The president of the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) in South Africa’s Western Cape, Sheikh Riad Fataar, chanted, “I am Hamas! Cape Town is Hamas! Viva Hamas, viva!” at a gathering in Cape Town last week.
The comments, made on Sept. 1, were met with cheers and applause from the crowd. Earlier that morning the Israel Defense Forces had announced that the bodies of six Israeli hostages had been recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza. All six had been executed by Hamas.
Fataar went on to cheer, “Viva, Hamas, Viva!” a chant repeated by the audience, some of whom were laughing.
“It’s deeply disappointing and disturbing to hear the president of the representative body of the Muslim community in South Africa, the MJC, side so unashamedly with Hamas, an internationally-recognized terrorist organization which just this week murdered six hostages in cold blood,” said Daniel Bloch, the executive director of the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies (Cape SAJBD). “Hamas has clearly signaled its intention to kill all Jewish people, and these ill-timed words from the MJC leader incite violence and hatred towards the local Jewish community,” he added.
The Western Cape Branch of the ANC released a statement through its provincial secretary, Neville Delport, expressing their solidarity with Fataar.
“The ANC expresses its solidarity with Sheikh Riad Fataar amidst an unwarranted attack by the SA Jewish Board of Deputies,” the statement read. This attack, the statement continued, was the latest in “a litany of targeted smear campaigns and attacks on anyone who dares to speak out against Israeli genocide and Israeli Apartheid and to wrongfully accuse and smear anyone who dares to exercise their right to support Hamas.”
It goes on to state that, “Hamas is recognized by the government of South Africa as a legitimate political formation in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination. We believe that those who call for the end to the genocide must not be labeled as extremists or terrorist sympathizers. This runs against our democratic ideals.”
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies noted with dismay the failure of the South African government to condemn the hostages’ murders.
“Governments across the globe have uniformly condemned this heinous act and we call on our government to do the same,” it said. “Once again, the hypocrisy of our government is evident. This is a government that claims to uphold the principles of human rights, yet is silent while innocent civilians being held in captivity for nearly a year are executed in such a brutal manner. We are deeply scarred by the loss of all innocent lives in this war and call for the release of the remaining hostages,” it continued.
