# data[].attributes.body
"South Africa becomes the first African country to officially stand against Israel, calling on the international court to investigate war crimes. " Ramaphosa should first investigate his own country and its own crimes that are being committed on a daily basis. Let alone the lack of electricity that is raging in our own country.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
matt bernstein on Instagram: "took a week to write with a clear head, but i tried. 🇵🇸"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
843K likes, 22K comments - mattxiv on October 16, 2023: "took a week to write with a clear head, but i tried. 🇵🇸" 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by matt bernstein (@mattxiv)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gift of the Givers call for closure of the Israeli Embassy (DM)

# data[].attributes.body
This is a long video of course which we have no time to listen to. But this brave man who is a son of a Hamas leader tells his story.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Personal testimony from "The Son of Hamas"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eve Barlow on Instagram: "Re Al-Shifa hospital and the world’s continued “humanitarian” posturing aka justifying Jewish genocide. Fuck you all. Fuck you all forever. I am fucking furious. I’m trying to help you. Some of you are beyond help. Go hug a terrorist. See how long you last."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
15K likes, 10 comments - evebarlow on November 19, 2023: "Re Al-Shifa hospital and the world’s continued “humanitarian” posturing aka justifying Jewi..." 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eve Barlow (@evebarlow)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
More than 10 000 people filled the streets of Cape Town on Saturday, 11 November, seething with animosity towards Israel, the local Jewish community, and the Democratic Alliance Western Cape government.

A sea of people chanted cries calling for the end of the Jewish state, which was echoed by the event's speakers. Some of the crowd and speakers also expressed support for Hamas. The march, organised by the Al Quds Foundation and the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), began at a mosque in District Six and ended at the Western Cape Legislature.

It was to these 10 000 people that one PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) speaker yelled, "We know where the murderers come from, they come from Herzlia, here in Cape Town." This was echoed to millions of viewers watching on SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) News.

"The Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies [Cape SAJBD] is outraged by the recent antisemitic attack on our children," says Cape SAJBD Executive Director Daniel Bloch. "During the pro-Hamas rally, one of the speakers openly attacked our Jewish school.

"We deplore this baseless, malicious and inflammatory assault on a proud and highly respected local school," he says. "These mischievous and bizarre allegations and threats, concocted by the anti-Israel movement, constitute incitement against a South African school that has taught Jewish children about their religion for more than 80 years. This harassment has no place in a constitutional democracy that prides itself on upholding diversity.

"Chapter two of our Constitution contains the Bill of Rights, which is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa," Bloch says. "It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality, and freedom. The state must respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights along with the right to religious freedom. Our schools and our children should be protected, just as we are.

"We already have assurances from both the premier's office as well as the Western Cape department of education that Herzlia is in no way under threat from being de-registered or closed," he says. "We further call on the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape provincial government, the national department of education, and the office of the president, to protect our children and condemn these pure acts of antisemitism, incitement, hatred, and aggression against South African children. The right to a decent education in a safe environment is a solemn one, vouchsafed by our Constitution to every child in our country."

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis also condemned the statement against Herzlia, saying, "We condemn any hate speech uttered by radical minorities at protests, especially when that hate speech is directed towards little children. We've received video footage of a representative purportedly of the PAC speaking at yesterday's protest and calling young Jewish children in Cape Town 'murderers'. Such hateful language should be condemned by all. Radical elements don't speak for Capetonians, and don't even speak for the protesters they claim to represent."

The MJC said ahead of the event that, "We believe that the dispossessed land of the Palestinian people should be returned to its people. We call for the right to self-determination of Palestinians on their native land from the river to the sea. The Palestinians have an inalienable right to resist settler colonialism and apartheid by all means necessary within international law. We demand the right of return of all Palestinian refugees with full reparation."

At the march, protesters made a number of demands, including that, "The Western Cape government pledges unequivocal support and solidarity with the people of Palestine, just as it stood by the people of Ukraine; that the premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, condemns the war crimes of Benjamin Netanyahu and promises to arrest him, just as he promised to arrest Vladimir Putin; that the Western Cape government condemns the apartheid state of Israel just as it condemned the Russian Federation; and that the premier condemns the United States for its hand in the mass killing of innocent people."

