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Dear Mr. Ebrahim,
You are a minister of the South African government,
appointed to advance the interests of the Republic and the people of South
Africa in an impartial and rational manner. As a citizen and as a national
religious leader of South Africa, I object to the way in which you are abusing
your high office to promote your own personal agenda. You obviously have a
“blind spot” when it comes to Israel; you lose your sense of objectivity and
rationality when dealing with the Jewish state.
Most recently you have used your platform and title in an
active campaign to prevent South Africans – and especially members of
government – from visiting Israel. This is but one example of your irrational
obsession with Israel to the detriment of the proper execution of your governmental
duties. You have acted in breach of your government’s own foreign policy, in
terms of which South Africa and Israel have full diplomatic relations.
Your actions hark back to apartheid-style control of
information and censorship. Why would you try to prevent South Africans from
traveling to Israel and seeing the situation for themselves? Do you think, Mr. Ebrahim,
that the South African people are not as clever as you are, that they cannot
think for themselves and that they need to be protected from the facts? Maybe
you are afraid – and rightly so – that if people go to Israel and see the
situation for themselves their perspective will be completely different. Are
you worried that they will see that, in fact, there is no apartheid in Israel?
South Africans visiting Israel will find a multiracial, multi-ethnic vibrant
society where more than 1.5 million Arabs live as full and equal Israeli
citizens, vote as part of a single national voters’ roll and have full legal
rights in all areas of society. Are you concerned that when South Africans
travel on buses, visit parks, malls, hospitals and university campuses, attend
the Israeli parliament and the Supreme Court they will find Jews and Arabs
living and working together in complete equality? They may hear, for example,
that, in fact, it was an Arab judge who convicted former Israeli president
Moshe Katsav on rape charges.
Maybe you are afraid that South African Christians will
find that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where they can practice
their religion freely without fear; that South African women will find that
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where they can be fully equal
citizens; that South African trade unionists will discover that Israel is the
only country in the Middle East where there are legal and active trade unions
which protect workers’ rights; that South African journalists will see that
Israel is the only country in the Middle East where freedom of expression is
properly upheld.
Are you worried that our fellow South Africans may learn
that successive Israeli governments have supported the establishment of a
Palestinian State as part of a negotiated peace agreement? Are you concerned
that South Africans may speak to Ehud Barak, the dovish former prime minister
of Israel who desperately tried at the Camp David and Taba negotiations to
create a Palestinian state, only to be rebuffed by the Palestinian leadership?
Are you concerned that South Africans might hear for themselves directly from
the current Israeli government how it seeks to return immediately to the
negotiating table without preconditions, and that it is the Palestinian
leadership that refuses to do so? Maybe you are worried that our fellow South
Africans may discover that the so-called “separation wall” is actually a
security fence, that prior to its being erected waves of suicide bombers killed
more than 1,300 Israelis and wounded over 10,000, and that since its erection
these attacks have stopped. Maybe you are afraid that South Africans might
speak to members of Hamas, who openly call for the destruction of the State of
Israel and the murder of all Jews in Israel and around the world.
Mr. Ebrahim, your personal bias against Israel prevents
you from fulfilling your legal and ethical duties as minister of international
relations, who, with impartiality and sound judgment, is supposed to further
peace, justice and South African strategic interests in the world.
Your actions to discourage South Africans from traveling
to Israel are but one manifestation of your extremist views. In so doing you
are jeopardizing South Africa’s international credibility and strategic
interests. It is indeed the ideological allies of Hamas and Hezbollah –
Israel’s sworn enemies – who have also launched a terror campaign against Christian
communities throughout Africa. In recent months scores of churches have been
burnt and hundreds of Christians have been murdered because of their faith.
Nigeria, one of our key African partners, has borne the
brunt of some of the worst attacks. As a leading African nation, South Africa
must condemn these attacks and express support of and offer assistance to its
fellow African governments in Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. To South
Africa’s shame, you have remained silent. You have been too hesitant and weak
in condemning Syrian President Assad’s actions which have resulted in the
deaths of more than 20,000 of his citizens and the displacement of nearly
150,000 refugees.
These are but a few examples of how your prejudice
precludes you from fulfilling your role as a minister of this government. You
seem to forget that your mandate is to serve the interests of the people and
the government of South Africa and not your own personal allegiances. A judge
who is biased or perceived to be so is legally and ethically required to remove
himself from the case, in the interest of integrity, justice and truth. These
same values require that you do the same and resign. Especially during such
turbulent times, how does a minister of international relations discourage
people from traveling and seeing for themselves? Why do you repeat the sins of
the apartheid regime and shun dialogue with and understanding of the “other”?
Peace cannot be achieved by withdrawal and isolation; as the Book of Psalms
(34:15) says: “Seek peace, and pursue it.”
The dream of peace will only become a reality when people
pro-actively pursue it, and move beyond their prejudices and preconceptions and
truly understand the complex realities of the Middle East in an open-minded and
balanced way. Your actions support the forces of extremism, hatred and
violence, and undermine the forces of tolerance, freedom and peaceful
negotiations.
For the sake of peace and justice, we need more
information, not less; we need more dialogue, not less; we need more
connections with other societies, not less.
You clearly do not believe so, and hence you are unfit to
hold public office. Do the honorable thing: Resign.
Sincerely,
Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein
---
Jerusalem accuses South Africa of boycotting Israel
08/13/2012 23:16
Ambassador to South Africa Dov Segev-Steinberg will ask
Pretoria for clarifications regarding what is viewed in Jerusalem as nothing
less than a South African call for a boycott of Israel, diplomatic sources said
on Monday.
The sources said a call by South Africa’s Deputy Foreign
Minister Ebrahim Ismael Ebrahim on Sunday to his countrymen to refrain from
visiting Israel “let the cat out of the bag,” and demonstrated the hollowness
of South African government protestations that it was against boycotts, and
that the recent move to label items from the settlements was just trying to
“promote transparency.”
“The truth is coming out,” Foreign Ministry spokesman
Jonathan Rosenzweig said.
“This is a public call for a boycott.”
Ebrahim told the City Press newspaper he was “discouraging”
South Africans from visiting Israel.
“Israel is an occupier country which is oppressing
Palestine, so it is not proper for South Africans to associate with Israel,” he
said. “We discourage people from going there except if it has to do with the
peace process.”
The weekly paper said a planned trip to Israel by
KwaZulu-Natal mayors and officials last week was called off because of pressure
from the country’s pro-Palestine lobby.
Ebrahim’s comments came three months after South Africa’s
Department of Trade and Industry issued a memorandum stating that products from
the settlements must not be labeled as Israeli products.
The South Africa Israel Public Affairs Committee issued a
statement following Ebrahim’s comments, saying he has increasingly “allowed his
personal agenda to drive South Africa’s policy towards Israel to the detriment
of South Africa and its economic well-being and international relations.”
“Of course it is perfectly acceptable for the South
African government to allow visits to all Arab/Muslim countries in spite of
their appalling human rights records and real application of Apartheid
policies,” the statement said. “South Africa’s ‘balanced’ approach to Libya and
Syria has been noted in their lack of statements on what has [been] and is
transpiring in these countries.”
The statement added that with corruption running rampant
in South Africa, the government’s “increasing actions against Israel are all
red herrings and classic attempts to sidetrack voters, fool the world” and
retain its aura of “moral authority” amid “rapidly declining momentum.”
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