UCT’S GAZA FALLOUT: DONOR EXODUS, LEGAL FIRESTORM AND A COUNCIL UNDER SIEGE

UCT’s Gaza resolutions have sparked a court battle, donor exodus and fresh scrutiny of council governance, funding losses and reputational damage.

By Marika Sboros

(Courtesy of BizNews where article first appeared)

There was a time not that long ago when becoming a member of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Council was considered a privilege.

The position carried prestige as a pinnacle of civic duty.

These days, membership of UCT’s supreme governing body looks more like a masterclass in incinerating millions, potentially billions, of endowment Rands while whistling a catchy political tune.

That’s after allegations of serious breaches of fiduciary duties and perjury by some Council members in their impugned decision-making – decisions which caused not just major financial loss but a haemorrhage of funding from high-profile, philanthropic foundations and international government agencies.

The litany of allegedly dodgy dealings preceding that haemorrhage is documented in an ongoing lawsuit against UCT Council in the Western Cape High Court.

It was launched in August 2024 by one of UCT’s own – head of historical studies Prof Adam Mendelsohn – after Council voted to adopt the Senate’s proposed “Gaza Resolutions” in June 2024.

**Stakes are High**. When Professor Adam Mendelsohn, then head of UCT’s history department and director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies took the University of Cape Town to court over two resolutions it adopted in June 2024 relating to Gaza, he did so out of a deep concern for the institution, its students, staff, and ordinary South Africans, made clear in the arguments of his legal team led by Advocate Eduard Fagan SC.

The court hearing concluded on October 30, 2025, before a three-judge bench with the promise of a ruling “early in the new year”.

A quarter into 2026, no ruling is in sight.

The resolutions enforce an academic boycott of Israeli academics and reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in favour of the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA).

The JDA lends itself more easily to political boycott.

The IHRA is a gold standard adopted by more than 47 national governments, including the US, Canada, the UK, Switzerland,26 of the 27 EU countries and over 13000 organisations and institutions.

**Future Uncertain**. Supporters for Prof. Adam Mendelsohn outside the court in a case which is important not only for the future of South Africa’s premier university but the future of Jewry in South Africa.

Top global universities that have adopted the IHRA definition include Harvard and Columbia in the US, and Oxford and Cambridge in the UK.

The JDA has been adopted by UCT and a few universities with a dual approach.

In a twist of institutional irony, by adopting the JDA, UCT breached a clause specifying IHRA compliance in a funding agreement with its major philanthropic donor, the Donald Gordon Foundation (DGF) that it had itself drafted.

**Tragic Trajectory**. 2023 herald the exciting news that ‘The Donald Gordon Foundation’ was making a landmark donation of R200 million to UCT’s Neuroscience Institute (see Atrium above), which would later be withdrawn in the largest, single donor loss as a consequent of reckless decision-making by UCT’s management.

That makes Council’s rejection of the IHRA definition look less like a principled stand and more like a messy divorce from its own legal handiwork.

Court documents on public record paint a combustible portrait of some Council members who wouldn’t recognise a conflict of interest if it slapped them in the face with a 150-page answering affidavit.

Leading this modern-day bonfire of the vanities are Adv Norman Arendse SC, Chair of Council’s executive committee (Exco), and Dianna Yach, Exco member in June 2024.

Mendelsohn claims that their governance skills and behaviour were so legally and financially inflammable that he is seeking costs against both personally, and similarly against Exco members Reeza Isaacs (Deputy Chair) and Malcolm Campbell.

The move, known in legal terms as “punitive costs”, is not unusual. After all, if you play revolutionary activist with someone else’s hundreds of millions of Rands, you should be prepared to cover part of the legal fees when the revolution turns out to be an unlawful mess.

Mendelsohn’s lawsuit cites UCT Council as the first of 32 respondents, Arendse as the second, Campbell as the 6th, Isaacs as the 9th, and Yach as the 31st. He claims that all wilfully withheld from Council crucial information signalling clear and present warnings from high-profile donors.

In particular, they appear to have ignored DGF’s loudly “barking dogs” warning of significant financial and reputational damage if the resolutions were adopted.

When Council adopted the resolutions and the financial fallout happened precisely as DGF trustees had predicted, it was devastating.

The largest single, overnight loss was the DGF’s withdrawal of its R200-million gift for UCT’s Neuroscience Institute. This became the “canary” for UCT’s donor gold mine.

The DGF permanently withdrew from negotiations for a future landmark project – a new teaching hospital valued at between R400-million and R500-million. The project is now earmarked for Stellenbosch University.

The DGF also demanded a refund of the first R20-million tranche paid towards the R200-million donation for the Neuroscience Institute.

In November 2024, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation suspended its annual funding of R6.5 to R7 million per annum to UCT. The foundation’s final donation in 2024 was in support of 259 undergraduate and 29 postgraduate disadvantaged UCT students on its Dell Young Leaders Programme.

There are no new Dell Young Leaders at UCT in 2026.

The Harry Crossley Foundation, funder of student bursaries and research projects in 2024 to the value of R9.375-million, has stopped new funding from 2025. Their reasons? Concerns around “cancel culture” and the increase of antisemitism at UCT.

UCT Council appeared oblivious of the fact that ideology does not pay tuition fees, as one critic put it.

Other donors followed suit.

UCT had already alienated the university’s biggest international funding agency even before the resolutions were adopted.

The US State Department had adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism as far back as 2010. It began cooling its financial relationship with South Africa in early 2024.

In a direct counter-move, the UCT Senate proposed, and the Council later adopted the JDA, explicitly rejecting the IHRA standard. This placed UCT’s June 2024 resolutions in direct conflict with US policy guidelines.

The friction culminated in a February 2025 Executive Order that halted federal aid, immediately terminating grants from USAID (US Agency for International Development), amounting to roughly R31 million.

Since the freeze began, R172-million has been explicitly halted via “’stop-work” orders on 22 active projects. An additional R265-million remains stalled due to unissued renewals. That left a R1.67-billion portfolio of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding in an indefinite limbo.

In response, in May 2025 the UCT Black Alumni Association urged the university to “prioritise partnerships with Global South nations, BRICS allies and progressive global institutions that share its values.”

By early 2026, the projected risk had solidified into a structural deficit. It has forced UCT into a strategic shift away from American partnerships in favour of survival attempts through European and philanthropic lifelines.

Facing the potential decimation of its landmark research into HIV/AIDs and TB, UCT is now trying to bridge this deficit by petitioning the South African National Treasury for emergency relief and turning toward European donors to secure its clinical trials.

In lengthy responding affidavits, Arendse and Yach have vigorously denied any and all wrongdoing. In his answering affidavits, Arendse continued to downplay the negative impact of the extensive loss of donor funding after adoption of the resolutions.

Yet for an SC who has built his career on the precision of memory and law, Arendse appears to have developed a selective case of legal Alzheimer’s.

Luckily, the information age has an infallible memory.

Court papers in Mendelsohn’s case highlight Arendse’s apparently severe bouts of memory dysfunction. In particular, he claimed to be unaware of any certainty that the DGF would withdraw funding.

He appears not to have understood the contents of a lengthy letter that he and UCT interim VC at the time, Prof “Daya” Reddy, received from a DGF executive trustee on April 30, 2024.

Arendse and Reddy were signatories of UCT’s funding contract with the foundation in September 2023.

The letter makes clear precisely what had provoked the DGF’s “barking dogs”. As the trustee wrote simply: UCT had “not upheld its side of the contractual agreement” to have a “zero tolerance attitude to antisemitism as defined by the IHRA.”

With surgical linguistic precision, the trustee proceeded to eviscerate the Senate’s resolution rejecting the IHRA as “tendentious, mendacious” and riddled with “untruths” about Israel and Jews.

He made the DGF’s position legal clear: UCT was in breach of contract. This was not a vague threat. It did not require legal expertise to understand it.

It was a formal notification that the DGF found itself “impaled on the horns of a dilemma.” It had “lost faith” in UCT, the trustee said, but believed in the Neuroscience Institute’s work and wanted to “find a way forward.” He also said that Arendse and Reddy had “opportunity to remedy” the breach of contract.

