South Africans do not generally hate Israel or Jews, but the South African government, and the country’s political and cultural elites, resent Israel with a blinding intensity that is unique in the democratic world and presents a serious threat to Jews.
One reason is historical. The ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), was closely aligned during the Cold War with the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was a terrorist organization at the time. Both enjoyed the backing of the Soviet Union.
Israel opposed apartheid and joined the effort to isolate South Africa — a posture that led the apartheid government to threaten consequences for the local Jewish community. But in the 1970s and 1980s, during the height of the Cold War, Israel and South Africa had a secret military alliance.
South Africa had ties with Arab countries, and with Iran, as well as western governments. And Israel joined sanctions against South Africa in 1987. Yet the ANC has never let Israel forget it once was on the wrong side.
That alone does not explain the hostility. An additional factor is the presence of sizable and vocal Muslim communities in every major South African city. Moreover, the South African Muslim community is dominated by radical elements. Though a small minority of the overall South African population, Muslims are well represented in the professions, in the media, and in politics. Jews, too, are highly visible in these fields, but there are fewer of them, and as “whites,” their voices are seen as less legitimate.
Another factor is the dysfunction of the South African government, which is so corrupt and incompetent that the country can barely keep the lights on. Since the early 2000s, the ANC has found the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a useful way to distract the population by reigniting its old “struggle” politics, with Israel forced into the role of the old regime. Though South Africa’s own human rights record is appalling, even after apartheid, it can also defect international critics by leading the fight against Israel.
There is also the issue of corruption. The ANC has cozy relationships with some of the world’s most repressive regimes, many of them lubricated by corruption. Critics have speculated that the South African government has taken a staunchly anti-Israel view that risks disrupting its trade relations with Israel and the West because it is being paid by anti-Israel regimes or organizations. Given the recent history of “state capture,” where corrupt outsiders basically bought government departments, that is plausible.
Finally, there is also just the phenomenon of classic antisemitism. The Afrikaner nationalist of the apartheid regime had been pro-Nazi during the Second World War; and elements of the anti-apartheid movement also nurtured a resentment of Jews. Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate who was seen as the voice of moral conscience in the anti-apartheid movement, also embraced “replacement theology,” which denigrates Jews for rejecting Christ. These views are marginal — but they are part of the mix.
Thus South Africa has eagerly volunteered to accuse Israel of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), an inversion of reality in which the victims of Hamas’s genocidal terror stand accused for defending themselves (a right South Africa says that Israeli Jews do not have). Elements of South Africa’s arguments featured classic antisemitic themes.
Notably, South Africa has also tried to shield actual genocidal regimes from international judicial scrutiny. It has only targeted Israel –the Jewish state.
The consequences are starting to reverberate through South African society. On Friday, South African cricket officials removed the under-19 team’s Jewish captain, David Teeger, for innocuous pro-Israel remarks. The only acceptable Jews are the small, radical minority who declare that they, too, hate Israel.
How ironic that a country once banned from international competition for racism has brought bigotry back into sports. It proves the old adage that antisemitism destroys the societies that embrace it.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
