Chief rabbi slates Duarte comment
SOUTH Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, has weighed in on the war of words between the ANC and Jewish organisations over Israel’s air strikes on Gaza.
As the death toll in Gaza climbed to more than 120 this weekend, Goldstein lashed out at what he called the ANC’s “malicious” and “hate-filled” stance on the conflict.
Earlier this week, ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte accused Israel of being responsible for “barbaric attacks on the defenceless Palestinian people of Gaza” and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
“As we head into August and we are reminded of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, surely we must ask the people of Israel if the term ‘lest we forget’ has lost its meaning.
“The state of Israel has turned the occupied territories of Palestine into permanent death camps.
“The ANC reiterates its 2012 policy position that, as an organisation, we are unequivocal in our support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination, and are unapologetic in our view that the Palestinians are the victims and the oppressed in the conflict with Israel,” she said.
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the South African Zionist Federation responded with a scathing rebuke of the ANC, demanding that Duarte retract her statement.
Goldstein said Duarte’s com- ments were “replete with malicious and shameful lies” and challenged her to a public debate on her claims.
“Her comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany and Gaza to the Holocaust death camps is abhorrent and beyond the pale of civilised discourse. The Nazi Holocaust is history’s greatest crime, meticulously detailed by the criminal regime that . . . executed over six million Jews. She must be held responsible for her morally repugnant words,” he said.
Duarte said yesterday that the party stood by its view “that the killing must stop”.
Speaking from Jerusalem, Goldstein said he had heard the wail of sirens as rockets were fired into Israel.
“There is no sovereign coun- try on earth that would not defend its citizens from such military attacks,” he said.