The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has reacted to a damning tweet posted by Black First, Land First leader, Andile Mngxitama saying they will consider what action to take.
In a statement, the board said members were appalled by the crassly offensive, demeaning and hurtful comment made by Mngxitama.
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In the tweet, Mngxitama wrote: “For those claiming the legacy of the Holocaust is only negative think about the lampshades and Jewish soap.”
With this ugly, jeering remark, the board said Mngxitama had portrayed not just the deliberate murder of Jewish people but even the supposed reduction of their remains to everyday objects (lampshades and soap) as something to be treated as a joke.
“It is deeply distressing that anyone could so casually and publicly dehumanise an entire people in this way,” read the statement. “How much more outrageous it is when emanating from a public figure who heads up a political voice.”
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The board said Mngxitama’s scoffing reference to how Jews became victims of one of history’s most appalling crimes, displayed outright contempt for basic humanitarian and non-racial values, together with a complete lack of compassion for human suffering.
“His overtly hateful tweet is a flagrant attack on the fundamental rights to dignity and equality of Jewish South Africans and should be strongly condemned by all in our country.”
It added that civilised society and certainly South Africa with its stained history of human rights abuses, had no place for those who condoned the merciless massacre of millions of innocent people in the cruelest way.
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