The trustee relayed that sentiment to Reddy in a follow-up email requesting an urgent meeting.

In his letter, he even helpfully suggested a way forward for UCT to fulfil its contract with the DGF. That required the university to “actively demonstrate its seriousness in tackling antisemitism head on through the adoption of guidelines, the design and implementation of training programmes and educational campaigns for staff and students and the creation of reporting mechanism and metrics to measure impact.”

All that Arendse had to do in the interim, therefore, was his legal duty: to put all relevant facts, including the DGF trustee’s letter, before Council.

This letter was not put before Council, as Council member and High Court advocate Kessler Perumalsamy confirmed in a remarkably frank “affidavit of candour” in May 2025.

In his legal filing, Perumalsamy bravely broke ranks with the Council’s official leadership to provide what he described as the “correct facts“. These flatly contradicted Arendse’s version of events.

In response to the ensuing exchange of court papers, the DGF trustee addressed a further lengthy letter on May 22, 2025, addressed to UCT’s Vice Chancellor, its Interim Registrar, Arendse and all Council members.

His language was as clear and direct in intent. He carefully rebutted claims Arendse had made under oath. In particular, he rejected Arendse’s allegation of any “uncertainty” about the DGF’s intentions should UCT’s rejection of the IHRA definition become institutional “law”.

The trustee pointed out that the DGF’s contractual agreement with UCT was “deliberately concise,” made “no excessive demands” and did not insist on the “extensive list of conditions typically associated with contracts of this kind.”

Therefore, Arendse’s claim of “uncertainty” about DGF’s position was, to the trustee, demonstrably false.

This precipitated lengthy debate during oral arguments in court during Mendelsohn’s lawsuit. It sparked questions and quizzical reflections from the three-judge Bench, over whether or not the donors actually did warn Council of terminal breaches of funding agreements, and the seriousness of perjury claims against a senior counsel of the High Court.

Yach appears similarly affected by selective memory recall in her responding affidavits. That’s likely the result of the myriad of conflicts of interest below the many different hats she wears.

Yach is one of two representatives elected by donors to Council and Chair of UCT’s HR and Remuneration Committee. She claims to be a donor in her private capacity as Chair of the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF). Her grandfather, Morris Mauerberger, set up the foundation in the late 1930s.

Yach has faced a barrage of criticism over the direction MFF has taken recently. Many see these as straying from the path set by her grandfather’s legacy.

At UCT, her job ostensibly has been to nurture and safeguard relationships that keep its academic lights on. Instead, she presided over a “Great Trek” of philanthropy that ended UCT’s relationship with at least two of the country’s most high-profile donor assets.

That relationship was strained further when Gift of the Givers founder-CEO Dr Imtiaz Sooliman made a public call on a UCT-hosted platform on October 27, 2025, blatantly directed at UCT donors:

“The second most important point is, which worries me, when people withdraw their money from a South African university, being South African, saying that you take a tax benefit to benefit the students of your country, but now you’re withdrawing your money because you’re an agent for a foreign government, that makes it a big problem for me. And to me, if you do that, to threaten your students and your university because you’re acting on the base of Israel, I think you should be stripped of your citizenship and thrown out of the country.”

**In his Own Words**. Dr Imtiaz Sooliman who was conferred with an honorary doctorate at UCT on March 30, 2026, is seen here speaking at UCT in October 2025, calling himself ‘5000% antisemitic.’

Yach was seen cosying up to Sooliman in multiple social media posts between this rhetoric and UCT Council’s consideration of Sooliman for an honorary doctorate in December 2025.

UCT conferred the honorary doctorate on Sooliman on March 30, 2026, marking a definitive rupture in the university’s relationship with its historical benefactors.

For Yach, who serves simultaneously as the UCT Council donor-elected representative, as a member of the UCT Alumni and Development Board and as a major philanthropist, this institutional endorsement creates a paradox.

It signals that her donor representative’s role has transitioned from a fiduciary bridge to a symbolic observer of a Council that now views traditional philanthropy as a form of “ransom” to be broken.

In the face of UCT’s honouring Sooliman’s rhetoric, it would be understandable for all those donors who have withdrawn funding since the June 2024 resolutions to feel ostracised.

UCT presents as loudly celebrating its divorce from legacy patronage in favour of a new, politically aligned identity.

In his lawsuit, Mendelsohn alleges that Yach and Arendse actively disparaged donors to Council colleagues.

Arendse is accused in court papers of effectively calling donors “hostage takers”. He claims he only reflected on what a “sad day” it would be if UCT were “sort of held hostage or to ransom” by donors.

Court papers highlight minutes of Council Exco meetings referencing “donor power”, “donor privilege” and “manipulation by funders (with) a pro-Israel stance”.

Yach is alleged to have used language reminiscent of a mob boss to threaten Mendelsohn and his family to persuade him to drop the lawsuit. She claims she spoke solely out of concern for his professional prospects.

**Conduct outside the Court**. Outside court, anti-Israel protestors hurled abuse at supporters of Mendelsohn’s concern for UCT with Professor Usuf Chikte, the coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity blaring “Look at these disgusting Zios,” and telling the media that “the Zionists are prioritising Jewish supremacy over everybody else”. While Mendelsohn’s supporters held signs saying, “Let ideas compete, not identities,” and “Universities should teach, not preach,” Mendelsohn protestors were yelling “One Zionist, one bullet,” and “There is only one solution: intifada resolution.”

Collectively, UCT Council Exco members have appeared content not just to bite some donor hands that have fed the university, but to gnaw donor arms down to the bones.

Mendelsohn’s argument remains compelling that some Council members held extraordinarily jaundiced views of UCT’s major donors whose perceived ideological views differed from theirs.

He claims that they effectively “tricked” Council colleagues into voting for “symbolic” resolutions to further their own personal political agendas.

More proof may lie in a synchronised move Arendse and Yach made on July 15, 2025. It may have inadvertently revealed their true intention: to rewrite the narrative on the financial fallout long after the canary had stopped singing.

Both tried to access UCT’s private donor lists but were unable to do so due to legal privacy constraints. Undeterred, Arendse later presented letters from donors as retroactive “bouquets of moral approval” of the resolutions, as Mendelsohn described it in court papers.

And when UCT’s Executive instituted an independent investigation into this creative “donor stewarding“, Arendse took to an unusual high road: he declined to “be complicit in or condone an unauthorised/unlawful investigation which is contrary to the UCT statutes.”

In other words, Arendse refused to cooperate with the inquiry into his conduct because he had not authorised it.

Yach claimed that her “sole reason” for requesting the donor lists was to “encourage” donor support. That newfound zeal for outreach contrasted sharply with her response to 290-plus emails of concern from high-profile alumni and donors that she received between April and May 2025.

Yach has reportedly dismissed them as “unsolicited” approaches to her private email.

Since then, the digital world sheds further light on the darkness of UCT’s governance circus at the highest levels.

Critics have noted that Isaacs was appointed CEO of The Spar Group as of March 2026, with the ghost of the David Jones debacle during his decade-long tenure as Woolworths FD by his side. It was a R21-billion Australian misadventure that vaporised shareholder value with the efficiency of a controlled demolition.

Criticism of Woolworths Holdings following its acquisition of David Jones was generally directed at its executive leadership under CEO Ian Moir. Isaacs, as finance director at the time, would have formed part of the broader leadership cohort associated with the transaction.

That can look like a questionable background for someone holding the keys to UCT’s University Finance Committee.

Spar’s Board has declared full confidence in its CEO.

A question hanging in the ether is why Arendse and Yach are still on Council, not even suspended pending the court’s ruling, given the serious allegations against them? After all, UCT found the energy to act swiftly against Mendelsohn and to suspend him on spurious grounds.

**Hostile Environment**. SAJBD National Director Wendy Kahn said the SAJBD joined the case to demonstrate “the hostile environment in which these resolutions were adopted, and their impact on Jewish students and academics at UCT.”

UCT leadership appears impervious to criticism, unburdened by tedious constraints of good governance, financial reality and unimpeachable integrity.

Its standard for Council members appears to be “not yet convicted of anything,” while critics say that it should be “above any suspicion at all.”

