The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has expressed its concern after a “flurry” of antisemitic incidents in the past days.
In one incident, a group of passengers waiting for their luggage from an El Al flight were called “wicked Jews” by a passer by who said “You people are wicked. Jews are wicked people, very wicked people”.
A mural with the German flag centred around a Swastika also appeared in Johannesburg.
SAJBD Chairman Shaun Zagnoev has also commented on a series of particularly virulent instances of online antisemitic abuse, saying: “The posts show how easily radical anti-Israel sentiment can spill over into hateful slurs and threats against Jewish people in general. We are being told that we are ‘scum’, ‘rats’, ‘bastards’, ‘pigs’, ‘swine’ and ‘fat-nosed f***ks. We are further being warned that “our time is coming” and that “the Holocaust will be a picnic after we are done with you””.
Zagnoev believes that the incidents are linked to a flare-up of tensions in South Africa surrounding Israel, after popular DJ Black Coffee was attacked by BDS for performing in Israel, leading supermodel Shashi Naidoo to retaliate against BDS by branding Gaza a “sh*thole”, for which she received death threats before apologising.