SA banks reject Hamas link

International Relations & Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor last week denied allegations that SA brought Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) due to pressure from Iran. The court last month ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent its troops from committing genocide and take steps to improve the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in Gaza, in a case brought by SA. City Press reports that Pandor, who said that SA did not get ‘the victory that it wanted’ from the UN’s top judicial body, has also thrown the gauntlet to the international community to ensure that Israel complies with last Friday’s ICJ ruling to take all measures necessary to ensure it doesn’t commit genocidal acts against Palestinians. At a media briefing in Tshwane yesterday, she dismissed the Iran claims as ‘fake news’, saying that, as far as she was concerned, Iran has never funded the ANC nor pressurised SA to lodge its ICJ application. She said there were false reports that Iran paid for SA’s legal team, but this was far from the truth as the legal team was yet to be paid.

Moneyweb reports that her sentiments were echoed by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana who rubbished claims made in a Jerusalem Post article last week that major SA banks could be involved as conduits to funding Hamas. ‘I want to debunk a myth that appeared in the Jerusalem Post, which tried to describe SA banks as being involved in funding terror organisations. I want to debunk that myth,’ Godongwana said. He was speaking at an event hosted by Absa in Sandton announcing the bank’s expansion into China, with the opening of a non-banking subsidiary there and the planned launch of its office in Beijing in May. ‘There are normal channels of communication between governments, in case of those (situations) … For instance, part of the people who are quick to do that is the USA Government. Anytime such an instance is picked up, the Secretary-Treasurer of the US normally sends a note to us and informs us,’ he added.

Two of the country’s three top banks accused by SA’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, of providing funding platforms for Palestinian militant group Hamas yesterday distanced themselves from the allegations. Following the ICJ’s ruling, Goldstein publicly repeated claims that Nedbank, Standard Bank and Absa were being used to channel funds to Hamas through the Al-Quds Foundation, which is under US sanctions and is outlawed in Israel. The Star reports that Goldstein said he had written to the CEOs of the banks and given them the opportunity to provide assurances and proof that these allegations were without merit, failing which he warned them that there were numerous local criminal and international anti-terror laws that they might be contravening. ‘And I will personally pursue this case in every possible forum to hold them to account,’ he said.

However, in its response, Nedbank stated that it had noted several unsubstantiated allegations on different media platforms related to alleged financing of terrorist activity. ‘We strongly deny these allegations and we want to assure our stakeholders that Nedbank has a comprehensive risk management and compliance programme in place which is aligned with international standards to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing,’ the bank said. The Star notes that Standard Bank said it welcomed his request for engagement, and regularly met with stakeholders from various organs of society in SA and in the countries in which it operated. ‘Standard Bank abides by the laws of the jurisdictions in which it operates, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulation. The bank is bound by these laws as well as customer confidentiality, which prohibits the disclosure of clients’ details,’ it said.

Business Day reports that SA health activists have joined a global coalition in condemning major donors for suspending funds to the UN’s agency for Palestinian relief in the wake of allegations that some of its employees were involved in a Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. At least 10 countries, including the US and Germany, have halted funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after Israel’s claim on Friday that some agency staff belonged to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and were directly involved in the raid that triggered the Gaza war. ‘UNRWA is the main aid provider for millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the region. This decision represents an act of collective punishment targeting Palestinian civilians and will certainly lead to even more death and suffering,’ the activists said in a statement. SA signatories include the Health Justice Initiative, Section 27 and the People’s Health Movement.

There is no antisemitism in SA, and no threat to Jewish people. That’s the view of Justice Minister Ronald Lamola who told the BBC that complaints by some in the Jewish community that SA no longer feels safe are ‘imaginary’. The UK is among the critics of SA’s claim of genocide before the ICJ, and an important funder and supplier of weapons to Israel. News24 reports that politicians there have accused SA of hypocrisy, for its friendships with Russia and China, and some media coverage has highlighted the sense of betrayal among SA Jews. Lamola was asked to react to comments such as those by SA Jewish Report chair Howard Sackstein, who said SA no longer feels like a safe space for Jews. That is ‘a figment of his own imagination,’ said Lamola. He said SA had not targeted Jewish people with its ICJ case, but the Zionist state of Israel, ‘on the basis of our obligation, as a nation believing in human rights, to stand for the vulnerable children of Palestine’. Asked if Pretoria’s ICJ complaint was related to the upcoming election, Lamola cited former President Nelson Mandela, saying SA's activism around Palestine dated back to his term in office.

TimesLIVE reports that the SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) has called Lamola and the government to stop dismissing anti-Semitism and creating an environment that emboldens anti-Semites. This follows Lamola's BBC's HARDtalk interview. The SAJBD said eight cases have been or are in the process of being lodged with the police. ‘They include assault, damage to property and incitement of violence. We are finalising cases which will be brought to the Equality Court,’ it said. The board said the Minister's claims were misleading ‘and disregarded the voices of those affected’. It said anti-Semitic incidents in SA have reached the highest levels since the SAJBD began compiling detailed lists from 1993. The SAJBD alleged that from October to December last year, there were 139 recorded incidents, compared with 19 in the same period in 2022. It claimed there was also a sharp increase in physical attacks against Jewish people or property, ‘something which had occurred only rarely in previous years’. The vandalism included damage and desecration of Jewish cemeteries in Pretoria and Durban.’