The most telling thing hovering “above” some UCT Council members is the level of arrogance required to burn down the house and then complain about the fire damage.

UCT was approached for comment. Spokesperson Elijah Moholola replied:

“UCT notes that this query relates to litigation concerning the Gaza resolutions. The matter was heard in the Western Cape High Court in October 2025, and UCT is currently awaiting judgment. Given that judgement is pending, it is inappropriate for UCT to comment on the matter.”

About the writer:

Marika Sboros is a South African freelance investigative journalist with decades of experience writing fulltime for the country’s top media titles on a wide range of topics. She started her career as a hard-news reporter in the newsroom of the now defunct Rand Daily Mail, a campaigning anti-government newspaper during the worst excesses of the apartheid era. She commutes between South Africa and the UK.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 12 April 2026

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond.

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THE ISRAEL BRIEF –06-09 April 2026
(Click on the blue title)

Lay of the Land’s Photo Pick of the Week

MISLEADING MESSAGE

PEACE TALKS IN ISLAMABAD PREDICTABLY COLLAPSE
A smile and a thumbs-up concealing disappointment, unease and uncertainty

US VP JD Vance gives a thumbs up sign as he boards Air Force Two after attending talks on Iran
in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

ARTICLES

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

RED ALERT: ANTISEMITIC IMAGE POSTED BY IRANIAN EMBASSY IN SOUTH AFRICA

SA government acts decisively against US and Israeli diplomats – but greenlights despicable Iranian embassy transgressions of SA law
By Lawrence Nowosenetz

**Rodent Revulsion**. An Iranian embassy clearly feels “‘at home” in South Africa being publicly antisemitic with its posting of a rat wearing a kippah, ridding a bald-headed eagle. Its message is clear – Jews covertly control and direct American foreign policy.

RED ALERT: ANTISEMITIC IMAGE POSTED BY IRANIAN EMBASSY IN SOUTH AFRICA
(Click on the blue title)

(2)

THE TALMUD OF THE SURVIVORS

“Where was God during the Shoah ?’’ asked soul-searching survivors in DP camps. Three rabbis came together to provide some answers.
By Michel Levine

**Survival to Revival**. The Survivors’ Talmud published in Germany by Holocaust survivors in Displaced
Persons (DP) camps, symbolized the revival of Jewish life, printed on the same soil
where the Nazis sought to destroy Jewish scholarship.

THE TALMUD OF THE SURVIVORS
(Click on the blue title)

(3)

THE ARAB VOICE – APRIL 2026

Perspectives and insights from writers in the Arab media.

While Arab media shifts focus away from Gaza to the wars in Iran and Lebanon, the
common denominator remains – ‘Israel’.

THE ARAB VOICE – APRIL 2026
(Click on the blue title)

LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

To unsubscribe, please reply to layotland@gmail.com

THE ARAB VOICE – APRIL 2026

Perspectives and insights from writers in the Arab media.

A shift away from coverage of the conflict in Gaza selected in Lay of the Land’s previous Arab Voice, all the articles below from Arab media, focus on the wars in Iran and Lebanon. The common denominator over all is ‘Israel’.
Is there even a chance for a meaningful peace where Israel is genuinely accepted in the region or is the future to be as envisioned by Pakistan’s Defense Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who while welcoming the United States-Iran ceasefire and inviting to Islamabad delegations aimed at securing a lasting peace, urged the Muslim world to recognise Israel together with India as its “true and eternal enemies”?
“Eternal”? Is there no possibility EVER of Israel being characterized as anything other than an “enemy”?
And this is the country that is mediating the peace talks!!!

Below are the perspectives of Arab writers who clearly impacted by devastated urban landscapes as the consequence of war, acknowledge failings in strategies and thinking, most notably “the gap between rhetoric and reality has widened.”
For Israel, a major lesson of October 7 is that it is no longer willing to tolerate threats on its borders simply because its enemies have not yet pulled the triggers.
Avoiding future ‘devasted landscapes’ and ‘threats on borders’ are the glaring items on the agenda.
David E. Kaplan
Lay of the Land editor

*(Translated from the Arabic by Asaf Zilberfarb for Media Line. All assertions and opinions are the sole responsibility of the individual writers and not Lay of the Land.)

(1)

HEZBOLLAH IS IN A STATE OF TOTAL HYSTERIA
By Marwan El Amine

Nida Al Watan, Lebanon, March 20.

In this war, Hezbollah’s conduct appears increasingly erratic, driven by impulse rather than calculation.

Its decision to open a front in support of Iran, framed as retaliation for the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, came suddenly and without regard for the consequences, exposing civilians to immense risk and imposing heavy costs on Lebanon’s Shi’ite community across human, economic, and social dimensions.

The move was particularly striking given Hezbollah’s awareness of its own weakened position.

Its military capabilities have significantly deteriorated, its supply lines through Syria have been disrupted, and its operational effectiveness has declined.

For more than a year, it largely absorbed Israeli strikes without meaningful response, only to escalate when Iran’s interests demanded it – an act that appears closer to self-destruction than strategy.

This sense of disorder extends beyond the battlefield to Hezbollah’s internal discourse.

**Beirut Ablaze**. Initiating the war by firing missiles into northern Israel, the response has been devastation as seen here in Beirut following an Israeli airstrike on April 8, 2026. (Photo by Bilal Jawich/Xinhua)

The organization no longer maintains a coherent narrative capable of persuading its own constituency, as contradictions in its messaging and the consequences of its decisions become increasingly visible.

At the same time, its security vulnerabilities have been exposed, with deep Israeli intelligence penetration undermining its image of strength.

The gap between rhetoric and reality has widened: a movement that once insisted that “actions speak louder than words” now faces expanding Israeli control over Lebanese territory and growing displacement of civilians.

Unable to provide convincing answers to its supporters about the devastation it has caused – destruction, casualties, displacement, and the possibility that many may never return home – Hezbollah has resorted to deflection.

Rather than acknowledging responsibility, it channels public anger toward critics, political opponents, media outlets, and dissenting voices within its own community.

This behavior reflects more than a temporary crisis; it signals a deeper collapse in its narrative and purpose.

The attempt to obscure reality and shift blame is not merely a sign of political or military weakness, but of a broader moral decline that leaves the organization increasingly exposed.

– Marwan El Amine

(2)

THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ CRISIS TESTS THE ‘NEW’ GLOBAL ORDER
By Mohammed Al Dhaheri and Narayanappa Janardhan

Al-Ittihad, UAE, March 20.

The era of “strategic patience” in the Strait of Hormuz has come to an end.

With the waterway effectively paralyzed by Iran’s blockade, the international community faces a defining choice: either form a decisive coalition to reopen the passage or accept that the age of secure global trade is over.

The stakes are immense.

The strait carries roughly 20 million barrels of oil per day – about a quarter of global seaborne oil trade – and previously saw more than 150 ships transit daily, the vast majority of them oil tankers and container vessels.

Since the escalation, traffic has collapsed.

On March 11, only five tankers departed the region, while hundreds remain stranded in the gulf, and multiple vessels have been attacked, resulting in casualties among crews.

Major energy companies have been forced to halt production or declare force majeure due to their inability to export supplies.

Alternative routes, such as pipelines to the Red Sea, can only handle a fraction of normal volumes.

**Over a Barrel**. Tehran had effectively blocked the waterway, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping channels, since the US and Israel attacked the country on 28 February. About 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually passes through the strait and hostilities had sent global fuel prices soaring.

The consequences have rippled across the global economy: oil prices briefly surged to $125 per barrel, gas shortages emerged in several countries, fertilizer prices rose sharply, and food inflation intensified.

Iran, which is not a signatory to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, rejects the principle of unrestricted transit passage and instead asserts its right to regulate shipping under the concept of “innocent passage,” allowing it to stop and inspect vessels it deems a security threat.

While the strait remains legally open, it has become functionally inaccessible due to missile attacks, drone strikes, and naval mines, compounded by Iran’s demand that ships obtain prior permission to pass – widely seen as a violation of international law.

The crisis extends far beyond Washington.

