South Africa’s Chief Rabbi urges ‘reset’ in Israel ties
In an address at the Israeli Embassy’s Yom Hazikaron ceremony in Pretoria on April 29, South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein called for “a reset of the relationship” between Israel and South Africa.
Goldstein said: “On this Yom Hazikaron at the Israeli Embassy, I think it is appropriate to say it is time for the South African government, this Government of National Unity, to send an ambassador to Israel. It is time for Israel to send its ambassador back to South Africa. Now is the time.”
In an exclusive interview with JNS on May 2, Goldstein urged both Israel and South Africa to recalibrate their relationship. “Israel would make a mistake in thinking that South Africa is an enemy,” Goldstein told JNS. “The ANC is an enemy of Israel. The South African people is not.”
The Chief Rabbi said he had chosen to address this issue at the Israeli Embassy on Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, to highlight the “wind of change” blowing through South Africa.
“It would be a strategic mistake on the part of the Foreign Ministry of Israel to write off South Africa, eventually in the long run, as a potential ally,” he said.
South Africa, he explained, “is a conservative Christian country in its population and its views and in many ways so is the African continent, home to the largest Christian community in the world—more than 600 million Christians—most of them Evangelical Christians who have a positive attitude towards Israel and who share a common enemy in violent jihad that is sweeping through Africa.”
Some 85 percent of South Africa’s population of 65 million are Christian.
South Africa is changing and the ANC is in decline, Goldstein told JNS, presenting “a big opportunity for Israel to reengage with South Africa as a society.”
At the same time, he said, “the message to South Africa and its Government of National Unity is that a closer relationship with Israel is what the South African people really wants.”
South Africa’s Government of National Unity (GNU), comprising 10 political parties, was formed on June 14, 2024 after national elections in May in which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost its majority for the first time since the fall of apartheid 30 years before.
Goldstein urged both countries to restore diplomatic relations and return their ambassadors, recalled after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. In Nov. 2023, Israel recalled its ambassador after South Africa did the same and passed a resolution in parliament recommending the closure of the Israeli Embassy until a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached.
“Israel should send an ambassador back to South Africa and South Africa should send an ambassador to Israel,” Goldstein told JNS. “That’s my specific, practical call.”
Goldstein has led the opposition to the South African government and the defense of Israel since the start of the Swords of Iron War. Since Jan. 2024, South Africa has maintained only “limited political and diplomatic interaction” with Israel due to the ongoing war.
Bilateral relations hit an all-time low after South Africa presented its case at the International Court of Justice on Dec. 29, 2023, accusing Israel of committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In his Yom Hazikaron speech, after memorializing the Israelis who were killed in war and terror since Oct. 7, 2023, and saluting “the bravery and courage of those who fought to defend, the brave soldiers of a civilian army in a proud democracy against the monstrous terrorists who seek so much harm,” Goldstein pointed out that there was a jihadi war being fought in the African continent as well.
“In the same way that war is being waged against innocent people in Israel, there is a jihadi war against the ‘infidel’ here on this continent, in Africa, a continent that is deeply religious as the words that we know from our own anthem, ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika‘—’May God protect Africa’—and that war is being waged on multiple fronts by the ideological brothers-in-arms of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran: Boka Haram, Al-Shabaab, ISIS.”
Across South Africa’s northern border, Goldstein said, “ISIS Mozambique is waging a war, murdering Christians, going from village to village. In the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) just a few weeks ago, more than 70 Christians were marched into a church and beheaded. Over Easter, in Nigeria, tens and tens of Christians were murdered, hundreds of homes burned.”
The war that Israel is waging today, Goldstein argued, is not only about the State of Israel and the Jewish people. “It is about the global war against jihadi terror,” he said. “There is a famous slogan which has been posted on social media, which says ‘Today the Saturday people, tomorrow the Sunday people.’ And friends, tomorrow is now.”
Comparing the Iranian-led jihadi terror Israel is fighting to that threatening the continent of Africa, Goldstein said: “On this Yom Hazikaron, it is appropriate in this context to say that there should be a closer alliance between Africa and Israel in this war to defend human dignity and human freedom, and there needs to be a much closer alliance between South Africa and Israel.”
He referred to the landmark “Wind of Change” speech by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the South African Parliament in 1960, in which he famously said, “The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”
Sixty-five years later, Goldstein said, “There is a wind of change blowing through South Africa today. The government of national unity is evidence of that. The ANC is in decline, but more than that, there is a spirit of reform. South Africans want change.”
He noted that recent polls in South Africa by think tanks such as the Institute of Race Relations show that most South Africans want economic growth and reform and an end to race laws.
“But what they really want is a closer relationship between South Africa and Israel and the West,” he said. “In fact, the words of Harold Macmillan could not be more apposite. Like it or not, the South African government needs to note that it is a political fact that South Africans want a closer relationship with Israel. And now is the time.”
He said the Government of National Unity in South Africa “needs to realize it represents millions of Christians across the length and breadth of this country. It represents the interests of the people of South Africa.”
Appeal to the United States
In addition to South Africa and Israel reinstating their envoys, Goldstein urged the United States through a strong new ambassador to Pretoria “to apply pressure on the South African government to realign with the West and with values of freedom of democracy, to be truthfully a government that will speak in the name of the civilized values of this country and to represent the ‘wind of change’ sweeping through this continent and sweeping through this country.”
In this context, he called for a closer alliance between the United States, South Africa and Israel. “Indeed, it is a three-way partnership and the Government of National Unity needs to realize that if it really wants to repair ties with the United States government, a place to start would be to send an ambassador back to Israel.”
The Trump administration expelled Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, in mid-March, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused him of hating the United States. In April, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mcebisi Jonas as a special envoy to Washington in an attempt to rebuild damaged relations.
The Chief Rabbi concluded that his clarion call on Yom Hazikaron was not just about politics. “It’s about the values which are at stake which we honor and mark today on Yom Hazikaron,” he declared.
Asking why “the brave soldiers of the IDF,” which he called the most moral army in the world, and victims of terror had sacrificed their lives, he answered: “They died not only to defend a piece of land and not only to defend Jewish nationalism. They died in the name of the values that underpin Jewish society and civilization, and indeed, the civilization of Western, liberal, free democracies.”
