SAJFP unequivocally condemns the use of lawfare to silence and dissuade pro-Palestine advocacy and divert attention from Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the Occupied West Bank.
South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) expresses its complete and resolute solidarity with our cherished member, Megan Choritz. She has become the target of a baseless defamation lawsuit brought by Professor Adam Mendelsohn of the University of Cape Town.
Fitting neatly into the well-rehearsed zionist playbook, this case is an unambiguous example of Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP); abusive litigation contrived with the clear intent to silence, intimidate and financially penalise pro-Palestine activists.
It is also far from an isolated incident of lawfare. The summons for this case was not served to Choritz while at home. Rather, seeking to create a public spectacle and with the South African Jewish Report tipped off in advance, the sheriff of the court served her while she was attending a protest outside the Western Cape High Court. That protest itself was aimed at another ongoing SLAPP suit brought against Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) by Cape Union Mart and its Zionist owner, Philip Krawitz, a similarly sinister silencing operation.
This is no coincidence; Megan became the target of the same lawfare that she was demonstrating against. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and its cohort are currently litigating over a dozen cases against pro-Palestine activists and organisations. This lawfare ranges from attempted interdicts to defamation, to so-called “hate speech”.
The evidently coordinated campaign of frivolous litigation against anyone who publicly supports Palestine in South Africa sends a clear message: if you are an outspoken critic of Israel, you will be sued.
Our shared history as South Africans gives us not just the right, but the moral imperative, to name apartheid and genocide wherever they occur. To claim that identifying this reality is somehow “defamatory” is not just an insult to Jews broadly, but a sickening betrayal of all those who sacrificed their lives to end apartheid in the country we call home. Despite his and the SAJBD’s fearmongering about anti-semitism in South Africa, Mendelsohn is a man who has never faced systemic oppression; he has never been denied basic rights due to his Jewish identity, nor has he been subjected to violent state repression for demanding freedom – something fellow Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising were familiar with. Yet he claims that an activist’s scrutiny of his political views – communicated clearly in his own public statements – is so detrimental to his reputation that it warrants a R500 000 recompense and a court-ordered apology.
At SAJFP, we seek to answer Mendelsohn from the base of his ivory tower: we are Jewish, we understand the weight of our words, we do not make accusations lightly. When we use words like “genocide”, “racism” and “Islamophobia,” we do so with an acute understanding of their historical and moral gravity. If Mendelsohn sincerely believes that Megan’s statements are false – that he is genuinely not a supporter of Israeli genocide, not a bigoted Islamophobe, not someone whose public statements should be addressed – then we propose a simple a remedy. We call on Mendelsohn to publicly clarify his position and:
- Denounce Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its continued persecution of the Palestinian people;
- Denounce the widespread and ongoing Islamphobic campaign against prominent humanitarian Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman;
- Withdraw his SLAPP suit against Megan Choritz and welcome public discourse around Israel’s colonisation of Palestine and genocide of Palestinians.
Mendelsohn has positioned his scholarship as a challenge and warning against antisemitism. However, his utilisation of the judiciary to silence Jewish voices is reminiscent of an era that he, as a professor of history, should well discern. SAJFP embodies the authentic Jewish tradition of thousands of years of dissent, critique and the struggle for equality and justice. If Mendelsohn truly cared about the dignity of Jews, he would engage with us in good faith debate – not expensive and abusive lawfare. This is not about whether Megan’s statements were false and defamatory, this is about power. This is about silencing those who dare to expose Zionism as the violent, ethno-supremacist ideology it is.
Our role as Jews, while important, is far outweighed by our duty as human beings to speak out against systems of oppression, apartheid and genocide. Our own history demands it. Our constitution enshrines it. Our conscience compels it. We will not stand by and allow our legal system to be hijacked; our courts – the same courts that seek to put into practice South Africa’s new democratic constitution– cannot allow this abusive litigation to stand.
We call on the University of Cape Town to distance itself from this attempt to silence dissent – especially considering the institution’s own history of political struggle. We call on all South Africans to stand with Megan Choritz against this abuse of the judicial process and defend free speech.
SAJFP will not be silenced. We will continue to advocate for Palestinian emancipation and for justice to be brought to the pariah state of Israel – whatever the cost.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
“I was made, by the law, a criminal, not because of what I had done, but because of what I stood for, because of what I thought, because of my conscience.” – Nelson. R. Mandela, November 1962.
Read Megan Choritz’s plea and special plea here and here.
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