Also at the march, African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula said South Africa was on the side of the oppressed Palestinians and supported the demarche of Israel's ambassador to South Africa.

"We're sick and tired of the apartheid state of Israel, and we must demonstrate it with our actions. As the ANC, I say here today, from Nelson Mandela to [Cyril] Ramaphosa, we stand with the people of Palestine," Mbalula said. He said the ANC wouldn't rest until the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrested.

"We want them to even add more pressure by closing down the embassy, that's what we want, because the events on the ground don't call for the recognition of the Zionist state of Israel - killing and bombing innocent children and people of Palestine," Mbalula said.

March convener Yunus Allie said South Africa must cut ties with Israel permanently. "If you see what they are doing to our brothers and sisters, they are desecrating churches, mosques, children, and the elders. So, we need to come out to show that against this atrocity, this genocide, we can't allow this to carry on."

Adding to the call was Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, who said, "We didn't ask for a consultation process, we asked for the embassy of Israel to be shut down now!" Only people supporting Palestine were the "true sons and daughters of our liberator [his grandfather Nelson Mandela]", he said. It wasn't enough for the department of international relations and cooperation to demarche the ambassador. "We want you to give true meaning to what Nelson Mandela expects us to do. Expel the Israeli ambassador immediately!"

Mandela also called on protesters to disrupt a Christian prayer gathering to be held in Sea Point the following day, resulting in a violent confrontation. (See page 1.) "We won't tolerate the apartheid state of Israel's flag being flown," he shouted to cheers.

Anti-apartheid cleric Dr Allan Boesak said, "That apartheid state that has been waging a war of extermination for the past 75 years against our people, shut it [the Israeli embassy] down! For every Palestinian child in a coffin, we say shut it down! Every piece of land stolen from our people in Palestine, we say shut it down! We cannot wait any longer."

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Nazier Paulsen said, "This is a fight against oppression. We must continue that fight, and we mustn't only march for Gaza when the bombs are dropping. Palestine has been occupied for 75 years and for the past couple of years, we have been voting for a Zionist political party here in the Western Cape."

National Freedom Party MP Shaik Emam said, "This isn't about Muslims, Christians, and Jews. We have our Christian brothers, our Jewish brothers, and our Muslim brothers and sisters here. What's happening in Palestine is a Holocaust; what's happening in Palestine is genocide."

The Dean of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, Michael Weeder, delivered a message on behalf of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba. "We need to call out the shameful partisanship of Western powers in this conflict, and to commend countries which have suspended their diplomatic ties with Israel, and call on those countries to review diplomatic ties with countries which are supplying arms," he said. "If only the world leaders would invest half as much money and energy into peace making as they invest in war, we would have peace."

Jewish community member Mervyn Bennun also addressed the crowd, calling for "Palestine to be free, from the river to the sea."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Board condemns antisemitic threats at anti-Israel rally - Jewish Report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
More than 10 000 people filled the streets of Cape Town on Saturday, 11 November, seething with animosity towards Israel, the local Jewish community, and the Democratic Alliance Western Cape government. A sea of people chanted cries calling for the end of the Jewish state, which was echoed by the event's speakers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is rarely the case that all of the blame for a conflict belongs on one side. But that does not mean blame should be equally divided.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oded Rahav Video talking about Shoshan HAran Fair Planet 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Ezra Klein Show -The Sermons I Needed to Hear Right Now 17 Nov 2023

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SA Jews agreeing with UN and Palestinians calling for cease fire

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is rarely the case that all of the blame for a conflict belongs on one side. But that does not mean blame should be equally divided.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
matt bernstein on Instagram: "took a week to write with a clear head, but i tried. 🇵🇸"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
843K likes, 22K comments - mattxiv on October 16, 2023: "took a week to write with a clear head, but i tried. 🇵🇸" 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by matt bernstein (@mattxiv)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A pro-Israel demonstration that was set to take place on the Sea Point Promenade on Sunday afternoon was halted shortly before it could begin.

According to reports, approximately 1 000 pro-Palestinian supporters gathered on the promenade at around noon in anticipation of the demonstration scheduled for 2:30pm.

Approximately 2 500 pro-Israel supporters were expected to participate in the demonstration, but buses carrying the supporters were turned away by the police and the event was cancelled, reported

What began as a peaceful counter-demonstration turned chaotic as a heavy presence of police and provincial law enforcement officers resulted in the firing of stun grenades and water canons and subsequent clashes between police and protesters.

