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South African Jewish Report — hate speech, why words matter and how Zionists do their thing

Mervyn Bennun
By Mervyn Bennun
8 Jan 2025
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Anti-Zionist activists in South Africa would be well advised to get on to the mailing list of the South African Jewish Report. Increasing its readership is a side-effect; being ignorant, however, of how Zionists view the world is unhelpful.

It is worth bearing in mind that the South African Jewish Report is the first periodical to be expelled from the Press Council.

The importance of the Press Council in the context of the South African Constitution cannot be overstated. In its own words:

“The Press Council, the Press Ombud and the Appeals Panel are an independent co-regulatory mechanism set up by the print and online media to provide impartial, expeditious and cost-effective adjudication to settle disputes between newspapers, magazines and online publications, on the one hand, and members of the public, on the other, over the editorial content of publications.”


It is one of the most precious jewels in our constitutional crown that the press is trusted to regulate its own protected freedom. It is a sharp two-edged sword, protecting the press and the public.

Very briefly, the South African Jewish Report was expelled from the Press Council because it refused to publish, as required by the Press Council’s rules, an order to apologise to the South African Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Coalition. The Press Council had found that the South African Jewish Report had wrongly portrayed as a fact that a certain cartoon was anti-Semitic – and, in this process, labelled the coalition members as anti-Semites or being anti-Semitic.

The 12 December 2024 issue is another example of how Zionists do their thing. It was published in the week of the anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This anniversary was marked on 9 December by a demonstration outside the offices of the South African Holocaust & Genocide Centre.

The South African Jewish Report chose to incite fears of anti-Semitism, using the headline, “Attack on Cape Jewish Offices – Terrorism” for a report that an “improvised explosive device” was thrown into the Jewish community offices on 6 December. It quotes the executive director of the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies, Daniel Bloch:

“[Bloch] says for more than two years, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Coalition, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and other organisations have been standing outside the Jewish community centre and other Jewish facilities ‘spewing hate speech, spreading misinformation, and calling for the death of Israel and death of Zionists’.


“‘The antisemitic hatred we have seen on social media – the use of classic antisemitic mistruths spread by anti-Israel movements – only inflame hatred towards the Jewish community, our supporters, and friends,’ Bloch says. ‘This could well have led to this disgusting act of terror on our community. It further justifies our actions in already taking four individuals to the Equality Court for hate speech and anti-Semitism. Words matter.’”


The police have not confirmed that the object thrown into the premises was explosive. There is a newspaper report quoting Daniel Bloch in October 2024 which I assume refers to the four cases he mentions above.

On 9 December 2024, various organisations, including those mentioned by Daniel Bloch and the South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP), marked the anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

I’m neither the authorised voice of any of the organisations involved nor of the South African Jews for a Free Palestine. I am, however, a Jew and a long-standing member and supporter of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and an activist in the SAJFP. I support the campaign to boycott, divest from and impose sanctions on Israel because these organisations oppose Zionism.

I took part in the demonstration outside the Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre on 9 December, I heard what was said, and I was one of several participants interviewed by journalists for various news reports.

There was no hate speech.

It is interesting to look at the rhetoric used by the South African organisations Bloch refers to.

Care is taken to make it clear that anti-Zionism must be distinguished from anti-Semitism. The Core Values of the SAJFP state:

“[The] SAJFP is fundamentally opposed to anti-Semitism, defined as discrimination against, hatred of, or systemic oppression of Jews. [The] SAJFP rejects all forms of anti-Semitism, regardless of whether it comes from people or organisations linked to the right wing, to liberalism, or whether it is deployed by those who may be considered progressive or on the ‘Left’.


“Likewise, Zionism is not Judaism and the effort to conflate the two is itself a form of anti-Semitism because it reduces a diverse and dynamic cultural and religious group to a nation-state.”


It is important to operate in the spirit of the South African Constitution as stated in its Preamble – the establishment of a “democratic and open society”. Section 39 of the Bill of Rights prescribes how it is to be interpreted; among other considerations, it “must promote the values that underlie an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom”, and “must consider international law”.

Daniel Bloch says that “words matter”.

Concepts such as human rights and self-determination are a constant theme of the SAJFP. Since 7 October 2023, there have been calls for an end to what is now widely understood to be the massacres of Palestinians. The phrase “ethnic cleansing” is used to describe, and to protest against, what has happened to Palestinians over the decades since the State of Israel declared itself to exist.

The rhetoric used is semiotic – it has a deeper message which goes beyond the words used. It refers to a world envisioned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its Preamble starts:

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…”


It is language (and concepts like this) – the very core of the rhetoric, whether spoken or written – that is described as “hate speech” to which Daniel Bloch is referring.

Francesca Albanese delivered her report titled Anatomy of a Genocide as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. In it, she stated that she “firmly condemns the crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups in Israel on 7 October, and urges accountability and the release of hostages”. She refers to the panel of independent experts she consulted; they wrote:

“We strongly condemn the horrific crimes committed by Hamas, the deliberate and widespread killing and hostage-taking of innocent civilians, including older persons and children. These actions constitute heinous violations of international law and international crimes, for which there must be urgent accountability…


“We also strongly condemn Israel’s indiscriminate military attacks against the already exhausted Palestinian people of Gaza, comprising over 2.3 million people, nearly half of whom are children. They have lived under unlawful blockade for 16 years, and already gone through five major brutal wars, which remain unaccounted for…”


Several attempts to find any reference to this in the South African Jewish Report, using its own search engine, failed. There are references to Francesca Albanese’s alleged anti-Semitism, however, but not to her condemnation of Hamas. Presumably, this was ignored because to mention it would have required the South African Jewish Report to refer also to her criticism of Israel.

Words matter. DM

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