IT was Sartre who remarked: “If the Jew did not exist, the anti-Semite would invent him.” The French philosopher’s seminal work Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the Etiology of Hate details the manner in which Anti-Semites objectify and deprive Jews of rights ordinarily enjoyed by others.

Our reduction to mere objects like a table or chair, instead of the subject of rights is amply illustrated in the manner in which this writer has been deprived of his byline and ‘intellectual property’ by the machinations of a corrupt South African court of law.

However dishing up yet another piece of writing that informs a growing collection: Life in a Time of Heretics (reflections on being Jewish in an Anti-Secular world), is not the sole purpose here.

What I wish to respond to are a series of religious edicts issued by well-known South African politicians supposedly acting on behalf of two departed luminaries, inter alia Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The first, a literal fatwa handed down by Naledi Pandor, on behalf of the Nelson Mandela Foundation seeks to impose a restriction on Christian Zionists, promising funds to eliminate their doctrine, even though Mandela himself was a bipartisan and Zionist, supporting the right of Jews to exist in their historical homeland.

The second a sanctimonious, self-serving bull delivered by a failed politician and academic, Mamphela Ramphele likens the current war in Gaza to the Holocaust. She is entitled to her opinion and I reserve my right to respond to this central allegation at a later stage.

As chair of an “Intellectual Property” trust set up by the late Desmond Tutu, (IP is for clerics not lowly Jazz writers) one would think Ramphele would at very least take the time and trouble to acquaint herself with working definitions of Anti-Semitism under the IHRA, definitions recognised by the UK, European Union, and most of the USA.

The resulting catch-all use of the term “Holocaust” is certainly an irregular and extraordinary over-reach of a fiduciary position.

Holding Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel, most certainly meets the working definitions of Anti-Semitism, adopted on 26 May 2016 in Bucharest but rejected by groups such as Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and others

In launching into a political challenge to ALL Jews, by seeking to call us to account for the actions of the State of Israel, urging us to remove Benjamin Netanyahu, as if South African Jews remotely vote in Israeli elections — treating Jews like errant children, in need of spiritual guidance and labeling the result “Jewish humanity buried in the rubble” equivalent to the Holocaust, Ramphele, rejects and discounts the IHRA — as do so many zealous supporters of the Palestinian cause, who wish nothing more than to replace the Jewish State with an Arab State under Sharia Law.

Bear in mind this is a vesting trust that most likely feeds other entities such as the Desmond Tutu Foundation, and for all intents and purposes lacks a mandate upon which to act in the stead of the Foundation. For now let us assume the mandate extends solely towards promoting Tutu as the chief spokesperson for the Anglican Covenant and modern variations for example the strange idea that ‘Jesus was a Muslim’, ‘Joseph and Mary were Palestinians’, and the ‘Jews stole the Promised Land’.

In this inverted reality created by Jihad-denial, in which neither Judea nor Jerusalem existed, in which Mizrahi Jews from the MENA region similarly do not exist, in which the only Jews are European Ashkenazi (all Jews are from Poland, must be converts) there is no working definition of Anti-Semitism (the oldest hatred), in fact, there are no Jews as such.

News presenters who question this received wisdom as Juliet Newall did, are to be treated as apostates, cast out of the fold as it were. Newall was immediately relieved of her post for having the temerity to question Ramphele. The SABC it seems, is literally overrun with Mullahs from Tehran.

The only ‘Jew’ given an opportunity to hold an opinion here, (nothing about us without us) is that honorary white individual, that subservient human being willing to swallow facile political rhetoric of the kind which infamously delivered the entire membership of Agang to Blue-Sky Digital and the Democratic Alliance sans our consent during a failed ploy by Mamphela to become the first female President of South Africa.

Such blatant intolerance for disagreements over faith and doctrine in the public sphere deserves to be condemned.

You can read my piece on the debacle here.

SEE: Anglican Church’s dishonest prognostications on Israel-Apartheid