Police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk confirmed that four people have been arrested on charges of public violence and will appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court.

The entrance to the Sea Point police station is currently closed, according to The Atlantic Seaboard Community Forum Facebook group admin Peter Flentov.

Flentov said part of the pro-Palestinian supporters that had gathered on the promenade earlier today embarked on an impromptu march and are now gathered in front of the police station, where the four detainees are reportedly being held.

'A police nyala is reportedly guarding the entrance,' he added.

JUST IN

Pro-Palestine supporters have descended upon the streets of Sea Point in solidarity with the besieged people of Palestine. The impromptu march comes after a pro-Israeli prayer meeting was set to be held in the area earlier today.

Photo: VOCfm#Palestine #COCT pic.twitter.com/0WmMbA1Yi8

- Voice of the Cape (@VOCfm) November 12, 2023

This comes a day after thousands of people marched through central Cape Town in support of Palestine, many calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and to shut down Israel's embassy in South Africa.

Picture: Murray Swart
UPDATE:
As tension continues to rise as both Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israeli protesters gather on the Sea Point Promenade, Cape {town} Etc has received footage of police using stun grenades, tear gas and nyalas (water canons) to disperse the crowds:

Pro-Palestinian protesters can be heard chanting as stun grenades go off:

The police continue to form blockades to contain the crowd. A Pro-Palestinian protester has been detained following a confrontation with the police:

Picture: Aqeeb Begg / Supplied

Pro-Palestinian protestors have gathered in large numbers along the Sea Point Promenade, just two and a half hours before the pro-Israel Christian organisations plan to hold a peaceful 'prayer and proclamation for Israel on the Promenade this afternoon.
Also read: Christian groups to hold peaceful pro-Israel protest on Promenade today
Currently, the situation is volatile, people are vocal in chanting peacefully, while others are displaying anger. There is a visible police presence on the scene.
Cape {town} Ect is on-site providing live coverage:
A protestor was detained for crossing the police line but was subsequently released.

Protestors participating peacefully
Also read:
Thousands gather in Cape Town to march for Palestine

Picture: Madelize van Der Merwe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Update: Pro-Palestinian supporters march to police station after arrests

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Pro-Palestinian protestors have gathered in large numbers along the Sea Point Promenade, just two and a half hours before the pro-Israel Christian organisations plan to hold a peaceful 'prayer and proclamation for Israel on the Promenade this afternoon.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As I write this, it has been more than a month since the Hamas attacks in southern Israel and the war in Israel and Gaza continues to rage. I have spent the past month mostly speaking to people who are (fill in what you are feeling...) confused, enraged, depressed, beset, overwhelmed, outraged, despairing.

South Africans, (the glimmer of sunshine of the Springboks aside) have been swamped with videos, petitions and marches to add to their already heavy load of political and economic burdens. Teenagers in schools and students on campuses are being asked to take a side. To stand for Palestine or stand for Israel. Standing for peace is not an option. Jews who have never visited Israel in their lives are being asked to defend its government. Muslims are assumed to have supported the rape of women, murder of babies and capturing of civilians on 7 October.

"Facts" are shouted, "proof" is posted. "Now we know ... now it is clear and undeniable". The news media is not to be trusted - it doesn't matter which "side" you are on, the media supports the other - the news media is twisted and biased and corrupted by the power, money and influence of (the other side that is not yours).

It is clear that there is no safe space to speak about Israel and Palestine. Apparently, you either believe that the bloodshed is caused by terrorists who want to kill Jews and obliterate the Jewish state or by a settler colonial apartheid empire intent on genocide.

Any reference to suffering is countered with evidence of more suffering. What you are feeling is not anything like what they are feeling. What I am hearing loudest of all is, "I have zero tolerance for your pain."

All pain is pain, all trauma is trauma. Those who were killed, raped and abducted have families, communities that are suffering now. The young soldiers sent into war to kill or be killed have families, communities - pain. The citizens of Gaza and the West Bank are under attack - suffering. Jews, Muslims, anyone with a heart the world over is in pain. We are all in pain. And instead of comfort, instead of leadership towards solutions, we find anger, verbal and violent acts of Jew and Muslim hatred, friendships ended, trust broken and alliances shattered. And living as we do here in South Africa, this is only a small taste of what Israelis and Palestinians live with every day.

