SAZF Appalled by SA Government’s Stance and Calls on Miss SA to Participate in Miss Universe
14 November 2021
The South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) is appalled that the South African government is self-sabotaging our country’s hopes and chances of participating and shining in an international event just because it happens to take place in Israel.
Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Nathi Mthethwa, may think that South Africa is making a grand moral statement because the ruling party has been misled by a perversion of facts about Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy, but in fact, our country is simply signalling its isolationism and irrelevance on the world stage. The government has been silent on actual and serious human rights abuses occurring in many other countries where we participate in sports and contests, but self-righteously reserves its opprobrium for the world’s only Jewish State.
While the rest of the world opens up, moves forward, and positively benefits from relations with Israel, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and other Arab countries, South Africa is seemingly determined to spite itself and remain on the sidelines of progress.
If our country were interested in bringing peace to the Middle East, or to carry any moral weight in playing a mediatory role between Israel and the Palestinians, we have now ensured that our one-sidedness and unilateralism will prevent us from doing so. We will miss out on the remarkable changes happening where countries are moving closer to Israel and harnessing the life-changing benefits of water, electricity and hope that this partnership brings people on the ground in Africa and the Middle East.