Jews call on Zuma to curb hate speech

29 July 2014 - 02:07 By Katharine Child
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MISSING LIKE MESSI: President Jacob Zuma
MISSING LIKE MESSI: President Jacob Zuma
Image: Sunday Times

"Keep Calm and Kill Jews." This is one of the internet memes that have been posted on social media in the wake of the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza strip.

The tweet was posted by @ANC-Vote2014 on Sunday before that account was shut down.

An official ANC twitter account said that while it supported Palestine, the party did not support anti-Semitic sentiments.

ANC Youth League spokesman Bandile Masuku said: "It is not an official account. It could be anyone."

The SA Jewish Board of Deputies national director Wendy Kahn said the organisation had sent a letter of complaint about the tweet to President Jacob Zuma on Sunday.

She said the board had counted 40 cases of hate speech aimed at Jews in the past month.

"South Africa [generally] has low rates of anti-Semitism, so it is worrying." Yesterday morning, another account, @DA4Palestine, tweeted: "Jews must be gassed one more time. Killers of Christ."

The DA immediately distanced itself from the tweet.

The board hopes to meet ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe about a post by Rene Smit, who was involved in running the ANC's Western Cape social media campaign. Smit posted a picture of Hitler on Facebook with the message: "I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them."

The board also complained to the SA Human Rights Commission about the post.

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