More than 80% of the oil flowing through the strait is destined for Asia, making the disruption a direct threat to economies such as India, China, Japan, and South Korea, all of which face mounting energy pressures and potential recession risks.

The broader implication is clear: if emerging powers in Asia and the Global South remain passive under the banner of neutrality, they forfeit any moral authority to challenge future disruptions to global trade.

This is not merely a regional conflict but a global economic crisis, requiring coordinated international action that transcends political divisions.

– Mohammed Al Dhaheri and Narayanappa Janardhan

(3)

HEZBOLLAH IN BEIRUT
By Ahmed Ayash

Nida Al Watan, Lebanon, March 29.

Many assumed that Israeli jets breaking the sound barrier over Beirut last night were a response to Hezbollah’s claim the day before that it had fired a surface-to-air missile at an Israeli aircraft. The sonic boom terrified residents, but the missile itself would have gone unnoticed had Hezbollah not announced it.

This is how the war Hezbollah launched on March 2 continues: relentless and escalating. Warnings are growing that the situation is deteriorating rapidly, with daily scenes of death, destruction, and displacement becoming routine.

The killing of three journalists in an Israeli air strike, among them j correspondent Ali Shoeib, highlighted the brutality of the moment. Israel claimed Shoeib was linked to Hezbollah intelligence, an allegation denied by the group and unsupported by evidence.

For many, including those familiar with his career, the killing evokes a stark contrast with earlier times, such as 2006, when Shoeib stood reporting in front of an Israeli tank after the war, while an Israeli soldier sat atop it, seemingly unaware. The distance between that moment and today reflects the transformation of Hezbollah itself – from a force visibly entrenched at the southern border to one pushed dozens of kilometers north.

Meanwhile, internal Lebanese discourse has resurfaced unresolved grievances, including past assassinations attributed to Hezbollah. The asymmetry between Israel’s advanced capabilities and Hezbollah’s more limited tools is evident, yet the latter has inflicted its own long record of violence, including against journalists.

**Heading Hezbollah**. Naim Qassem heads today Hezbollah that continues to deny responsibility for dragging Lebanon into the current war, even as the country faces unprecedented devastation.

Hezbollah now boasts of protecting its leadership from Israeli targeting, yet its own media figures remain exposed. Crucially, the group continues to deny responsibility for dragging Lebanon into this war, even as the country faces unprecedented devastation.

More alarming is the possibility that Beirut itself will be drawn deeper into the conflict, following initial missile launches that already ignited this destructive trajectory. The question now is unavoidable: must Beirut once again pay the price for decisions made beyond the state?

– Ahmed Ayash

(4)

WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND THE DEBATE OVER ‘WHITE’ NATIONALISM
By James Zogby

Al-Ittihad, United Arab Emirates, March 27.

In the days following US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, media coverage was largely positive. Unlike US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, whose remarks in Europe were described as harsh or threatening, Rubio was praised for a more respectful tone that reassured allies.

But this initial assessment quickly gave way to deeper analysis, which revealed that behind the polished language lay a worldview rooted in the same “white Christian nationalist” framework.

Rubio told European leaders:

“We are part of one civilization, the Western civilization, bound by centuries of shared history, faith, culture, and sacrifice.”

**Rubio’s Rhetoric**. Suspicious of his comments at the Munich Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is seen here earlier with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in New York City, New York, September 22, 2025. (Photo: Freddie Everett/Official State Department)

He described five centuries of Western expansion as a force that spread law, universities, and scientific progress.

Yet this narrative reflects a selective reading of history. The same period can also be understood as one of imperial exploitation, during which Europe accumulated wealth through the extraction of resources from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It also ignores the intellectual and cultural contributions that Western societies inherited from Arab and Asian civilizations.

The consequences of colonialism – distorted economies and disrupted political development – are similarly absent from this account. Rubio also warned that mass migration threatens Western cohesion and cultural continuity, but this too contradicts historical reality. Immigrants have long enriched the societies they joined, shaping their food, arts, literature, and public life.

The issue, then, is not tone but substance: a repackaging of exclusionary ideas in more refined language.

– James Zogby

(5)

SECURITY FOR EVERYONE OR NO ONE
By Mohammed Al Rumaihi

Asharq Al-Awsat, London, March 29.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s statement that security in the region must be for everyone or for no one may appear to be a call for restraint, but it stands in tension with Iran’s own actions across the region.

The Middle East’s instability did not emerge in a vacuum: in Syria, Iranian involvement expanded from political support into sustained military presence; in Iraq, armed groups linked to Tehran became embedded in the political and security landscape; in Lebanon, the imbalance between the state and non-state weapons weakened institutions; and in Yemen, support for armed factions deepened divisions and prolonged conflict.

This raises a central question: can a state that contributed to destabilizing the region now present itself as a guarantor of collective security?

**The Ayatollah’s Enforcers**. A display of might in downtown Tehran. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps keeps order, runs the economy, and exports terrorism and is in keeping with its statement that “security in the region must be for everyone or for no one…” (Image credit: Reuters)

The slogan also simplifies a more complex reality, framing the conflict as a binary confrontation while overlooking the role of Gulf states, which have historically sought stable relations but have often been treated as leverage within broader strategic calculations. Continued attacks on these states risk further isolating Iran and undermining trust, particularly given the global importance of Gulf stability and energy security.

Ultimately, regional security cannot be built on deterrence through chaos, but on respect for sovereignty, non-interference, and shared interests. When recklessness prevails, it is societies, not slogans, that bear the consequences.

– Mohammed Al Rumaihi

THE ISRAEL BRIEF – 06-09 April 2026

06 April 2026 – “We got him” – an unprecedented rescue mission and all your Operations Lion’s Roar and Epic Fury updates on The Israel Brief.

07 April 2026 – Iran threatens “an end to restraint”, Trump counter-threatens and your Operations Lion’s Roar and Epic Fury updates on The Israel Brief.

09 April 2026 – All your ceasefire updates right here on The Israel Brief.

RED ALERT: ANTISEMITIC IMAGE POSTED BY IRANIAN EMBASSY IN SOUTH AFRICA

SA government acts decisively against US and Israeli diplomats – but greenlights despicable Iranian embassy transgressions of SA law

By Lawrence Nowosenetz

Early in April 2026 the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in South Africa posted on its social media platform on X the following:

“The U.S. Regime is implementing the policies of the Zionist regime.”

Accompanying the post is a digitally created image of a rat wearing a kippah or yarmulke (Jewish religious head covering) pointing forward while riding atop a large eagle in flight. The caption to the image bore the text “Who holds the reins?” and the subtitle “The U.S. seeks to implement the policies of Israeli Zionists.” The rat has peyyot (curly sidelocks worn by Hassidic Orthodox Jews) and the kippah has a large Magen David (Star of David)

Source: A now deleted post made by the Iranian Embassy Official X.com ( x.com/iraninsa)

The symbolism is unmistakable and we have seen it before. The rat wearing a kippah represents Jews and the bald-headed eagle is associated with the USA. The eagle, a traditional symbol of American power, is shown being ridden and directed by the rat. The message is that Jews as a people covertly control and direct American foreign policy. This is a classic antisemitic conspiracy trope with deep roots in Nazi propaganda.

In Nazi Germany, the portrayal of Jews as rats was a central component of dehumanisation propaganda used to justify persecution and genocide. The deliberate choice of a rat wearing identifiably Jewish religious clothing removes any ambiguity about the target of this imagery. It is classic Nazi era propaganda art. There can be no evasion or dishonest obfuscation about the rat referring to Zionists and not Jews. The traditional peyyot or sidelocks of the rat evoke the centuries old European ghetto Jew stereotype, beloved of antisemitic caricatures.

**Antisemites Flock Together!** A posting on X by the Iranian Embassy in South Africa was straight out of the Nazi playbook. Seen here is a 1940s Nazi propaganda poster in occupied Denmark where the text reads “Rats. Destroy them.” Rats is the metaphor for Jews.

An international working formulation of antisemitism was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (“IHRA”) by 35 member countries in 2016. It has been accepted by numerous governments and institutions such as universities.

The definition includes:

“Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective, such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”

The depiction in images of Jews as rats is specifically mentioned in the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA definition.

