Cape Town – For the past two months, the Cape Town Jewish Community has been threatened, intimidated and viciously maligned by anti-Israel organisations like the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, UCT PSF and others who claim simply to be “anti-Zionist”, not antisemitic.
Yesterday these groups once again protested outside the historic Gardens Synagogue, the SA Jewish Museum, the Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Gardens Jewish Community Centre. On the main wall of the Centre they deliberately displayed a Palestinian Islamic Jihad flag– a symbol of a globally recognized terrorist organisation whose mandate it is to destroy the State of Israel and who are unapologetically antisemitic. Protestors chanted “One Zionist, one bullet” and “Death to Israel.” In social media posts they made references to “young Jewish supremacist monsters” and even called out a local shul in Sea Point for hosting religious services in celebration of the millennia-old Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
The Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies condemns these acts of intimidation, threatening behaviour and clear antisemitism against the Jewish community. We will not stand by idly and allow members of our community to be harassed at our places of work, home and worship. We call on local Muslim leadership and our government to stop these targeted protests at Jewish facilities.
