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From Cape Town to Jerusalem

(Makor Rishon, 16June2017, Hebrew) Ariel Kahane - The 2001 Durban Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia that took place in Durban, South Africa, 16 years ago is still considered the opening shot in the intensifying global war to delegitimize Israel. Last week the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs hosted a roundtable with black South Africans together with Israeli officials and experts to discuss the Israel apartheid accusation along with strategies to defeat this libel. Dan Diker, a Jerusalem Center Fellow and Director of its Program to Counter BDS and Political Warfare, has been researching the Israel apartheid libel, which led him to Luba and Cassandra Mayekiso, two staunchly pro-Israel black South African Christians from Cape Town. In 2016 Diker recorded fascinating meetings with black South African politicians, human rights activists, and former leaders of the BDS movement. Diker invited Luba and Cassandra Mayekiso to Jerusalem to expose the sharp differences between apartheid and life in Israel. Cassandra, 22, said it's possible for Israel to win the public diplomacy war in South Africa. "There are 55 million people in South Africa. 40 million of them are Christians who have no knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and who believe in the Old Testament," she said. "It's also important to show daily life in Israel, and the broad range of people of different ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. Rational, reasonable people will be influenced by the facts."
2017-06-19 00:00:00
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