Struggle stalwart and social rights activist Ronnie Kasrils says the Herzlia Middle School in Cape Town is wrong for taking issue with two grade nine learners for kneeling during the singing of the Israeli anthem. The incident happened during a school ceremony recently.
The pupils knelt in solidarity with the Free Palestine movement.
Kasrils was speaking at the Claremont Main Road Mosque. He’s also called on government to cut all economic and diplomatic ties with Israel.
“Students there cannot ignore what Israel is doing. The extreme brutality that we know of which is so utterly shameful and if you are a thinking young Jew you are not going to be immune from what we see on our TV screens. And as much as you might be brainwashed thinking about your own tribe and its survival against terrorism if you have got any empathy in you, you are not going to start singing, believing the lies that are told the way the Palestinians are misrepresented.
Imam Rashied Omar of the Claremont Main Road Mosque, where Kasrils spoke, has welcomed his strong criticism of Israel and support for the learners. #sabcnews
— KiratLalla (@KiratLalla) November 24, 2018
The school also drew criticism from various quarters, with some describing the fallout as a threat to democracy.
‘It’s the best healing for anti-semitism that you have a Jew who is standing up and speaking for justice against the Zionist state of Israel,” says Imam Rashied Omar of Claremont Main Road Mosque
The Jewish Board of Deputies has also weighed in on the matter: “The knee incident goes far beyond creating heroes on the one side and villains. We are very concerned that the comments around the topics have turned into a hate fest not really akin. We are very confident that they will constructively work though this topic,” says Rael Kaimowitz of Jewish Board of Deputies.
Attempts to get comment from the school were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, Kasrils says there’s a growing number of Jews in South Africa and abroad who are condemning human rights abuses against Paletinians.
International Day of Solidarity with Palestine is due to be commemorated at the end of the month.
