Dear Roedean School community,
As you know, in recent days, Roedean has been rocked by a controversy surrounding the school’s cancellation of a tennis match with King David school. King David, as well as various organisations that pretend to speak for the Jewish community as a whole, have claimed that the match was cancelled due to Roedean not wanting to play tennis against King David on account of them being Jewish. If this were true, it would be a clear case of antisemitism.
However, it later emerged that the reason the match was cancelled was quite different. Based on circulating evidence, including a petition that is currently being widely shared, students at Roedean had raised concerns about King David’s explicit support for Israel, and particularly its unreserved backing of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The students at Roedean then took a principled decision in support of justice and human rights.
King David, according to its own institutional documents and code of conduct, is explicitly a Zionist school. Families who send their children to this school are expected to subscribe to the school’s Zionist identity and its unquestioning support for the state of Israel. The education that children receive in this school teaches children – falsely – that supporting Israel is an essential part of being Jewish. They provide children with an erroneous history of Israel, ignoring its many atrocities against the Palestinians. Most especially, they do not teach children about the fact that Israel was founded through the ethnic cleansing of over 700,000 Palestinians — what the Palestinians refer to as “the Nakba” or catastrophe.
King David also includes explicit support of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) as part of its curriculum, despite the fact that this army is actively engaged in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Young people are strongly encouraged to join an army that has been widely documented as committing ongoing atrocities. This is so despite the fact that rendering assistance to foreign armies, without government authorisation, is prohibited by South African law. Providing such an “education” to children is unconstitutional and is reminiscent of the education we used to receive during apartheid.
King David reinforces the antisemitic myth that all Jews are Zionists, silencing all of its students who question this or who dare to criticise Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. SAJFP applauds those students at King David who have historically been brave enough to speak out (risking punishment for refusing to sing the Israeli national anthem or wearing a Keffiyah at school events).
Given the above, it is hardly surprising that Roedean students would raise concerns about playing sports against the school. This was not a “sports ban” against Jewish students. It was a protest against engaging with a Zionist institution and normalising a hateful ideology in our democratic country. The Roedean students not only have every right to take a principled stance against hate and injustice, they should be commended for attempting to make the school’s values of justice and equality more than just abstract ideas.
We support these students and their rejection of injustice. Roedean’s parents, teachers and administration should do so as well.
As SAJFP, we believe that the school administration erred in its communication with King David. Instead of explaining their students’ concerns, explicitly differentiating their rejection of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza from any implication that it had anything to do with the religion of King David’s students, they allowed King David to exploit the situation.
The fact that King David secretly recorded the conversation, and then released it with the misleading headline of antisemitism, is truly misleading and manipulative. But if Roedean had been clear from the start that this was a protest against genocide, it would have been impossible for Zionist organisations like the South African Friends of Israel and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to successfully misrepresent the issue.
The solution to this controversy is not for Roedean to enforce a falsely apolitical stance on its students. Indeed, King David does not pretend to be apolitical when flying Israeli flags. Nor should Roedean pander to King David and other Zionist organisations who are cynically misrepresenting opposition to genocide as antisemitism.
We hope that Roedean asserts its right and responsibility to promote amongst its students critical thinking, and the values of love, human rights and equality of all people. Protesting against an institution that violates these values; protesting against complicity in apartheid and racial supremacy is an essential part of building a more just world.
If any members of the Roedean community need any help or support in navigating this issue, we urge you to reach out to our organisation.
In Solidarity,
South African Jews for a Free Palestine