By Iqbal Jassat
Rabbi Goldstein’s recent visit to Israel and his praise for Trump’s executive order on South Africa highlight his controversial alignment with Afrikaner grievances amid ongoing land reform debates.
From the number of banners held up by a small group of Afrikaners gathered outside the US embassy in Pretoria, the one that struck me was a plea to Donald Trump to “recognize the white nation like Israel was recognized”.
Instinctively I searched through pictures of the crowd to see if Warren Goldstein, who describes himself as the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, was present to support and endorse their plea.
Having failed to locate him at the gathering, I subsequently learned that Goldstein was on one of his Zionist missions to the settler colonial regime.
A report in IOL revealed that in an X post on Sunday, Goldstein said that he had just returned from Israel, where he met “senior government officials”.
Since Israel is in the dog box at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges of perpetrating genocide and its senior leaders have arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, it is perhaps not surprising that Goldstein has withheld naming the “senior government officials”, he claims to have met.
The ICC statement explaining its decision to issue arrest warrants, is crucial to understand the gravity of Israel’s crimes, the context of Goldstein’s visit to Israel and his praise for Trump’s executive order against South Africa:
“With regard to the crimes, the Chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu, born on 21 October 1949, Prime Minister of Israel at the time of the relevant conduct, and Mr Gallant, born on 8 November 1958, Minister of Defence of Israel at the time of the alleged conduct, each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
“The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”
In addition, the Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, medicine, and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024.
The Chamber also found that their conduct led to the disruption of the ability of humanitarian organizations to provide food and other essential goods to the population in need in Gaza.
Against this background of serious war crimes, it is perplexing but not surprising to note that Goldstein presented a “strategic” outline for Israel to engage with South Africa, adding that the “balance of forces” was in Israel’s favor.
Though there is no mention in the report about whether his “strategic outline” included AfriForum’s grievances, the coincidence of Goldstein’s visit with the controversy sparked by them, may require further details.
After all, Goldstein hailed Trump’s actions against South Africa and is reported to have said that South Africans should welcome the Trump administration’s interventions in the country’s affairs.
If AfriForum has been the spark that led to Trump signing an executive order placing a hold on financial aid to South Africa and offering Afrikaners asylum due to the Expropriation Act, surely for Goldstein to praise Trump’s order implies support?
Nevertheless, Trump’s decision to isolate South Africa has not gone unchallenged. The premise that white farmers were forcibly being removed from their lands has been refuted by the South African government as well as analysts and a range of organizations.
IOL reports that International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronaldo Lamola has reaffirmed that the government’s land reform policy – aimed at redressing the land dispossession of the Black majority before 1994 under white minority rule – and its genocide case at the ICJ are “non-negotiable”.
Being at odds with SA government policies is a choice freely available to all South Africans, unlike the harsh punishment faced by Palestinians opposed to Israeli apartheid.
South African supporters of Trump’s idiocy, as reflected in his erratic behavior, should draw lessons from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy who, in turn, would by now have learned from Henry Kissinger that “it may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal”.
– Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit: www.mediareviewnet.com
