Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has come under fire from the ANC and anti-Israel activists for remarks he made in a webinar on Tuesday in which he lamented the South African government’s adoption of a lopsided attitude toward the Israel-Palestinian conflict and said that it would have greater influence if it displayed a more balanced approach
Speaking during a special webinar for The Jerusalem Post on global racial tensions with South Africa Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, Mogoeng said that his nation’s history of forgiveness and understanding should have informed its approach to peacemaking, adding that as a Bible-believing Christian he believed that those who curse Israel will themselves be cursed.
In a report on the webinar The Jerusalem Post writes: “The chief justice also spoke about the toxicity of hatred, and the importance of overcoming it to make progress.
“In recent years, the South African government has become increasingly hostile to Israel, and in particular through the security measures it has undertaken.
“In 2018, South Africa withdrew its ambassador from Israel and formally downgraded its ties following clashes on the Gaza border.
Speaking in the Post’s webinar, Mogoeng took pains to emphasise that the policy of the South African government was binding upon himself and that he was not seeking to reject it.
“But, he said, as a citizen he was entitled to criticise laws and policies and suggest changes.
“ ‘As a citizen of our great country, we are denying ourselves a wonderful opportunity of being a game-changer in the Israeli-Palestinian situation,’ said Mogoeng.
“ ‘We know what it means to be at loggerheads, a nation at war with itself,” he continued. “The forgiveness that was demonstrated, the understanding and big heart displayed by President Nelson Mandela and we, the people of South Africa, is an asset we must use around the world to bring peace when there is no peace and to mediate effectively based on rich experience.’
“The chief justice was also implicitly critical of those in his country and in Africa at large who condemn Israel over its policies toward the Palestinians, but embrace South Africa and Africa’s former colonisers.
” ‘Have we cut diplomatic ties with our colonisers?” he said. “Have we disinvested from our former colonisers and those responsible for untold suffering in South Africa and Africa? Did Israel take away our land or the land of Africa, did Israel take our mineral wealth?
“ ‘We would do well to reflect on the objectivity involved in adopting a particular attitude towards a particular country that has not taken as much and unjustly from South Africa and Africa as other nations that we consider it to be an honour to have diplomatic relations with us,’ Mogoeng said.”
ANC unhappy with “political utterances”
Unhappy with Mogoeng’s webinar remarks about Israel, the ANC has called on National Assembly speaker Thandi Modise to talk to the chief justice about “political utterances” he made during the online event hosted by The Jerusalem Post, reports Business Day Live.
In the extraordinary statement released by the ANC on Thursday evening, the party said Mogoeng had shown his apparent support for Israel in the interview.
The government and the ANC officially view Israel as an apartheid state and support the Palestinians who they say are oppressed by the Jewish state.
The ruling party said it was “deeply concerned” by Mogoeng’s remarks. It respected the office of the chief justice, but urged the speaker of parliament to have “high-level talks with the chief justice regarding his political commentary”.
“The ANC is portrayed as a broad church of differing views. Yet, following its personal attack on the Chief Justice it would seem that it is being hijacked by those with their own foreign policy agenda, such as the BDS movement, who deny Jews and Christians their Biblical connections to Israel. We furthermore see this as an attempt to undermine the independence of the Judiciary according to the South African Constitution.
“As Christian South Africans we will not be silenced. We will not tolerate the undermining of our democracy by those with a narrow agenda. We will not have our connection to Israel undermined. We are united in our support of Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and applaud his convictions to speak out as a Christian believer.
“Hands off the Chief Justice. Hands off the Constitution. The ANC must leave Christian believers alone.”