Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 15-11-2018
South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJP) says the sentiment against two pupils for kneeling in protest during the playing of the Israeli National Anthem is due to the Jewish community’s retreat into a super nationalist ghetto.
The pupils from Herzlia Middle School in Cape Town are facing a disciplinary process for their actions during the playing of Hatikvah at a graduation ceremony for Grade 9 pupils last Thursday.
According to Ground Up, It is quite common for Herzlia events to include the singing of both the South African and Israeli national anthems.
Following the event, the school’s Director of Education, Geoff Cohen, sent an email to all parents indicating that kneeling during the schools’ “formal and prestigious event” was “inappropriate” and “demonstrated deliberate and flagrant disregard for the ethos of the school”.
Cohen described the students’ actions as “blatant flouting of the School Rules, Herzlia’s Zionist values and the values of Herzlia’s Menschlichkeit [humanity] pillar”.
Sajp’s Allan Horwitz says there is no room for tolerance in the Jewish community.
“There’s no tolerance for dissent or protests or any type of critical thinking about Israel’s action.”
Horwitz says while there has been a shift of Jewish culture from orthodox to liberal and back to the right because of the human rights abuses by Israel, young Jewish people want to make their voice heard.
“These young people they are saying ‘no, we will use essentially a black American gesture of protest to show that we are part of the global movement to challenge Israeli violation.’”
Horwitz says the actionS of the students is very surprising considering that at Herzlia and King David, another Jewish school, there is no culture of intolerance.
Listen to the interview with Alan Horwitz
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