Jews ‘betrayed’ by SA govt
"I know that it's difficult to vote, but if you can we appeal to you to come out and help us," says South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) national director Wendy Kahn.
South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) national director Wendy Kahn has urged expats in Australia to register to vote in South Africa’s upcoming May elections in an effort to help the South African Jewish community.
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) hosted a webinar on Tuesday night with Kahn, who spoke about the deteriorating relations between the ANC and Israel, and the worrying impact it has had on the Jewish community.
“I know that it’s difficult to vote, but if you can we appeal to you to come out and help us,” Kahn said.
Kahn said the actions of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor since October 7 have seen another wave of emigration from the community. “Unlike other Jewish communities in the world, we didn’t have a government that held us, that reached out to us, that provided us with support,” Kahn said.
Two South Africans were murdered in the Hamas attacks, but Kahn said the South African government failed to reach out to their families. Instead, a phone call was held between Pandor and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, and not long after, a Hamas delegation went to South Africa to meet with top ANC leadership.
“There was not one word of sympathy, one word of condolence – there was not a condemnation of Hamas,” Kahn said.
“This was devastating for us and it culminated on the Saturday, exactly a week later, when our President came out of an ANC meeting wearing a keffiyeh, condemning Israel and using the word ‘genocide’ for the first time.”
Kahn said the SAJBD tried to arrange a meeting with Ramaphosa for six weeks, before he suddenly agreed to sit down with them on December 13.
“Then at the end of the meeting he started giving us a lecture on genocide,” Kahn said.
“What he did was he put in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) complaint that he had met with the SAJBD and he had expressed his views around genocide.”
While Kahn said the Jewish community feels betrayed by their government, she believes many South Africans support Israel and the community.
“One morning we set up our hostage installation across Nelson Mandela Bridge (in the Johannesburg CBD),” Kahn said.
“People walking past read these posters, they cried, they held hands and started praying. The posters stayed up the entire day and not one was defaced or torn down.”
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