SAJBD meeting with ANC to share Jewish community’s concerns

15 November 2023

Yesterday the SAJBD, together with the SA Zionist Federation, met with the ANC. The meeting, which the ANC requested, was agreed to in a spirit of good faith and our willingness to always engage. Our purpose for the meeting was to ask the ANC to reflect on the hurtful statements it made on the massacre of Israeli civilians carried out by Hamas on 7 October.

The SAJBD explained how let down our community had felt by their lack of any form of sympathy for the Israeli terror victims, mostly civilians, murdered by Hamas in the week following the massacre. It also shared the escalating levels of antisemitism in our country, which have increased nearly tenfold since the conflict began, and how this was being fuelled by inflammatory rhetoric by some in political leadership.

During the meeting the ANC acknowledged the hurt its stance had caused the Jewish community. It further made an appeal to rebuild trust and to embark on a process of dialogue and reengagement with the community.

We would like to thank the ANC for initiating this meeting and facilitating an open and honest engagement.

Issued by Karen Milner, National Chairperson, SAJBD, 15 November 2023