Historically, the Nazi propaganda imagery using rats to symbolise Jewish people is well known as a powerful depiction of antisemitism. A propaganda film in 1940 “Der ewige Jude” (“The Eternal Jew”) a work produced under Joseph Goebbels contained lengthy comparisons of Jewish people with rats, particularly their association with disease, filth, and vermin. This process of dehumanisation was calculated and formed the ideological basis for the Nazi genocide. As early as 1927, prior to the “Final Solution”, the Nazi publication “Der Stürmer”, depicted the fumigation of rats as akin to Jews.

**From Berlin to Tehran**. Premiered in Berlin on November 18, 1940, a scene of fleeing rodents (read Jews) from the infamous Nazi movie DER EWIGE JUDE (The Eternal Jew). The Iranian regime’s thinking is in sync with the Nazi theme of dehumanizing Jews linking them to rats; depicting as a grave threat warranting extinction.

Hate speech is outlawed in South Africa.

Section 16(1) of the Constitution which provides for freedom of expression explicitly excludes:

(a) propaganda for war;

(b) incitement of imminent violence; or

(c) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm.”

Furthermore, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 prohibits:

The publication or communication of words, or the display of any image or symbol, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to be hurtful, to incite harm, or to promote or propagate hatred on the basis of, inter alia, race, religion, or ethnic or social origin.

DIRCO, the South African foreign office has not been reluctant to sanction foreign diplomats for far less. After US Ambassador, Reuben Earl Brigety in 2013 publicly stated that South Africa was supplying arms to a Russian ship at the Simon’s Town naval base, DIRCO handed him a demarche expressing its utter displeasure. The US Ambassador had to issue an unreserved apology for failing to follow diplomatic channels. In 2026, US Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell was issued a demarche by DIRCO for criticising a court ruling declaring the chant “kill the Boer” is not hate speech.

**Devious Diplomacy**. While ignoring the Iranian embassy’s virulently antisemitic posting transgressing South African law, the South African government saw fit to summon the then new US ambassador, Leo Brent Bozell III after he made what they called “undiplomatic” comments.

DIRCO declared Israel’s Charge d’Affairs Ariel Seidman persona non grata and gave him 72 hours to leave South Africa. The reasons cited by DIRCO were unacceptable violations of diplomatic norms and practices by failure to inform DIRCO of visits by Israeli officials and insulting the State President on official Israeli social media platforms, thereby constituting a challenge to South African sovereignty.

None of these actions and statements were incitement, hate speech or religious dehumanisation.

Iran has been weaponising antisemitism as an incitement to terror against Jews worldwide since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power. Over the last 47 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has waged a relentless war against Israel which it calls the “small Satan” and the USA which it calls the “Great Satan”. This war is both physical and political. It has built a network of terror in the Middle East through the Houtis in Yemen, Hamas in the Palestinian areas, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, in the Sahel territories of Africa and worldwide. Iran has been implicated in various terrorist attacks internationally, notably the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires killing 85 people and injuring 300 others.

**A Clear and Present Danger**. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, consistently advocated for the elimination of Israel, frequently using vitriolic language to describe the state as a “cancerous tumor” and a “germ of corruption” in the Middle East. He frequently stated that Israel “must be uprooted from the region” and described it as a “man-eating giant and a pagan usurper”.

Antisemitism and Nazism are at the core of the Islamist regime of Iran. Three state sponsored Holocaust cartoon contests have been held in Iran:

in 2006, 2016 and 2020.

Featured were Jewish blood libels, conspiracy theories and praise for Hitler. In 2020 an official poster was published calling for the “Final Solution” against Israel.

The Iranian regime seeks to use violence, repression and terror to seize control in the world and impose political Islam. Despite UN Security Council Resolution 1373 aimed at fighting terrorism after 9/11, the response by the world, save for the USA, has been weak. Appeasement by the West has proved ineffective and it will be the next victim if it does not take a strong stand. This begins with condemnation of the images such as this war propaganda post.

The historic targeting of the USA by Iran prior to the current war cannot be overlooked. Iranian militia or groups backed by Iran have killed US soldiers multiple times in the Middle East. These include the 1983 barracks bombing and attacks in Iraq and Syria involving drone strikes. The US attributes decades of terrorism against US civilians to Iran.

In our era of non-racism and human rights, international human rights organisations are duty bound to call out this racist hatred and mobilise public opinion among democratic and freedom respecting nations. This is a red alert to these defenders of humanity to expose this image as inciteful of hatred and to prevent further acts of random violence against Jewish communities, synagogues and organisations worldwide.

About the writer:

Born in Pretoria Lawrence Nowosenetz obtained his BA at University of the Witwatersrand and LLB at the University of South Africa. He has been admitted as an Attorney in South Africa and as an advocate in South Africa. He practiced at the Pretoria and Johannesburg Bar and worked as a human rights and labour lawyer at the Legal Resources Centre a public interest law firm. Lawrence was Awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and completed professional internship in the USA. He was a a labour arbitrator and mediator, part time Senior Commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) as well as a panelist at Tokiso Dispute Settlement. He was a member of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and Pretoria Chairman. He has also served as an Acting Judge of the Hight Court, South Africa. He now lives in Tel Aviv.

THE TALMUD OF THE SURVIVORS

“Where was God during the Shoah ?’’ asked soul-searching survivors in DP camps. Three rabbis came together to provide some answers.

By Michel Levine

At the end of the Second World War, the defeat of Nazism was celebrated worldwide with outpourings of joy. At the same time, thousands of Jewish survivors of the Nazi camps were being gathered in Germany, Austria, and Italy in temporary structures known as “Displaced Persons” camps (DP camps). Their material situation there was deeply precarious, as evidenced by the letter that American President Harry Truman sent to General Dwight Eisenhower on August 31, 1945, addressing more specifically the DP camps located in the American occupation zone in Germany. The President expressed outrage at the deplorable living conditions of the Jewish residents — some of whom were even housed in the very places where they had suffered persecution, such as Bergen-Belsen.

While their material situation in these camps gradually improved, many suffered from isolation, a lack of any vision for their future, and ignorance of the fate of their loved ones. They were also burdened by the feeling that their own survival constituted an injustice toward the companions who had died at their side. The belief that God had abandoned them — which had tormented them during their detention — remained powerful. Some asked themselves:

What had God done throughout all these trials? Why had He remained so silent, so distant? And, more desperately: how could one still believe in His existence?

Confronted with this distress, three rabbis began to consider how they might help these troubled souls. Who were these three men of faith? Two were Lithuanian: the first, Samuel Abba Snieg, Chief Rabbi of the American occupation zone, had served as a chaplain during the war. His wife had died at Dachau, where he himself had also been deported.

Appointed by President Truman to work with U.S. Army commanders in post-war Europe to alleviate the conditions of Holocaust survivors, American Reform rabbi Philip Sidney Bernstein played a major role in the “Survivors’Talmud” project leading to its printing in Germany, the very country who had only a few years earlier burned all books relating to Jews.

The second, Samuel Jakob Rose, likewise a survivor of Dachau, held the delicate position of mediator between the Jewish populations of the DP camps and the American administrative authorities. Both men had persuaded a third, an American — Philip Sidney Bernstein — to join their project. This Reform rabbi of the American zone served as adviser to the Military Governor (Militar Gouverneur). During the war, he had overseen the activities of some 300 of his colleagues embedded within the armed forces. The guiding idea behind the three rabbis’ initiative was to invoke emunah — a Hebrew term expressing deep and living trust in God. It is less an abstract or dogmatic assertion than an inner conviction that guides the actions of daily life. And the best means of strengthening Jewish consciences was to reinforce their faith by offering them the reading of holy books (seforim).

Rabbi Samuel Jakob Rose, a survivor of Dachau, examines the galleys of the first postwar edition of the Talmud to be printed in Germany in 1947. (Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via the National Archives and Records Administration),

But where were such books to be found?

