SAJBD comments on two South African Israelis killed in Israel

13 October 2023

Today, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) announced that “two South African nationals have died in this ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel”.

Not unarmed civilians gunned down in cold blood by Hamas terrorists from across the Gaza border. Not deliberately murdered in the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Simply ‘died’ in a ‘conflict’.

In this way Dirco has deliberately chosen to obscure and play down the atrocities that occurred, and to conceal the guilt of those who perpetrated them.

One of those who ‘died’ was 65 year-old Marcelle Talia. Her daughter in Israel had just given birth, and she was visiting the country to be with her. On 7 October, she was on her way to look after her grandchildren in kibbutz Ein HaShlosha when she was gunned down by Hamas terrorists from across the nearby Gaza border.

According to Dirco, she was merely someone who ‘died’ in a ‘conflict’. Instead of condemnation for her killers, her murder has been euphemised and sanitised.

Yet again we are witnessing the South African government’s betrayal of its Jewish citizens, of its failure to display the slightest empathy at this time of maximum grief and trauma in the community. Instead, it has chosen to turn a blind eye to their pain while doing all it can to minimise and even justify the barbarism of those responsible.

The moral cowardice and callous indifference of the South African government towards its Jewish citizens will resonate and be remembered long after the guns have fallen silent.

Issued by Wendy Kahn, National Director, SAJBD, 13 October 2023