Justice minister: ‘We’re not anti-Semitic’ – but board adds up 139 incidents

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has rubbished claims that South Africa is anti-Semitic towards Jewish people in the country, but the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) claims there were 139 incidents in the country between October and December last year, in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel in October.

In an interview with Stephen Sackur on BBC Hard Talk, Lamola defended South Africa against claims made by Howard Sackstein, who said, “South Africa no longer feels like a safe space or home for Jews.”

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“I sit here staring at my suitcase, contemplating whether it’s time to leave the only home I’ve ever known. I imagine my ancestors… For Jews, this country no longer feels like a safe space or ‘home’.

The government has been captured by radical Islamists and their sympathisers,” wrote Sackstein in the Jewish Report.

Lamola labelled Sackstein’s claims as unfortunate, saying: “It’s a very unfortunate statement not backed by any facts, just a figment of his own imagination.

As you would have seen in the court papers, we argued that our case is not against the Jewish as a people, it’s against the Zionist State of Israel, the military operations that they are running of maiming and killing the Palestinians as a group in Gaza.”

Lamola said South Africa is a safe place for Jews.

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“In South Africa there is no threat, harm or whatsoever to the Jewish people. They continue to participate in all forms of social life.

“As you speak to me now, nothing has happened to Sackstein and nothing will happen to him or any Jewish community on the basis of their creed, sex or religion.”

Lamola vehemently stressed that South Africa is not anti-Semitic towards the Jewish people despite Sackur mentioning statistics showing otherwise. SAJBD national chair Prof Karen Milner said last year, anti-Semitic incidents reached the highest levels since it began compiling detailed lists in 1993.

For October to December last year, there were 139 recorded incidents, compared to 19 over the same period in 2022 – an increase of 631%.

“There was also a sharp increase in physical attacks against Jewish persons or property, something which had occurred only rarely in previous years,” Milner said.

“There were six cases of physical assault, whereas the annual average had been only one in the preceding decade.”

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The SAJBD defined an anti-Semitic incident as “any hostile, and usually illegal, act clearly carried out with the intention of inflicting harm on Jewish persons (whether at the individual or collective level) or institutions”.

Milner said to date eight cases “have been, or are in the process of being lodged with the police. “They include assault, damage to property and incitement of violence.”

The board was also finalising cases which will be brought to the Equality Court, but did not specify numbers.

“We call on Minister Lamola and the ANC government to stop dismissing anti-Semitism and to stop creating an environment that emboldens anti-Semites,” Milner said.