Blaming Jews won’t solve SA’s ills

When Wits SRC president Mcebo Dlamini was found guilty of misconduct earlier this year, his reaction (echoed by his supporters) was revealing, says Charisse Zeifert.

He was, he wrote, being removed as a result of vice-chancellor Adam Habib having used “the racist Zionist-controlled” Wits legal office to find him guilty.

The notion that Jews control the world is a classic anti-Semitic canard. Apart from being absurd, such thinking portrays Jews as intrinsically under-handed, manipulative, untrustworthy, to be shunned.

Dlamini was removed this week as president, not, incidentally, for his love for Hitler (although those comments are under review), but for the prior disciplinary infringements.

Are Jews becoming the epitome of all that is wrong with South Africa?

The discussions taking place on this issue are toxic.

“All Jews have Hitler in them”, “Jews deserve what they got in Germany” and “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, so Jews are legitimate targets” are some of the remarks being made on the airwaves and in the social media.

Meanwhile, even as Dlamini was receiving his marching orders, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was orchestrating the SRCs of various universities to join the boycott of Israel. Representatives of five of our universities agreed to lobby their institutions to join.

Delegates from the universities of the Western Cape, South Africa, Durban University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Mangosuthu University of Technology tried to outdo one another in excoriating Israel conflating everything, from Dlamini’s statements of love for Hitler and the Gaza war last year to the denial of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s visa to Israel as reasons for the call.

BDS insists it’s not anti-Semitic, but its campaigns regularly lead to anti-Semitic behaviour and discourse.

After all, one of the universities’ SRCs participating in the call for boycotts, was Durban University of Technology, which has demanded Jewish students there be de-registered.

More recently, BDS incitement led to supporters depositing a pig’s head in what was thought to be the kosher meat section of a Woolworths store in Cape Town.

The campaign, by its very nature, seeks to isolate people who support Israel.

Woolworths was targeted again for stocking a minuscule amount of carefully labelled goods.

Earlier this year, high school pupils looted a Woolworths at Sammy Marks Square. Some carried placards pronouncing: “Israel is the devil.” Damage was estimated at R300 000.

Yet, BDS insists it represents the youth and aims to protect education.

In what way is the BDS dealing with the real issues facing our youth: unemployment, energy insecurity, spiralling food and commodity costs and inferior education?

How about higher education costs, the poor administrative state of many varsities, the dysfunction at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and escalating higher education costs?

South Africans are angry, but their anger is misdirected.

Foreigners aren’t causing poverty, nor are South African Jews behind it.

Dlamini was fired not because Habib is too weak and not because of the machinations of the “Zionist lobby”. He lost his position for having repeatedly brought an academic institution of high standing into disrepute with his racist utterances and misconduct.

South Africa has real issues. We’re not going to simply get over apartheid.

We need to address the issues. Blaming Jews for these ills won’t solve them; it’ll make them worse.

* Charisse Zeifert is head of communications for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/blaming-jews-won-t-solve-sa-s-ills-1.1855347#.VU0RhvlVhBf