(June 22, 2018 / JNS) South African Jewish leaders condemned "alarming" amount of anti-Semitic attacks this week.According to the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, there has been a flurry of anti-Semitic and threatening attacks made against South African Jews both on social media and in face-to-face encounters in recent days.
On Thursday, a video showed passengers awaiting their luggage from an El Al flight into South Africa being verbally abused, and called "wicked Jews."
A mural with a Germany flag, with a swastika inserted in it, also appeared in Johannesburg.
There have also been increasing anti-Semitic rhetoric online as well in recent days, the South African Jewish group said.
"While it was unfortunately common to find anti-Semitic content online, it was rare for it to take so virulent and inflammatory a form as the latest reported comments," SAJBD Chairman Shaun Zagnoev said in a statement.
"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."
The Jewish group said that it is "no coincidence" that these anti-Semitic incidents are coming out after South African supermodel Shashi Naidoo sparked controversy after calling the Gaza Strip a "shithole" on social media. The supermodel received several death threats from the remarks and later apologized. Naidoo had been defending popular South African DJ Black Coffee who had been attack by pro-BDS group for performing in Israel earlier this year.
South Africa has become a hotbed of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel policy and behavior in recent years.