South Africa's Jews are under severe pressure - and not just because they live in an aggressively anti-Zionist country. They are also being buffeted by a powerful internal debate over how to relate to Israel over its war with Hamas.
This week, Johannesburg Jewish teenager Joshua Broomberg , deputy head boy of King David High School in Victory Park, posted a photograph in which he and two Jewish friends sported "keffiyehs" to show "opposition to the human rights violations carried out against the people of Palestine". A petition of over 2,000 signatures urged the revocation of his school honours.
Meanwhile, 500 Jews – among them anti-apartheid veterans and other prominent individuals - took a half-page advert in the national Sunday Times saying they were "appalled" by Israel's actions.
All this comes amid poisonous anti-Israel feeling in the country at large. On Saturday, around 40,000 mainly Muslim protesters marched in Cape Town against Israel. The march, addressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, was said to have been one of the biggest held in the city, rivalling those held during apartheid.