Where to turn? What to do? How can I respond to these calls for revenge, these cries for justice? What can I do to change this situation, given that more powerful leaders have consistently failed to do so?

Perhaps I can suggest that the best way to respond right now is to stop shouting and listen. To hear and understand the pain of others. And yet there are no "safe spaces" to speak and listen in. So we need to create them. Not to debate or persuade. To listen. Reach out to your neighbour, colleague, schoolfriend who is not you, and may not think like you or consume the same media that you do. Find out how they are doing, ask how they are feeling given what is going on and how they are managing. And hopefully, they will ask the same from you.

I was struck by these words written in the most brutal of times, and resonating profoundly now. Etty Hillesum was a young Jewish woman in Amsterdam when Hitler was closing in. Her diary, Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life - the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork , were published posthumously. She wrote:

"Ought we not, from time to time, open ourselves up to cosmic sadness? Your sorrow must become an integral part of yourself. You mustn't run away from it, but bear it like an adult... Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears their grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. But if you do not clear a decent shelter for your sorrow, and instead reserve most of the space inside you for hatred and thoughts of revenge from which new sorrows will be born for others then sorrow will never cease in this world and will multiply."

As we sit with our sorrows, can we make every effort to not multiply them? Stop shouting and listen. Find small ways that you can bring kindness and comfort into our battered world. While we cannot control global events, we can make an impact right here, right now. Do it and keep doing it. DM
Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to respond to the Middle East crisis - stop shouting and listen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Where to turn? What to do? How can I respond to these calls for revenge, these cries for justice? What can I do to change this situation, given that more powerful leaders have consistently failed to do so?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
More than 10 000 people filled the streets of Cape Town on Saturday, 11 November, seething with animosity towards Israel, the local Jewish community, and the Democratic Alliance Western Cape government.

A sea of people chanted cries calling for the end of the Jewish state, which was echoed by the event's speakers. Some of the crowd and speakers also expressed support for Hamas. The march, organised by the Al Quds Foundation and the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), began at a mosque in District Six and ended at the Western Cape Legislature.

It was to these 10 000 people that one PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) speaker yelled, "We know where the murderers come from, they come from Herzlia, here in Cape Town." This was echoed to millions of viewers watching on SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) News.

"The Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies [Cape SAJBD] is outraged by the recent antisemitic attack on our children," says Cape SAJBD Executive Director Daniel Bloch. "During the pro-Hamas rally, one of the speakers openly attacked our Jewish school.

"We deplore this baseless, malicious and inflammatory assault on a proud and highly respected local school," he says. "These mischievous and bizarre allegations and threats, concocted by the anti-Israel movement, constitute incitement against a South African school that has taught Jewish children about their religion for more than 80 years. This harassment has no place in a constitutional democracy that prides itself on upholding diversity.

"Chapter two of our Constitution contains the Bill of Rights, which is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa," Bloch says. "It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality, and freedom. The state must respect, protect, promote, and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights along with the right to religious freedom. Our schools and our children should be protected, just as we are.

"We already have assurances from both the premier's office as well as the Western Cape department of education that Herzlia is in no way under threat from being de-registered or closed," he says. "We further call on the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape provincial government, the national department of education, and the office of the president, to protect our children and condemn these pure acts of antisemitism, incitement, hatred, and aggression against South African children. The right to a decent education in a safe environment is a solemn one, vouchsafed by our Constitution to every child in our country."

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis also condemned the statement against Herzlia, saying, "We condemn any hate speech uttered by radical minorities at protests, especially when that hate speech is directed towards little children. We've received video footage of a representative purportedly of the PAC speaking at yesterday's protest and calling young Jewish children in Cape Town 'murderers'. Such hateful language should be condemned by all. Radical elements don't speak for Capetonians, and don't even speak for the protesters they claim to represent."

The MJC said ahead of the event that, "We believe that the dispossessed land of the Palestinian people should be returned to its people. We call for the right to self-determination of Palestinians on their native land from the river to the sea. The Palestinians have an inalienable right to resist settler colonialism and apartheid by all means necessary within international law. We demand the right of return of all Palestinian refugees with full reparation."