Hundreds of thousands had been dispersed, destroyed, or burned. Contact was made with two organizations active in the camps: the JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), which, in addition to organizing the distribution of food and medicine, was contributing to the creation of Jewish schools; and the Vaad Hatzalah, an Orthodox organization founded in 1939 to assist rabbis and yeshiva students from Poland and Lithuania. One of its innovations had been the creation of “traveling synagogues” circulating through the displaced persons camps. Both organizations were already printing a modest number of prayer books, and their experience would prove valuable. During their meetings, the question arose:

Which work should be printed?

The answer came to them almost immediately: the Talmud.

Jewish displaced persons (DPs) put up signs demanding open immigration into Palestine in a DP camp in Germany after 1945.

Much as the Shoah represented a catastrophe of historic proportions, the Talmud — literally “study” or “learning” in Hebrew — was itself born of a catastrophe: the destruction by the Romans of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, marking the beginning of nineteen centuries of diaspora. The rabbinic authorities of the time decided, in the interest of the survival of their faith, to commit to writing the various laws and precepts that governed it, which had until then been transmitted orally. Thus, was constituted a “portable temple” in the form of a book, enabling the Jewish people — despite their dispersion and wherever they might find themselves — to continue living according to their religion.

The first complete edition of the Talmud was produced in Venice between 1519 and 1523 by the Antwerp printer Daniel Bomberg. It comprised 63 tractates across 2,711 double-sided folios, and was subsequently enriched by the Vilna edition (1880–1886), which established a universal standard.

Under Nazi rule, possession of such books was forbidden in Germany and in the occupied countries. They fed the bonfires, alongside the works of great thinkers deemed contrary to the dominant ideology — whether or not their authors were Jewish.

But where was a copy of the Vilna edition to be found that could serve as a model? After considerable searching, word came of two volumes printed in that city in the nineteenth century, said to have been hidden in 1945 in the Benedictine monastery of Sankt Ottilien, southwest of Munich. Upon investigation, it emerged that these two copies were now… in New York. Not without difficulty, they were eventually brought back to Germany. The work could now begin.

Paper had first to be found — vast quantities of paper — at a time when this commodity was rationed across Europe and in extremely high demand, particularly by governments seeking to resume the production of schoolbooks to replace those the Nazis had imposed. Special attention had to be paid to the quality of the paper that could be obtained, in order to ensure the quality of the printing. There was also a shortage of the materials required for printing — inks, and especially collodion. The latter was indispensable for the transfer of images onto zinc photographic plates, of which 1,800 were needed for each complete volume. Banned during the war, collodion was available only in the city of Zwickau, in the Soviet occupation zone. Since the Cold War had already begun, Zwickau refused all assistance, and the precious substance ultimately had to be ordered from the United States. At the same time, finding a printing house in Germany proved arduous. Those that had survived the bombing raids were few, closely monitored, and already prioritized — they too — for administrative and educational needs. Eventually, the American military authorities authorized access to a printing establishment — one of the rare facilities, complicating matters further, capable of producing large-format works. There was a certain irony in the outcome: this firm was located in Heidelberg, cradle of German culture but also a cultural stronghold of Nazism. As for the printing itself, it proved far from straightforward. Nearly one million Hebrew characters were required, obliging the typesetters — some of whom had worked on the production of antisemitic books — to undertake extensive searches for surviving old matrices, and in some cases to fabricate new ones. They also had to respect the distinctive layout of the Talmud — a central text surrounded by commentaries. Pagination, justification, spacing, and notes each presented their own set of problems.

At the bottom of the page is a depiction of a Nazi slave labor camp flanked by barbed wire; above are the palm trees and the landscape of the Holy Land. The legend reads: “From bondage to freedom; from deep darkness to a great light” (Hebraic Section, Library of Congress Photo).

The work was carried out under the watchful eye of a rabbinical committee. During the proofreading of the galley proofs, numerous errors were corrected; those that remained would be eliminated in subsequent editions. As for the photogravure reproduction, it too proceeded with difficulty, not least on account of the incessant power cuts. Approximately 500 complete folio sets, each comprising 19 volumes, eventually came off the presses.

This Talmud would henceforth bear the Hebrew name Talmud She’erit ha-Pletah, which might be translated as the “Talmud of the Survivors.” The cover page of each volume depicts a Nazi labor camp surrounded by barbed wire alongside an idyllic Mediterranean landscape evoking the Land of Israel. A few words in Hebrew give meaning to these images: “From slavery to freedom, from darkness to a great light.” The Joint Distribution Committee, bringing together the various organizations that had participated in the endeavor, decided — with the agreement of the German government — to allocate 40 copies to German Jewish libraries and institutions, and to send the remainder to those throughout the world, including in Mandatory Palestine. Paradoxically, those for whom it had originally been intended numbered no more than 10,000 to 15,000 by 1950, as the displaced persons camps had gradually emptied.

The “Survivors’ Talmud” (or U.S. Army Talmud) is a 19-volume edition of the Babylonian Talmud published in Germany (1946–1949) for Holocaust survivors in displaced person (DP) camps. Initiated by survivor rabbis and funded by the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), it was printed in Bavaria on presses that formerly produced Nazi propaganda, symbolizing the triumph of Jewish resilience.

Today, the standard reference Talmud (nussach, or authoritative text) remains the Vilna edition of the nineteenth century. It is readily accessible to all, benefiting from the contributions of scholarly research and the most modern techniques, including digital technology. The “Talmud of the Survivors,” by contrast, is now found only in a handful of museums and private collections. And yet the memory of the work accomplished remains vivid. This transmission of knowledge embodies the resilience of the “People of the Book” in the face of the Shoah, and stands as a testament to its rebirth from the very ruins of its suffering.

A DP camp in Vienna with survivors from across Eastern Europe.

About the writer:

Michel Levine is a historian of Human Rights and the author of a work dedicated to the major cases of the League of Human Rights (Unclassified Cases. Unpublished Archives of the League of Human Rights, Paris, Fayard, 1973).
Further publications include a historical investigation on the repression of Algerian demonstrations in Paris in October 1961 (The October Ratonnades. A Collective Murder in Paris in 1961, Paris, Ramsay, 1985; reissue Jean- Claude Gawsewitch Publisher, 2001.)

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 05 April 2026

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond.

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THE ISRAEL BRIEF –30 March – 01 April 2026
(Click on the blue title)

Lay of the Land’s Photo Pick of the Week

FATHER AND SON

At the side of a road during a siren warning of an income missile, an Israeli father is captured on camera shielding his baby son with his own body.

**Routine on the Road.** Daily, with nowhere near to find immediate safety following
a siren, Israelis lie on the ground to protect themselves and their loved ones.

ARTICLES

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

PERCEPTION AND REALITY – WHAT COMES TO MIND IN AUSTRALIA WHEN WE HEAR: “THE MIDDLE EAST”

Reflections and ruminations based on a small survey I conducted last week in Sydney’s CBD.
By Michael Fish

**Media Menace**. “*How much of what we believe about a place is shaped by factual knowledge, and how much is shaped by what*
*we are repeatedly shown*?” This is the question that fascinated the writer as he set about asking working folk in
downtown Sydney: “**What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear ‘the Middle East’?”**

PERCEPTION AND REALITY – WHAT COMES TO MIND IN AUSTRALIA WHEN WE HEAR: “THE MIDDLE EAST”
(Click on the blue title)

(2)

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN’S ULTIMATE DEGRADATION – HONOURING DR SOOLIMAN

Does South Africa’s premier university share today the same values as a supporter of terrorism against Jews?
By Lawrence Nowosenetz

**Campus Concern**. Standing on the slopes of a mountain, South Africa’s *oldest* university also stands exposed as promoting the
world’s *oldest* hatred. Is it any wonder Jews are weary. UCT’s latest move to confer an honorary doctorate on Dr. Sooliman
who says *“**I’m 5000% antisemitic**,” affirms the writer’s lament of “ultimate degradation.”*

UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN’S ULTIMATE DEGRADATION – HONOURING DR SOOLIMAN
(Click on the blue title)

(3)

THE HIDDEN MENTAL HEALTH TOLL OF ANTISEMETISM

How Antisemitism Impacts Mental Health Around the World.
By Bev Moss-Reilly

**‘The Dark Age’ Today!** At a time when anti-Jewish incidents soar across countries and continents, many Jewish families
“…*are carrying a level of fear that is hard to describe to those who have never had their identity turned into a target*.”
The impact of antisemitism on mental health can be profound.

