottom of the screen that stated, “Jewish humanity buried in the rubble in Gaza.”

This inflammatory statement, which was not made by Ramphele in the interview, is a defamatory editorial addition that dehumanises and demonises our community. This interview thus holds Jews collectively responsible for a falsely labelled genocide in two ways, first, through the opinions of Ramphele, and second, through this banner. It bears emphasising that holding Jews collectively accountable for Israel’s actions crosses unequivocally into antisemitism. By insinuating that “Jewish humanity” is damaged by the situation in Gaza, the SABC editorial team has overstepped the line.

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies will therefore engage directly with the SABC on these issues, advocating for measures that will safeguard our voices from suppression; to counter unchecked Holocaust inversion tropes; and to prevent any recurrence of antisemitic rhetoric from its editorial teams.