The senior leadership of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has met with the country's president Kgalema Motlanthe and members of his government in Pretoria. The meeting was the first between the Jewish community leadership and President Motlanthe since the latter's appointment as South African head of state in September 2008. Topics discussed included the current and future state of the South Africa-Israel relationship and concerns over increasing threats to the Jewish community as a result of the situation in the Middle East.
SAJBD national chairman Zev Krengel led the delegation, which included SAJBD president Michael Bagraim and executive director Wendy Kahn. On behalf of the government, deputy foreign minister Sue Van der Merwe and other officials also took part. The first issue addressed was the inclusion of Motlanthe's name, in his capacity as president of South Africa as a signatory to a statement likening Israel to an apartheid state and deploring its creation as a catastrophe to the 'indigenous' Palestinian people. The statement, which subsequently appeared as a full-page advertisement in several newspapers, was contrary to the government's stated policy of recognizing Israel's legitimacy as a sovereign state and its right to exist within secure borders, the Jewish leaders said.
Zev Krengel expressed the SAJBD's disquiet at the "defamatory and inflammatory" statements made by deputy minister Fatima Hajaig, both in a meeting with Israeli ambassador Dov Segev-Steinberg and at a Palestine solidarity rally. Krengel said that Hajaig had crossed the line at the rally where she had described the foreign policy of the US and other Western countries as being in the thrall of "Jewish money power" and that for a senior government representative to publicly make such a statement legitimized anti-Semitism.
The situation in Gaza was discussed at length. President Motlanthe expressed the view that the Hamas rocket launches could and should have been neutralized without resorting to the kind of destruction of property and loss of life that had resulted from Israel's actions. It was critical to ensure that South Africans did not import that anger and bitterness into their own communities. Rather, South Africans should try and relate to the conflict as people who feel the pain of all victims, whether it be a Jewish family that was the victim of a rocket or a citizen of Gaza losing family members.
In response to concerns raised about threats to South African Jewry during the recent crisis, particularly in the context of international attacks on Jewish targets, the president gave his assurance that everything would be done to protect the community and ensure that they remained safe in this country. Motlanthe stressed the importance of bringing the parties back to the negotiating table, in which regard he offered South Africa's support for a mediating body. He drew attention to his message released during the current crisis, in which he had stressed the essential issue as being the right of self-determination, with the two countries living side by side in internationally recognized borders.
Krengel said that the delegation agreed with this and reported on prayer meetings held in Johannesburg and Cape Town in which these same sentiments had been expressed. This was a time for mourning and prayer for a sustainable ceasefire, he said. The Jewish community wanted the rockets to stop and the incursions to end so that the parties can return to the negotiating table. He appealed to the South African government, with their ability to communicate with Hamas, to bring whatever influence they had to bear to reinforce the importance of a two state solution to the conflict.
