We must show our appreciation to South Africa’s Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for refusing to back down from his support for the Jewish state and his courage blasting his government’s anti-Israel policies.
This week, South Africa’s Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng refused to apologize for criticizing his country’s antagonism for the State of Israel.
Mogoeng faced public censure, and the judiciary claimed a constitutional provision requires him to apologize for his remarks.
South Africa’s Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) targeted Mogoeng after he appeared with South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein during an online seminar in June 2020 during which the chief justice cited his Christian faith as the reason he “love[s]” Israel.
“[Mogoeng] criticiz[ed] the South African government for maintaining close diplomatic ties with the country’s former colonizers while frequently attacking the Jewish state as a reincarnation of its former apartheid regime,” The Algemeiner reported.
Commenting on demands for him to apologize for his pro-Israel comments, Mogoeng said, “If I get to the point where there is a judgment that says, ‘You must say you hate Israel and the Jews,’ I would rather cease to be Chief Justice.”
Mogoeng’s stand against Israel-haters is especially commendable in light of the power that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement wields in South Africa. The BDS movement in South Africa promotes anti-Semitic propaganda, such as depictions of Israelis and Jews “wearing kippot” with “rat-like facial features” and grotesque noses, The Algemeiner reported.
“They bring to mind stereotypical features and anti-Semitic tropes of how Jews were depicted as vermin by the Nazis prior to and during the Holocaust,” added The Algemeiner.
In a world in which BDS and other Israel-haters frequently bully and threaten those who defend the Jewish People’s right to sovereignty in their ancestral homeland, we must express gratitude to brave voices who stand up to the hate, lies, and discrimination!
Let’s thank Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng for his courageous show of support for Israel!
Compose your own message of gratitude or use the following template: Dear Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, Thank you for expressing your love for Israel and for standing with the Jewish state. We are grateful that you refuse to back down from your support for the Jewish People’s right to sovereignty in their ancestral homeland. Thank you for your strength in the face of hate, lies, and discrimination!
1. Send an email of gratitude to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng at: info@concourt.org.za.
2. Click here to send a message to the South African Judiciary on Facebook.
3. Click here to send a message to the South African Judiciary on Twitter.