The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has cautioned that a Jerusalem Post article, under the headline “Terror warning for Israelis in South Africa”, may be “misleading”. The article reported a senior Israeli minister saying that terrorists intended to carry out attacks against Israeli and Western targets in South Africa.
The report, published on the Jerusalem Post website, stated that the minister, Gideon Ezra, warned in the Knesset — the Jewish Parliament — on Wednesday that terrorist groups are also working to organise attacks against Israelis in southeast Asia, North Africa, western Europe and Turkey.
According to the Jerusalem Post article, Ezra emphasised that his government did not have any “immediate concrete warnings” about plans for attacks on Jewish communities.
David Saks, a senior researcher at the Jewish Board of Deputies, told the Mail & Gardian Online on Wednesday that the board had spoken to Ezra in person and had it “from the horse’s mouth” that Israelis living in South Africa and the Jewish community are not facing any special threat.
The Jewish Board of Deputies is an umbrella communal organisation representing about 75Â 000 Jewish South Africans. It is the community’s main political and civil rights lobby in the country. According to the Israeli Absorption Ministry, there are also about 15Â 000 Israelis living in South Africa.
“Our national director, Yehuda Kay, is in Israel on a conference and met with the minister to seek clarification on the statement because we hadn’t heard of any specific threat to South Africa.
“He [Ezra] didn’t mean specifically South Africa, but meant that all Jewish communities around the world are being targeted. He had no specific information that South Africa is next, just that South Africa and any other country could be a target. He pulled South Africa from a hat,” said Saks.
Added Saks: “There is a crucial difference. I think the article is misleading, because of the words that the minister used. He is not saying that SA is being singled out necessarily… which weakens the impact of the story.”
Saks said that the board has had quite a few concerned calls from the Jewish community over the statement. He said the board will be issuing a brief to the community to clarify the statement.
Saks noted, however, that there were concerns over the high proportion of attacks on Jewish institutions in Africa since the September 11 attacks in the US. He said the Jewish community should be “on the alert”.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Labour MK Ophir Pines-Paz said the Israeli government should take responsibility for protecting Jews abroad. He said Israel has the expertise and capability to provide security in places where local governments neglect the Jewish community.
“The Jewish people are paying a high price today for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Pines-Paz quoted the article.
However, Ezra disputed Pines-Paz’s theory, saying that “it has no basis in reality”.
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