Al-Qalam 
By Nabeelah Shaikh
A prominent South African Muslim chef and influencer is being dragged to the Equality Court by the Cape SA Jewish Board of Deputies, who have accused her of making anti-Semitic comments on her Instagram page.
But the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) says it will do all it can to support Jakoet-Harris, adding that anti-Semitism was being ‘weaponised’ in South Africa.
The Cape SAJBD claimed that Jakoet-Harris posted a series of Instagram posts where she allegedly criticised Jewish people for the ongoing war on Gaza. They have also made references to her social media posts, including one where she allegedly calls for a boycott of Jewish businesses.
The Cape SAJBD says her posts frame Jewish people as “evil, morally corrupt, and wicked”, and they’ve approached the Equality Court to take action against her. Jakoet-Harris is one of four people that the Cape SAJBD is taking legal action against through the Equality Court.
Daniel Bloch, Executive Director of the Cape SAJBD, says they’re seeing an unprecedented rise in antisemitism in South Africa.
“We must uphold and respect the anti-discrimination law that prohibits unfair discrimination by government, private organisations or individuals in SA. Certain individuals have made vicious attacks on the Jewish community. Jews have become the victims of intimidation, bullying, doxing and incitement to violence,” said Bloch.
He claims several individuals have launched a tirade of vicious hate speech both online, during protests and in person.
“Comments include support and adoration for Hitler and Nazis, attacks on the validity of the Holocaust and Jewish conspiracy theories. Threats of violence have been made against Jewish people and institutions, including places of worship and schools,” said Bloch, who added that the Jewish community has played a significant role in the growth of South Africa and that the community remains both vested and invested in South Africa.
“Whilst we may be a minority group, like all South Africans, we should not be subjected to unfair discrimination, intimidation, hate speech, harassment, and threats of violence. This is a universal issue, which, if left unchallenged, is a threat to the constitutional and democratic rights and freedoms of all South Africans. We, therefore, call on all law-abiding, moral human beings to condemn these degrading and dehumanising attacks on our community. We ask our government to protect all its citizens from this hurtful and harmful hate speech, which has no place in our democracy,” said Bloch.
In Jakoet-Harris’s case before the Equality Court, the Cape SAJBD has asked the court that her statements be declared harmful, inciting harm and propagating hate, amounting to hate speech. They want the court to ask her to apologise to the South African Jewish Community; and that she be ordered to donate R25 000 to the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre as well as that she must pay the costs of their application. Jakoet-Harris intends to oppose the application.
Her attorney, Ashraf Mahomed, has said that the posts had been taken out of context. He said they did not believe that her comments constituted hate speech or were anti-Semitic, but rather she used them as “a legitimate form of criticism and/or expression, which is protected by the right to freedom of expression in our constitution”.
He said they did not wish to comment on the merits since the matter is sub judice but that Jakoet-Harris denies that she holds any hatred towards Jews and rejects those who engage in antisemitism or any form of Jew-hatred.
SAMNET says it will be supporting Jakoet-Harris because anti-Semitism was being ‘weaponised’.
“The weaponisation of the concept and the term anti-Semitism by the Zionist movement to suppress any criticism of Jews, of Zionists and now of Israel, is a well-used weapon combined with lawfare by Zionists all over the world. It needs to be dismissed with the contempt it deserves,” said SAMNET chairperson Faisal Suliman.
Suliman said Jakoet-Harris’s case needs to be defended vigorously by the pro-Palestinian movement and that SAMNET was working on getting a legal team together to deal with similar cases when required. “Attorneys need to rally together and assist in this case, and other cases like the attacks on Dr Imtiaz Suliman and professor Shabir Madhi and the use of the courts as lawfare is part and parcel of the SA Zionist Movement’s attempt to stifle criticism and suppress opposition,” said Suliman.