At the march, protesters made a number of demands, including that, "The Western Cape government pledges unequivocal support and solidarity with the people of Palestine, just as it stood by the people of Ukraine; that the premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, condemns the war crimes of Benjamin Netanyahu and promises to arrest him, just as he promised to arrest Vladimir Putin; that the Western Cape government condemns the apartheid state of Israel just as it condemned the Russian Federation; and that the premier condemns the United States for its hand in the mass killing of innocent people."

Also at the march, African National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Fikile Mbalula said South Africa was on the side of the oppressed Palestinians and supported the demarche of Israel's ambassador to South Africa.

"We're sick and tired of the apartheid state of Israel, and we must demonstrate it with our actions. As the ANC, I say here today, from Nelson Mandela to [Cyril] Ramaphosa, we stand with the people of Palestine," Mbalula said. He said the ANC wouldn't rest until the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arrested.

"We want them to even add more pressure by closing down the embassy, that's what we want, because the events on the ground don't call for the recognition of the Zionist state of Israel - killing and bombing innocent children and people of Palestine," Mbalula said.

March convener Yunus Allie said South Africa must cut ties with Israel permanently. "If you see what they are doing to our brothers and sisters, they are desecrating churches, mosques, children, and the elders. So, we need to come out to show that against this atrocity, this genocide, we can't allow this to carry on."

Adding to the call was Mandla Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, who said, "We didn't ask for a consultation process, we asked for the embassy of Israel to be shut down now!" Only people supporting Palestine were the "true sons and daughters of our liberator [his grandfather Nelson Mandela]", he said. It wasn't enough for the department of international relations and cooperation to demarche the ambassador. "We want you to give true meaning to what Nelson Mandela expects us to do. Expel the Israeli ambassador immediately!"

Mandela also called on protesters to disrupt a Christian prayer gathering to be held in Sea Point the following day, resulting in a violent confrontation. (See page 1.) "We won't tolerate the apartheid state of Israel's flag being flown," he shouted to cheers.

Anti-apartheid cleric Dr Allan Boesak said, "That apartheid state that has been waging a war of extermination for the past 75 years against our people, shut it [the Israeli embassy] down! For every Palestinian child in a coffin, we say shut it down! Every piece of land stolen from our people in Palestine, we say shut it down! We cannot wait any longer."

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Nazier Paulsen said, "This is a fight against oppression. We must continue that fight, and we mustn't only march for Gaza when the bombs are dropping. Palestine has been occupied for 75 years and for the past couple of years, we have been voting for a Zionist political party here in the Western Cape."

National Freedom Party MP Shaik Emam said, "This isn't about Muslims, Christians, and Jews. We have our Christian brothers, our Jewish brothers, and our Muslim brothers and sisters here. What's happening in Palestine is a Holocaust; what's happening in Palestine is genocide."

The Dean of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town, Michael Weeder, delivered a message on behalf of the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Thabo Makgoba. "We need to call out the shameful partisanship of Western powers in this conflict, and to commend countries which have suspended their diplomatic ties with Israel, and call on those countries to review diplomatic ties with countries which are supplying arms," he said. "If only the world leaders would invest half as much money and energy into peace making as they invest in war, we would have peace."

Jewish community member Mervyn Bennun also addressed the crowd, calling for "Palestine to be free, from the river to the sea."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Board condemns antisemitic threats at anti-Israel rally - Jewish Report

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
More than 10 000 people filled the streets of Cape Town on Saturday, 11 November, seething with animosity towards Israel, the local Jewish community, and the Democratic Alliance Western Cape government. A sea of people chanted cries calling for the end of the Jewish state, which was echoed by the event's speakers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
13K likes, 3,281 comments - tzadokkeren on October 29, 2023 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by קרן צדוק (@tzadokkeren)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eve Barlow on Instagram: "Re Al-Shifa hospital and the world’s continued “humanitarian” posturing aka justifying Jewish genocide. Fuck you all. Fuck you all forever. I am fucking furious. I’m trying to help you. Some of you are beyond help. Go hug a terrorist. See how long you last."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
15K likes, 10 comments - evebarlow on November 19, 2023: "Re Al-Shifa hospital and the world’s continued “humanitarian” posturing aka justifying Jewi..." 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eve Barlow (@evebarlow)