Cape Town, South Africa – Storm over Deputy Minister’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ Gibe

Cape Town, South Africa – The South African Jewish Board of Deputies laid a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission against Deputy Foreign Minister Fatima Hajaig for “anti-Semitic hate speech”.

According to the board, Hajaig told a pro-Palestinian rally that Jews “in fact control (America), no matter which government comes into power, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Barack Obama or George Bush”.

“The control of America, just like the control of most western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money and if Jewish money controls their country then you cannot expect anything else.”

The associate director of the board, David Saks, said the statement was anti-Semitic because it alleged “that Jews are a scheming, manipulative, behind-the-scenes influence in their host societies, who control the affairs of the societies for their own selfish, usually evil, gains”.

Saks said the idea of “a Jew who uses his money to undermine the wellbeing of the human race” was “a classic anti-Semitic stereotype”.

In its complaint, the board said the statement demonstrated “a clear intention to be hurtful, be harmful or incite harm and especially to promote or propagate hatred against the Jewish people”.

Foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the department was “not au fait with the contents of the alleged statement made by the deputy minister”, and that Hajaig was in Japan on official business.

Mamoepa said, “However, the South African government, to which the deputy minister belongs, has committed itself to fighting all forms of racism in all its manifestations — including anti-Semitism.”

But political analyst Steven Friedman said that while the statement by Hajaig was “ill- advised”, the complaint was a red herring and the board was diverting attention from the real issue.

“What we should really be talking about is the aggressive campaign to camouflage the attempt by the Israelis to cower the Palestinians into sub- mission.”

He said the real human rights issue was that Israel was “destroying what may be the only democratically elected government in the Middle East with the exception of Lebanon”.

“If the South African Jewish Board of Deputies was as concerned about the deaths of more than 1000 innocent Palestinians as they are over the foolish remark of a junior minister, I would take their claims about concern for human rights more seriously.”

Responding, Saks said the two issues were entirely separate. “Whatever happens in a foreign conflict cannot justify racist attacks against Jews, especially by a government representative.

“Mr Friedman is frankly being wilfully blind to the shocking extent of Jew hatred masquerading as concern for Palestinian rights.”

He said the board’s position on the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict was that “the blame could be squarely laid at the door of the Hamas movement that provoked it”.

The commission could not be reached for comment but, according its complaints man-ual, the next step would be for the commission to either reject the complaint or accept it — if it constitutes a “prima facie violation of, or threat to, a fundamental right”. The commission would then decide on a procedure to deal with the complaint.