Good Jew, Bad Jew & The Return of the Ottoman Empire

THE dejudaisation of the South African struggle proceeds apace. In order to accommodate the solidarity campaign around the return of Greater Palestine to the Ottomans, the freedom struggle is being revised. No Jews participated in the struggle. We do not exist and our views do not count. Unless we support Palestinians right to return to “their country” via an armed struggle which refuses to draw up the meagerest of documents guaranteeing fundamental human rights for all, to date no Palestinian Freedom Charter, we are subjected to accusations of being “Zionists” or worse, being simply “Jews”.

Such is the manner in which international opinion has determined that what is happening in Israel is not only Apartheid, but the South African problem “pales in comparison”, that it is now considered politically incorrect to complain about the actual effects of apartheid itself, even though  in some quarters the maintainance of apartheid privileges in South Africa has become a sine quo non for the country’s right-wing.  The word is being cleaned of all meaning. There is no longer a specific history attached to the term, as left-wing scholars rush to churn out monographs seemingly demonstrating that every bush and tree planted in the Middle East must have been put there by Jews for ulterior motives.

The ideological cleansing of the anti-apartheid struggle means that its nuanced tropes and symbolic valleys may not be invoked in support of the truth. One is not allowed to live in the 21st Century for example, and complain about D F Malan and his support of Hitler. We are not allowed to draw comparisons between the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd and the Fuehrer’s own Albert Speer. There are no lessons from PW Botha’s experiments with the bomb and Israel’s own bomb. If one happens to get into a racially-charged incident in my country and a person calls you a “Jew” this is not Anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism in South Africa does not officially exist. The Hezbollah party line has put paid to any notion of Jews having equal rights on the sub-Continent. We are now considered objects not subjects of history, to be used as cannon fodder in a grand political scheme which sees the ultimate goal of a Palestinian controlled Jerusalem, the jewel of Dar el Islam.

Our only worth, is if we happen to side with the Palestinians. Not that my support for the Palestinian cause over the years means anything. I no longer have the luxury of supporting such a struggle against myself. There was a time when freedom of religion was considered important enough to put it in the constitution. Since the right to acccess such a right, was abolished, in the name of Palestine, the authorities have taken another view. If you happen to be an employer, you may, according to the Labour Court of South Africa, interrogate employees, on matters of religious doctrine. Furthermore, managers are allowed to decide what religion is or is not. The corrupt judgement handed down by a labour broker moonlighting as a judge, while his business partner was orchestrating a financial services merger with the holding company of the company being sued, is the stuff of Goebbels’ own propaganda machine.

Good Jews are those who simply acquiesce. If we keep quiet and allow corruption to continue, we are good. If we complain about the failure of a corporation with an apartheid past, to come clean at the Truth Commission, we are bad. Bad Jews, according to the court, are those which lie. A lie in terms of South African law, would normally be considered the truth, but since the truth has been reduced to lies, there are now good lies, and bad lies. Good lies are lies which serve a political purpose, bad lies are those uncomfortable truths about human nature, for instance, an editor of a community newspaper accuses a journalist of plagiarism. There is no proof and the facts dispute her version of events. Nevertheless, because she is an editor of a title owned by a corporation with ties to the Broederbond, an Afrikaner secret society, her views must prevail.

The South African system is banking on keeping all Jews quiet. If you happen to be Ronnie Kasrils, who isn’t Jewish in any sense of the word, except for the fact that he eats gefilte fish, you are allowed to declaim on “Israel Apartheid”. One of the many “experts on apartheid” alongside Zackie Achmat who believes there were no Jews in the Struggle, aside from Kasrils. So Jewish deviants like Albie Sachs, Denis Goldberg and Nadine Gordimer are not considered relevent enough to warrant any attention. My own direct experience of the struggle is rendered meaningless. If I happen to express a particular environmental view that results in sustainable development in Africa, this is too dangerous to imagine. If I utter words to the effect that I think all people need to be accommodated, including Palestinians, these words are not important.

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