Jewish discontent and the Reggies protest

Jewish discontent and the Reggies protest

This weekend saw the beginning of a campaign against the Jewish National Fund (JNF) by variety of anti-Israel bodies including BDS South Africa and Stop the JNF South Africa. The focus of the protest centred a round a local toy company’s sponsorship of a JNF project. The protestors were calling on Reggies to end its relationship with the JNF South Africa because they ostensibly believe the JNF is responsible for human rights violations.

The issue of organisations protesting against individuals, companies and institutions that have dealings with Israel is by no means new. We have seen protests against Israeli political leaders coming to this country, Israeli performers, products manufactured in Israel and the Occupied Territories and the like. What has upset many in the Jewish community is that there has been a visible increase in the number of Jews at the forefront of this recent action. The lead co-ordinator of the Stop JNF South Africa is Jewish and some of the spokespeople and participants in the action were Jewish. Again this is by no means new the Jews like Ronnie Kasrils, Nathan Geffen, Doron Isaacs and the like have been involved in similar types of campaigns.

I think that as Jews we are always deeply concerned when one of our own stands along side those who have less than honourable reasons for protesting against anything related to Israel, namely that these groupings have overt or covert Judeophobic values and/or members.

Again the Jewish community is confronted with the dilemma of how to ‘deal’ with those Jews who have broken ranks and joined forces with groups which the mainstream Jewish community believes to be unacceptable and problematic. I have received a slew of e-mails and Facebook invites to initiatives and groups which seek to ‘expose’ Jewish members of groups associated with BDS organisations like Stop JNF South Africa. They have described these people as new age Jewish Kapos, Kapos were Jews who collaborated with the Nazi’s, and is a serious insult. I have read and heard people describe them as Moserim or informers, which are Jews who give information to authorities which causes or has the potential to cause, substantial harm to another Jew. According to our tradition a Moser suffers the worst punishment a Jew can face and that is spiritual excommunication (Maim.Yad, Hovel u-Mazzik 8:9).

 I am not shocked by the anger and resentment that many people in the Jewish community feel towards these Jews as I have had similar allegations and curses thrown at me in the past. What worries me and many others in the liberal circles of the Jewish community is that many of the Jews that are involved in the present anti-Israel activities were once dovish pro-Israel Jews. Who now feel that they have no forum in the mainstream Jewish body politic or social spheres to voice their concerns have thus decided for reasons of deep disgruntlement and conscience to join with these reactionary anti-Israel groupings.

The lack of openness and willingness by the- core- mainstream Jewish organisations including the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the South African Zionist Federation and the Union of Orthodox Synagogues/ Office of the Chief Rabbi to facilitate a genuine communal forum where grievances and concerns can be raised in a frank and safe manner, is a contributory factor to the disgruntlement of some. Of this I have no doubt.

There are of course factors that are beyond the control of any Jewish institutional body in this country that no level of open discussion or dialogue will change and those relate to the realities on the ground in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The collapse of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the continued rise of hardline hawkishness in Israel, the continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the siege of Gaza, and so on. These realities do not exactly inspire the dovish, pro-peace members of the community.

Most of the Jews involved in these actions are largely outside of the community structures which makes it easier for outraged Jews to use inflammatory and vulgar language when referring to this bunch of disgruntled Jews. We consider them ‘other’ and will unlikely cross paths in the real world, unless we come a cross them in a counter protest.

The only real forum where Jews from differing points of views can come together to discuss and present their differing points of views – in an open, frank and most importantly safe manner -  is at the Limmud conferences that take place annually. And thank goodness for Limmud but a lot more needs to be done in this area and the sooner the better.

In conclusion, I urge all of us in the mainstream Jewish community to avoid invoking hateful rhetoric against those we disagree with and try to be true to the Jewish practices of constructive debate and discussion. By further marginalising those we disagree with, we will only swell the ranks of groups that care not for human rights but for the denial of the Jewish peoples’ right to express their national, cultural and religious rights in the State of Israel. Our communal institutions have to be encouraged and lobbied vigorously to change its focus on promoting communal conformity, whether it, be regarding Israel, the role of women in the community or religious practice, to promoting acceptance of communal diversity so as to allow for as many members of the Jewish community to have genuine say in issues affecting us all.