South African Jews protest country’s ICJ accusations, say it dismisses antisemitism concerns

South Africa’s Jewish Board of Deputies, an umbrella group representing the mainline Jewish community in the country, says its country’s leadership is “inverting reality by accusing Israel of genocide,” noting that it leveled the charge almost immediately after the war began, and has never condemned Hamas’s massacres inside Israel.

In a statement issued by National Chair Karen Milner, the group accuses Pretoria of ignoring “concerns over antisemitism with contempt.”

“Global Jewry are united that these charges have at their root an antisemitic worldview, which denies Jews their rights to defend themselves. They won’t silence us by denying our reality,” the statement reads.

It also notes that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa sought to protect others charged or convicted of war crimes at The Hague.

“Why did President Cyril Ramaphosa not feel ‘duty-bound’ to hand over convicted genocide President of Sudan Omar Al Bashir, when he visited this country? Or see it as a ‘matter of principle’ to hand over Russian President Vladimir Putin to the ICC when he was expected to visit South Africa? Or take a ‘principled stand’ when he met last week, with Mohamed Dagalo of Sudan, the commander of the RSF militia who has just inflicted genocide on the non-Arab communities across Darfur,” Milner writes.