THE HIDDEN MENTAL HEALTH TOLL OF ANTISEMETISM
(Click on the blue title)

(4)

THE CONTEXT BEHIND THE CARDINAL DENIED ENTRY TO JERUSALEM’S HOLY SEPULCHRE

Sometimes missile attacks from Iran can not only shatter buildings and lives, but even a status quo.
By Jonathan Feldstein

**Cardinal Error**. Seemingly dismissive of the security situation even when Iranian missile fragments were found lying at
the doorstep on the Holy Sepulcher, cardinal Pizzaballa’s publicized response to restricted access as
“unreasonable” was less about *praying* to God and more about *playing* to the media.

THE CONTEXT BEHIND THE CARDINAL DENIED ENTRY TO JERUSALEM’S HOLY SEPULCHRE
(Click on the blue title)

LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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THE CONTEXT BEHIND THE CARDINAL DENIED ENTRY TO JERUSALEM’S HOLY SEPULCHRE

Sometimes missile attacks from Iran can not only shatter buildings and lives, but even a status quo.

By Jonathan Feldstein

As soon as I read reports of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa being prevented from entering Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre my heart sank.

My immediate reaction was affirming something I have long believed and articulated frequently: that the State of Israel has a unique responsibility and obligation to protect Christian holy sites and ensure freedom of worship for Christians throughout Israel.

**Cardinal Error**. Ignoring the security situation in a time of war with missiles raining over Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa quickly jumped to characterize a life-saving restriction as an “extreme departure … of reasonableness” and “freedom of worship.”

My second reaction was dismay in knowing that whatever transpired and why, Israeli officials probably could and should have done better. Both because we have that obligation, but also because it could have prevented the inevitable bad PR. Yes, we’re at war and things slip through the cracks, but still.

Third was seeing the reflexive negative and even antisemitic reactions from across the world, some that added fuel to the fire of repeated (and false) accusations that Israel discriminates against Christians, and some that were simply another excuse to find fault with the current government and Prime Minister.

Make no mistake, Israel can and should have done better. But through this mistake, lessons have been learned and will hopefully prevent future such mistakes. As of writing this, an agreement for which has been reached between the parties.

As I am writing on the anniversary of the murder of the Christian Israeli Arab policeman Amir Khoury who is still celebrated as an Israeli hero, I know that while a small minority, Christians in Israel are not only not discriminated against but are the only community of Christians in the Middle East whose population is growing steadily, and can worship and live freely without fear of persecution.

In case you didn’t hear, on Palm Sunday, March 29, Israeli police prevented Cardinal Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Mass. The negative international response was immediate and widespread. Church authorities described it as the first such denial of the senior Catholic leader in Jerusalem from entering the site on the day commemorating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.

Initial reports were only of his refused entry, without any context. But context matters, and subsequent reports shed light on this. The incident occurred amid heightened security restrictions related to Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, and subsequent Iranian missile attacks across Israel and on Jerusalem specifically. These measures include strict limits on public gatherings across the Old City, affecting Christian Holy Week observances, as well as Jewish Passover and Islamic Ramadan celebrations.

Missile Fragments Rain Down Near Jerusalem’s Holiest Sites

Israel’s Home Front Command imposed sweeping rules: gatherings limited to 50 people in locations with adequate bomb shelter access. Jerusalem’s Old City’s narrow streets further complicate emergency vehicle access in the event of a mass-casualty event. It’s important to note that since the 1990s, when bomb shelters became mandatory in new construction, the Christian denominations that control the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and cannot agree who has the authority to move a ladder in a window for centuries, could not come together to create a safe room in the holy site to protect against modern threats. A bomb shelter could have precluded this conflict.

**Ladder of Revelations**. It is revealing that while bomb shelters are mandatory in all new construction in Israel, the Christian denominations that control the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and cannot agree who has the authority to move a ladder in a window that has been here for centuries (see above), are as well unable to collectively agree to create a safe room to protect against modern threats. Instead, blame Israel! (Photo: Wikipedia)

Security precautions limit the number of people who can assemble for public gatherings including Passover prayers. Israeli Jews are being told to limit the number of guests at their Passover Seders to safely correspond with enough places in their bomb shelters. The traditional Festival “Birkat Kohanim”, (Priestly Blessing) has also been restricted from what can draw thousands.

**Hardly Enlightening**. Light may well shine over the Edicule, traditionally believed to be the burial site of Jesus Christ at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, however very little media ‘light’ was shone by the international press on the true nature of the incident, playing down the dangers from incoming Iranian missiles. (Photo: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP / Getty)

The context is even broader. Since February 28, Israeli authorities closed major holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City — including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, and the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound — for security reasons. Iranian missiles had targeted the area, with shrapnel striking near the Holy Sepulchre in one incident, and near the Al Aksa Mosque in another.

Just as many Jewish events have been canceled, the traditional public Palm Sunday procession was canceled. Other events have been shifted to private or virtual formats for Easter. Despite reported prior coordination, police reconsidered and halted the Cardinal’s group en route under the prevailing security guidelines. The Patriarchate issued a statement describing this as “manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate.” Cardinal Pizzaballa later led an alternative prayer service at the Church of Gethsemane, outside the Old City.

**Unholy Alliance**. One of the holiest sites in Christianity, the Holy Sepulchre does not have a bomb shelter/ safe room due to internal disagreements within the church management that might have prevented the restriction. This however was not disclosed by the international media who was more inclined to find reasons to besmirch Israel.

Israeli authorities defended the decision on safety grounds. Police cited the Old City’s vulnerability to mass-casualty incidents. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office stated there was “no malicious intent whatsoever, only concern for his safety and that of his party.” It acknowledged the symbolic importance of Holy Week and announced that security agencies were developing a plan to be announced imminently to allow church leaders limited worship access.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog not only commented publicly but called the Cardinal privately. “The incident stemmed from security concerns due to the continuous threat of missile attacks from the Iranian terror regime against the civilian population in Israel, following previous incidents in which Iranian missiles fell in the area of the Old City of Jerusalem in recent days.” He called Pizzaballa to “express my great sorrow over this unfortunate incident in the Old City of Jerusalem,” and “reaffirmed the State of Israel’s unwavering commitment to freedom of religion for all faiths and to upholding the status quo at the holy sites of Jerusalem.”

Later Cardinal Pizzaballa sounded a conciliatory tone, noting:

“There were no clashes, everything was done in a very polite manner… we want to use this situation to clarify better in the coming days what to do in respect for everyone’s safety but also in respect for the right to prayer.”

**Church in the ‘Cross’hairs**. Firing missiles toward Jerusalem shows a dangerous disregard for the sanctity of holy sites and the people who gather there to pray as evident here (see above) when missile debris from an Iranian attack landed just feet from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. (Photo: Israel police)

Before any context and clarifications, the damage was done. Swift international condemnation followed. The Vatican, Catholic leaders worldwide, and European governments voiced concern, even condemnation. Arab officials predictably decried it as further encroachment on “Christian rights in occupied East Jerusalem.” Critics argued that while security is paramount, the blanket application of rules to a handful of senior clergy undermine the delicate status quo governing Jerusalem’s holy sites, shared among Christian denominations and long protected under international norms.

This incident was placed under the microscope of those who claim that Christians and Christian rights are under attack, but without the broader context and reality of the war and necessary security precautions. The Palm Sunday incident highlighted how even minimal, pre-approved religious observance can clash with emergency protocols amid active missile threats from Iran. Unfortunately, sometimes missile attacks from Iran can not only shatter buildings and lives, but even a status quo.

An agreement for the remainder of Holy Week, learning from this incident and potentially easing access for clergy while maintaining crowd limits is imminent. The problem, as this incident showed, is that if God forbid there were to be a security incident and mass casualty event at one of the Christian sites, Israel would be blamed by the same people who are now criticizing it for maintaining these security precautions to begin with.

That’s just some of the context with Passover and Easter around the corner. Hopefully when the war is behind us and things get “normal” again, protocol can be developed to prevent any similar future conflicts.

About the writer:

Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Journal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.

