South Africa, Hamas, and NGOs
In 1995 Muammar Gaddafi was quoted in the Sunday Times (22.10.95) declaring, “We are going to turn South Africa into a Muslim nation. We have the money to do it.” Fast forward 12 years and if you were a Westerner walking by a mosque in downtown Cape Town, you may have been greeted as I was with: “Death to Bush! Death to America! death to Zionists!, Kill Bush!, Kill Israel!, Kill America!, One bullet! One oppressed!”
The mosque’s administrative building flew the flag of the Palestinian Authority (PLO) and served as the headquarters for the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD). Hardly the response I would’ve expected from an NGO that was supposed to be committed to fighting gangsterism and drug trafficking in the Cape.
The following week in downtown Cape Town, the organization had planned a protest. Flyers advertising their activism were posted on stop signs from Grassy Park to the South African Parliament. Streets were flooded with thousands where a convoy led by several bakkies hoisting the flags of the Islamic State and the PLO. Standing in the truck beds, supporters shouted over megaphones, “Long live Hezbollah! Long live Hamas!, Kill America!, Death to Israel!, Death to America!”
Among the protesters were hundreds carrying yellow Hezbollah flags, some of them donning green Hamas bandanas as well. Men, women, and children joined with their families spreading out large American and Israeli flags on the ground before the parading motorcade. After the lead vehicles drove over the flags, supporters joined in spitting and stomping on the desecrated flags while the rest of the group passed over.
According to the organizational statement of purpose, the protests were to raise awareness about gangsterism in Cape Town. PAGAD was designated by the US Department of State as a terrorist organization and auxiliary unit of Qibla. On this day, they enjoyed the protection of the South African police force while they publicly called for violence and death to Americans and Jews.
Standing in the middle of it while observing the hatred and hypocrisy of the moment, I approached a South African police officer and asked the question, how could this be permissible? With a disappointed shrug, he responded, “They got the permits.” Years prior, the same group was responsible for the Planet Hollywood bombing in the early 1990s.
No other people group in the history of civilization have been refugees for as long as the children of Israel. Since the 18th century BC, the Israelites have experienced slavery and oppression by sovereign nations wishing to see them disappear for the chief reason of being who they are, and in the place where they they were supposed to be.
Whether as slaves in Egypt, or nomadic wanderers in the wilderness, the nations who encountered Jews have always tried to destroy them. Their entrance into the land under Moses and Joshua had to be fought for, and even then once secured, they continued to be the target of enemy nations wanting to remove and replace.
As Hamas and the PLO continue to harbor and support efforts to eliminate Jews, even by hiding in NGOs and non-profits, we can be thankful for the IDF, the emergency medical services, and those involved in the weakening of terrorist leadership structures, who are the greatest threat to civilians and the innocent living under duress in Gaza and the West Bank. We can be grateful to support Israel and the organizations that do the most reasonable good in the most reasonable ways.
Dr. Bryan Moselle received his PhD in Hebrew Bible from the University of Pretoria, ThM in Hebrew Bible and Semitics from Biola University. He is the senior pastor of University Bible Church in Los Angeles, California, a military chaplain, and previously worked in international disaster relief throughout Africa.
