South African chief rabbi accuses ANC of playing into hand of extremists

South Africa's Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein has accused the ruling African National Congress of playing into the hands of Islamic extremists after the party said it was reviewing dual citizenship policy to prevent South Africans from joining the Israel Defense Forces.

South African Jewish groups have strongly criticized the plans, saying it questioned Jewish loyalty to South Africa. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies and the South African Zionist Federation warned such a move would undermine democracy in the country.

“When the ANC targets with an obsession the State of Israel more than any other country in the world, that is deeply insulting to a very important part of South African society,” said South Africa’s chief rabbi, in a video statement posted to YouTube on Tuesday.

“I call it an obsession because here they are prepared and proposing to change the citizenship rules of South Africa, denying dual citizenship to citizens throughout this country, because they’re obsessed with the State of Israel,” Goldstein said.

He also criticized ANC members who accuse Israel of being an “apartheid state”. Goldstein said: “To accuse Israel of apartheid is a lie and a defamation of the Jewish state, and an insult to the true victims of apartheid,” he said, noting the presiding judge of the court case against former president Moshe Katsav for rape charges, Justice George Karra, had been an Arab.

“Can you imagine that happening in apartheid South Africa? It’s unthinkable,” said Goldstein emphatically.

The South African chief rabbi accused the ANC of playing into the hands of religious extremists in the Middle East who seek the destruction of Israel, such as Hamas, and called on the group to use its sway instead to encourage the Palestinians to negotiate a peace settlement with Israel.

“What the ANC really needs to do is to revive the legacy of peacemaking [...] the legacy of O.R. Tambo and Nelson Mandela,” referring to the former ANC leaders who helped to bring about an end to the oppressive apartheid system in South African.

Obed Bapela, the head ANC’s international affairs department, earlier this announced the plans. He agreed to meet with members of the South African Board of Jewish Deputies after Rosh Hashana. While he said the party was not singling out any one single group in South Africa, he asserted that something had to be done to stop South Africans from serving in the Israeli army. He also rejected criticism that singling out Israel for criticism made his party anti-Jewish.