Mogoeng’s pro-Israel fear of ‘curses’ sparks rage
● Pressure is mounting on chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng to retract comments he made in support of Israel in the Middle East conflict.
The human rights organisation #Africa4Palestine said it would lay a complaint with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) against him. Mogoeng’s office declined to comment yesterday.
The chief justice’s remarks, made during a webinar this week organised by the Jerusalem Post newspaper, caused a furore, with the ANC calling on the speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, to hold a meeting with Mogoeng.
Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said Modise and Mogoeng do “conduct working engagements from time to time on matters of shared interest … Both parties may have such discussion in their next meeting.”
In his webinar comments, Mogoeng seemed to base his pro-Israel stance on passages from the Bible.
“The first verse I give is in Psalms 122, verse 6, which says: ‘Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee,’ ” Mogoeng said.
“Also Genesis 12, verses 1 to 3, says to me as a Christian, if I curse Abraham and Israel, the Almighty God will curse me too.
“So, I am under an obligation as a Christian to love Israel, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, which actually means the peace of Israel. I cannot, as a Christian, do anything other than love and pray for Israel because I know hatred for Israel by me and my nation can only attract unprecedented curses upon our nation,” the chief justice said.
“I think as a citizen of this country, we are denying ourselves a wonderful opportunity of being game-changers in the Israeli-Palestinian situation. We know what it means to be at loggerheads, to be a nation at war with itself.”
The Black Lawyers Association said Mogoeng had overstepped the mark and should issue a public apology.
“The chief justice should not have been directed by his own religious views, [he] should have been aware that it will be difficult for citizens of this country to separate his Christian views and his office,” BLA president Mashudu Kutama said.
“As the BLA … what we seek from him is to say to society, the judiciary and the international community, ‘Perhaps this time I went a step further’.
“[He] must find it in his heart to then say to the profession, ‘I had the views and I read the reaction, therefore I acknowledge that I went further than expected of my office.’ ”
The #Africa4Palestine group said that apart from other issues, the comments represent a potential conflict in a case now before the Constitutional Court.
“We are particularly concerned since there is a current matter … between Cosatu and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, involving the Israeli-Palestinian issue,” the group said in a statement.
It said Mogoeng’s participation in the “overtly political” webinar when this matter was before his court was “improper at worst, or highly questionable at the very least”.
The case relates to comments made online and during a demonstration by Cosatu’s then secretary of international relations, Bongani Masuku, in 2009, which the Jewish Board of Deputies charged amounted to hate speech.
It is understood that the labour federation is seeking legal advice on whether Mogoeng’s comments constitute prejudice in the Masuku case.
The EFF has asked that Mogoeng retract his comments.
“It is truly a sad day in our country that Israel has found legitimacy for its racist occupation of Palestine from a chief justice in our own country,” the party said in a statement.
“[He] should know better than all of us that Israel is in direct violation of international law, violation of Palestinians’ rights to self-determination.
“Israel is the quintessential colonial power in the world today. Its very ability to exist over decades while systematically violating Palestinians’ human rights is because world superpowers support it,” the party said.
Nathi Mncube, spokesperson for the office of the chief justice, referred questions about the #Africa4Palestine complaint to the JSC.
Asked about the Masuku case, and whether Mogoeng would consider recusing himself from it if necessary, Mncube said he did not understand the question.
Calls to Mogoeng himself went unanswered and he did not respond to a text message.
● ➽