Men, women, and children encircle an Israeli flag and set it on fire while shouting “one Zionist, one bullet” and “death to Israel”. Flags of terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah are held aloft. Images of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah are proudly displayed. One sign calls Israel “a virus”, while another compares Israel to the Nazis, complete with a swastika.
This was the scene on the streets of Cape Town in front of parliament. On 14 April, in the presence of police and just steps away from the Cape Town Jewish community’s campus, the extreme hatred harboured by the anti-Israel lobby was openly displayed.
Meanwhile in Gauteng, at a protest on the council lawns in Braamfontein also on 14 April, a handful of anti-Israel politicians and zealots called for the name Sandton Drive to be changed to Leila Khaled Drive, after the first female terrorist to hijack a plane.
In the Mother City, 250 to 500 people marched to parliament, where they handed over a memorandum to the department of international relations and cooperation saying that the Jews had “fooled themselves into thinking that they are the chosen people of G-d”, that they are “chosen to oppress other human beings”, and comparing Israel to “Satan”.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign spokesperson Professor Usuf Chikte told the crowd, “We must defend their [the Palestinian’s] right to resist with arms if necessary, and this parliament must give them defensive weapons. We want to dismantle every bit of land the Zionists occupy.”
In Joburg, the leader of the Al Jama-ah party, Ganief Hendricks, echoed Chikte, “We want South Africa to send weapons to Palestine. Closing down embassies is a waste of time – we must send weapons. We want to give hope that very soon there will be no Israel.”
Politicians from the diminutive Al Jama-ah and National Freedom Front (NFP) parties spouted hate, while Africa4Palestine’s Farid Esack handed the mayor of Johannesburg, Thapelo Amad (a member of the Al Jama-ah party) a memorandum. It had one demand: “That the City of Johannesburg implements the earlier council decision to rename Sandton Drive Leila Khaled Drive.”
In Cape Town, retired Judge Siraj Desai spoke openly in support of the Palestinians, even after Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng was condemned in 2020 for calling for peace in the Middle East, when detractors said that judges must remain neutral.
Desai said that there were “no clashes” in the conflict as “the two sides are not equal”. He called for an “international solution” to allow all Palestinians to return to the land that was now Israel. He ended his speech by calling out, “Free, free Palestine!”
“Desai, who is under investigation for contravening the judicial code, continues to act politically as an open supporter of Hamas,” says South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) spokesperson Rolene Marks. “He has also repeatedly conveyed his support of the Iranian regime.
“Desai offers an extreme example of what happens when the judiciary becomes politicised,” she says. “This, after the Judicial Conduct Committee [JCC] found Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng guilty for stating that he supports peace. The SAZF continues to communicate with the JCC about the charges against Desai. He has a record of abusing the power entrusted in him by the judiciary and people of South Africa, and he abuses it once again by affiliating himself with protesters that call for the murder of those who call Israel home.”
The anti-Israel memorandum in Cape Town called on the South African government to apply “maximum diplomatic, political, and economic pressure on Israel”, and to “place an economic and financial embargo on Zionist goods and services” while “all Palestinian financial, trade, and economic interests be maintained, protected, and developed”.
Back in Joburg, NFP MP Ahmed Munzoor Shaik Emam reminded the crowd that he had put forward the motion in parliament calling for the South African embassy in Israel to be downgraded, and thanked MPs for throwing their weight behind this move.
“This is a first step. Sanctions worked for us in South Africa. The same can be done for Israel,” said Emam. The African National Congress’s Dada Morero, who served as mayor of Johannesburg for 25 days, called on people in the Sandton area to support public-participation hearings on the motion to change the street name.
At the closure of proceedings in Cape Town, an organiser called for the burning of the Israeli flag, while protesters called for violence against Zionists. Ninety-two percent of South African Jews agree that Israel is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, and 69% self-define as Zionists, according to the 2019/2020 survey conducted by the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Cape Town. The protesters burned at least two Israeli flags.
SAJBD National Chairperson Professor Karen Milner, says, “The increasingly inflammatory rhetoric emanating from these protesters is disturbing. Instead of calling for peace and negotiation, the calls are to intensify conflict and escalate violence. These messages of hatred serve no end but to justify what these groupings now openly acknowledge to be their true aim: the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state. Such horrendous sentiments achieve nothing beyond fostering divisions, and have no place in a peaceful multicultural democracy.”
“Khaled is a member of the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and is known for trying to hijack an aeroplane, putting countless innocent lives at risk,” says Marks. “It’s disturbing that Mayor Amad would entertain the idea of spending South African taxpayers’ money on renaming a street after her.
“The SAZF reminds Amad and his coalition partners that he is the mayor of Johannesburg, not Ramallah, and as such, must use the city’s time and money on rendering quality service delivery to five million residents,” she says. “He should be reaching out to Israel to see how its technology can fix issues such as access to water, electricity, housing, roads, education, and public transport.
“It’s clear that the African National Congress’s politicking in Gauteng has given minority parties the huge responsibility of presiding over powerful political offices that the electorate didn’t choose them for,” notes Marks. “Al Jamah-ah and Amad have used this as an opportunity to amplify views that are in no way aligned with the views of the electorate in Gauteng or the majority in our country. The SAZF will oppose all efforts to have the street renamed to Leila Khaled Drive.”
Later that evening in Cape Town, at a “Boeka in the Bo-Kaap for Palestine” event, politician Mandla Mandela called for Israeli national airline EL AL to be banned from South African skies. He then stated that “the entire Zionist lobby in South Africa, through their companies such as K-Way [Cape Union Mart], support the Jewish National Fund, and it’s for us to identify those companies and ensure that we boycott those products, as well as ensuring we also look into what relations and trade our government is doing with apartheid Israel.”
This was similar to the sentiment on a sign at an anti-Israel protest held in Durban on Monday, 17 April, which said, “Boycott Cape Union Mart, Clover Dairies, Dis-Chem Pharmacies.”
