Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-03-25

The Independent Communication Authority of South Africa (ICASA) hearing on the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) complaint against Radio 786 begins on the 31st of March in Cape Town.

The SAJBD accuses Radio 786 of broadcasting a programme on the 8 May 1998 entitled “Zionism and the State of Israel – an in-depth Analysis”.

This featured an interview with UK academic Dr. Yakub Zaki, who amongst other things alleged that Jews plotted to bring about such historical calamities as the two World Wars, the Russian Revolution and various periods of global economic turmoil.

Zaki also denied that the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people had taken place, saying that only about a million Jews died, and that, like others interned in the Nazi camps, succumbed to disease rather than being the victims of a deliberate policy of mass murder.

The case has been running for 14 years already and even went as far as the Constitutional Court, which decided on technical issues on the case.

“Well I think it times now for us as South Africans to revisit what the meaning of being Semitic and anti-Semitic is," Zahid Asmal, a media analyst told Radio Islam.

“This case has been running on now for a couple of years and you could see the intention from the Jewish Board of Deputies and the Zionist Federation to drag this thing on as long possible in order to silence a radio station that has a right to broadcast as it deemed fit.”

Asmal said he hopes a final conclusion to this hearing would be speedily reached.

“But like I said, most importantly we have to revisit what is Semitic and what is anti-Semitic…There is a line, what’s the line that is expected from us? (Sic) Calling Israel an Apartheid state, I don’t think is being anti-Semitic at all. So it’s going to be interesting,” said Asmal.

The hearing will be streamed live at: www.radio786.co.za

(Twitter: @Faizie143)