Back in mid-February, Israel-Palestine expert Norman Finkelstein told Daily Maverick that South Africa could expect to suffer an intensifying ‘dirty tricks campaign’ as evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza mounted.
In the past few weeks, to deflect from the atrocities, Finkelstein’s predictions have become fact — not only has Israel recruited noted European anti-Semites to its cause, it has successfully exploited the Afrikaner far-right too.
Fascists and other useful bigots
“The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.”
These words, believe it or not, were an entry in the diary of Theodor Herzl, Zionism’s founding father. On 26 March 2025, more than a century after the words had been committed to the page, the Israeli musician and writer Jonathan Ofir would make a persuasive case for the fulfilment of Herzl’s prophecy.
Ofir, it turned out, was writing about a conference on anti-Semitism that was about to kick off in Israel, under the aegis of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As the culmination of Israel’s “Diaspora Week” — led by the country’s diaspora affairs minister, Amichai Chikli — the event’s explicit message, meant to be heard and understood by Jews around the world, was as bold as it was clear: ….more
