Pro-Palestinian activists shocked after assault in Fish Hoek. Photo: Ross Jansen
Cape Town - A woman who, along with her husband, was involved in a violent altercation with pro-Palestinian protest at a busy intersection in Sun Valley, Fish Hoek remains defiant.
This, after telling a counter protester that: “You’re a beautiful girl; Hamas would have raped you (on October 7).”
Speaking to the Weekend Argus on Friday after the incident, which happened two weeks ago, went viral this week, the woman asked to remain anonymous.
She said that she and her husband had since endured violent threats.
And the restaurant that her husband owns in Simon’s Town has been flooded with negative online reviews.
A staunch Christian Zionist, the woman and her husband, along with a small band of supporters of Israel, had gathered at the corners of Ou Kaapse Weg and Buller Louw Drive armed with Israeli flags.
She said all they did was sing, pray, and wave the Israeli flag, when they were met by counter protesters.
“It was the second time that they were there when there were the first (signs of) aggression from their side. They had (prior to that) been very, very verbally aggressive to us, calling us genocidal maniacs, murderers and rapists and the most horrendous things,” said the woman.
Instead of responding, she said she and her fellow Zionists chose to turn the other cheek. They had even changed the time of their protest so as not to clash with the counter-protesters.
She said a Fish Hoek police officer had warned her that the Israeli flag was provocative, and told her after the incident on April 20 she could file a complaint of common assault.
“I did not open a case of common assault … but told the police that’s not why we’re here. We pray for everyone,” she said.
She insisted that she and her fellow Zionists prayed for peace both in Israel and Gaza.
“At some point this hatred has to stop. I don’t agree with everything the IDF is doing but I have my beliefs, just as they are entitled to theirs. We pray for everyone.
“We are praying for the innocent lives to be protected. We are praying for children on both sides. War is ugly, we don’t want that. But I stand by Israel’s right to exist. That land was given to them biblically. We believe that prayer is the greatest thing that can happen,” she said.
Dr Taj Hargey, who leads the Open Mosque, said the incident was a freedom of speech issue, but that South Africans and the world could not turn a blind eye to oppression in Palestine.
“Isn’t it right that we should support the downtrodden and oppressed? (Standing up for the Palestinians) tells us who we are. Justice, and the fight for freedom must be indivisible,” said Hargey.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign co-ordinator, Professor Usuf Chikte, charged that Zionists were trying to defy the Constitution.
“We are determined not to compromise the constitutional rights that we have. The criminal justice system must rapidly escalate this matter,” said Chikte.
He denied that the man’s business had been threatened.
“There will be another peaceful protest in Sun Valley. Anyone engaging in criminal activity needs to be held to account. People are outraged by their criminal conduct,” said Chikte.
No criminal complaints had been lodged by either party, according to an earlier report by the Cape Argus.
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