Cape Town - The ANC has come under fire from the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) after the party refused an invitation to participate in a televised debate at the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Gardens on Sunday.
It was hosted by eNCA, and the ANC’s leader in the provincial legislature, Cameron Dugmore, was to represent the party. According to the SAJBD, he had raised no objections to the debate venue.
Chairperson of the Cape-SAJBD, Adrienne Jacobson, said the ANC had been alerted to the venue last month, and Dugmore had confirmed his party’s participation.
“Their decision to not participate in a debate because it was held at a Jewish institution is both insulting and discriminatory and contradicts our constitutional value of ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it’.”
But ANC provincial spokesperson Khalid Sayed said the party had decided to ditch the elections debate at the “offices of the SAJBD” because it was “an organisation that supports the Israeli genocide”.
He said the statement from SAJBD sought to equate opposition to “Israeli genocide” to anti-Semitism. The ANC’s participation, Sayed said, would have been insensitive considering the party’s stance in support of Palestinians.
“The ANC took a decision not to participate in the debate because SAJBD was not willing to change the venue of the debate,” said Sayed.
Instead of the museum, the ANC had requested the debate to be moved to the eNCA studios in District Six, less than 2km away.
For Jacobson, the ANC’s refusal to participate in the debate was a missed opportunity to engage with voters “on issues that are critical to all South Africans”.
“Irrespective of who rules South Africa post May 29, the Jewish community will continue to be proud and vocal South Africans. We call on the ANC to accept that for our country to succeed, they will need the support of every South African, including the Jewish community, to build and grow a South Africa which is truly for everyone,” she said.
Sayed reiterated that the ANC had no problem with South Africa’s Jewish community.
“The fact that we would turn down an invitation to take part in an elections debate on national television, which gives us much scope to be heard by various potential voters, shows our commitment to human rights, justice and the Palestinian cause goes way beyond electioneering and electoral politics, but is one which is rooted in the essence of what the ANC stands for.
“The Jewish community fought in the struggle for democracy against apartheid, and have been in the forefront of the struggle against Israeli apartheid genocide and Palestinian liberation,” said Sayed.