Response to the Chief Rabbi's statements on the ANC's position on Palestine
14 July 2014
We are appalled by the one sided and blinkered response of Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein to the ANC Deputy Secretary General, Jessie Duarte's, statement on the Gaza attacks (see Sunday Independent report).
The ANC's unequivocal stance in the Palestinian crisis is consistent with the global outpouring of anger and a desire to see an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine.
One would have expected a more sober and calming response from a man of the cloth. The Chief Rabbi's response, together with that of the myriad of Zionist lobby groups in South Africa, deflects from the real issues at stake in this conflict, namely: the rights of the Palestinian people to national self-determination; the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands; the indiscriminate targeting of civilians - particularly women, children, the aged and the disabled; and the flagrant disregard of international law and international humanitarian law.
The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation condemns the attempt to personalise this matter by targeting the ANC's Deputy Secretary General, and the alleged threats by the "Chief Rabbi" against the Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Obed Bapela. Deputy Minister Bapela reported at a solidarity rally in Lenasia on Sunday that the Chief Rabbi had called him after the release of the ANC statement and asked him to disassociate himself from the statement and further demanded that it be removed from the website of the ANC. When Deputy Minister Bapela indicated that this would not be done, it's was reported that the Chief Rabbi indicated that there would be "consequences" for the ANC.