*Donations to provide bomb shelters in Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter and other sites can be made here.

THE ISRAEL BRIEF – 30 March – 01 April 2026

30 March 2026 – Is the Iranian ambassador refusing to leave Lebanon, did the Houthis enter the chat and your Operations Lion’s Roar and Epic Fury updates on The Israel Brief.

31 March 2026 – Carry on till Iran is defeated says Gulf Countries and all your Operations Lion’s Roar and Epic Fury updates on The Israel Brief.

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THE HIDDEN MENTAL HEALTH TOLL OF ANTISEMETISM

How antisemitism Impacts Mental Health Around the World.

By Bev Moss-Reilly

A compassionate, human look at how antisemitism affects mental health worldwide, from fear and grief to trauma, silence, and the struggle to feel safe.

Antisemitism is often discussed in terms of politics, history, religion, conflict, and security. All of those matter. But there is another side to it that is far more personal and often far less visible. It is what antisemitism does to the mind, the body, the nervous system, and the heart.

For many Jewish people around the world, antisemitism is not only about shocking headlines or dramatic public incidents. It is also about what happens in quieter moments. It is the hesitation before walking into a public space wearing something that identifies you as Jewish. It is the quick glance over the shoulder after a hostile comment. It is the sinking feeling when social media fills with rage and blame and you know some of it is aimed not at a government or a policy, but at people like you. It is the exhaustion of having to explain, defend, justify, or prove your humanity repeatedly.

At a time when anti-Jewish incidents continue to be recorded across countries and continents, many Jewish families are carrying a level of fear that is hard to describe to those who have never had their identity turned into a target. The impact on mental health can be profound.

WHEN HATRED ENTERS DAILY LIFE

Mental health is deeply connected to one essential feeling: safety. When a person feels reasonably safe, they can think clearly, rest properly, trust others, and move through life with some degree of ease. When that safety is repeatedly disrupted, something shifts.

Antisemitism chips away at that foundation. It can show up in overt violence, threats, vandalism, harassment, conspiracy theories, exclusion, workplace hostility, school bullying, online abuse, and subtle social rejection. Sometimes it is loud and unmistakable. Sometimes it is disguised as a joke, a stereotype, or a passing remark that leaves a sting long after the words are spoken.

Even when a person is not physically harmed, the emotional toll can be significant. The body does not always wait for direct violence before it reacts. Anticipation alone can be enough. The nervous system begins to scan for danger. Sleep becomes lighter. Concentration is harder. Everyday tasks feel heavier. Trust narrows. Joy is interrupted.

This is one of the cruellest things about prejudice. It does not only wound in the moment. It can change the way someone moves through the world long afterwards.

THE QUIET WEIGHT OF HYERVIGILANCE

Many people who live with persistent prejudice develop a kind of emotional alertness that becomes second nature. They may think carefully about where they go, what they say, how openly they identify, which spaces feel safe, and who can be trusted. They may avoid conflict, avoid visibility, or avoid speaking altogether. To outsiders, this may look like caution or withdrawal. Inside, it often feels like fatigue.

Hypervigilance is exhausting. It asks the mind to stay partly on guard even during ordinary moments. A family dinner, a child’s school event, a university lecture, a synagogue service, a conversation at work, or even scrolling on a phone can become emotionally loaded. Instead of relaxing into life, the person is managing risk.

That ongoing tension can increase anxiety and emotional distress. It can also affect relationships. Loved ones may become more protective, more fearful, or more strained. Parents may worry about what their children are hearing at school. Young adults may struggle with whether to hide or reveal their Jewish identity. Grandparents may feel old historical wounds being reopened by present events.

**Showing your Hand**. Revealing issues in this 2023 Renascenca school, 5th grade, Brazil in Words Can Make a Difference, National Library of Israel (includes a wish for peace in Portuguese).

Mental health is not only shaped by what happens directly to us. It is shaped by what we fear could happen, by what has happened before, and by what we see happening to people like us.

HISTORY NEVER SITS FAR AWAY

Antisemitism carries an unusually heavy historical burden. It is not a new hatred. It is ancient, recurring, and deeply woven into the memory of Jewish communities. That history matters because current hostility is rarely experienced in isolation. It often arrives carrying echoes of older trauma.

For many Jewish people, modern incidents can stir not only present fear but inherited grief. Family stories of expulsion, violence, displacement, persecution, or the Holocaust may sit quietly in the background for years, only to feel suddenly near again when public hatred rises. A slogan, a threat, a desecrated synagogue, or a wave of online abuse can activate something much deeper than a single event.

This is where the mental health impact becomes especially layered. The person is not only reacting to what is happening now. They may also be reacting to what history has taught their family and community to fear. That can intensify feelings of dread, sadness, anger, helplessness, and moral injury.

People sometimes underestimate the emotional force of communal memory. But trauma is not always neatly contained in the past. When prejudice returns in recognisable forms, the past can feel painfully present.

CHILDREN, STUDENTS AND THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE

There is something particularly heartbreaking about antisemitism affecting children and young people. Childhood and youth are meant to be times of formation, curiosity, belonging, and growth. When a Jewish child is teased, stereotyped, excluded, or blamed for world events they do not control, something deeply unfair happens. Their sense of safety is interrupted at an age when it is still being built.

Some children respond by becoming quiet. Others become anxious, angry, clingy, or withdrawn. Some begin complaining of headaches or stomach pain. Some dread school. Some ask their parents difficult questions far earlier than they should have to. Others decide it is easier not to mention being Jewish at all.

University students often face a different but equally painful challenge. They are old enough to understand the hostility around them, but still young enough to be deeply affected by rejection and exclusion. If a campus becomes a place where Jewish students feel judged, isolated, or unsafe, the impact can linger long after graduation. Education cannot flourish where fear is taking up too much space.

WHEN THE ONLINE WORLD NEVER LETS YOU BREATHE

One of the most damaging realities of modern antisemitism is that it no longer stays in one place. It follows people home. It arrives through phones, comment sections, private messages, videos, memes, and posts shared at speed and without reflection. Hatred that once might have been local can now become constant.

This matters for mental health because the mind needs places of refuge. It needs pauses. It needs quiet. But online hostility erodes those natural boundaries. A person can wake up, open their phone, and encounter dehumanising language before the day has even begun. They can see falsehoods repeated so often that they start to feel inescapable. They can watch strangers debate whether Jewish fear is legitimate, whether Jewish grief counts, or whether Jewish people somehow deserve what is happening to them.

That kind of environment creates emotional wear and tear. It can produce fear, rage, numbness, despair, and loneliness all at once. It can also leave people feeling trapped between wanting to stay informed and needing to protect their mental wellbeing.

WHY DOES ANTISEMITISM KEEP RETURNING?

This is one of the most painful questions of all. Why does antisemitism continue, even after everything history has shown us?

There is no single answer, but there are some recurring patterns. Antisemitism often thrives when people are frightened, polarised, or looking for someone to blame. It feeds on scapegoating. It turns complexity into accusation. It offers simple answers for complicated problems. In times of social strain, war, political upheaval, or economic anxiety, some people reach for narratives that tell them their suffering has a neat human target. Jews have been used in that way for centuries.

Antisemitism also survives through ignorance and conspiracy thinking. It grows where people know very little about Jewish life, Jewish diversity, or Jewish history, but feel confident repeating myths and stereotypes anyway. It spreads when anger is allowed to become collective blame. It deepens when public figures, institutions, or communities fail to challenge it clearly. We ask ourselves which “isms” are not based on ignorance.

And sometimes, if we are honest, it returns because human beings can be disturbingly willing to dehumanise others when it suits their politics, identity, or emotional needs.

None of this makes antisemitism logical. Hatred is not logical. But understanding some of its patterns helps explain why it keeps resurfacing in different forms, places, and languages.

EMOTIONAL COST OF BEING BLAMED FOR EVERYTHING

One of the most psychologically damaging aspects of antisemitism is collective blame. Jewish people around the world are often treated as though they are interchangeable, as though they all think the same, represent the same politics, and should answer for events far beyond their control. That is not criticism. That is prejudice.

To be blamed simply for being who you are is a deeply destabilising experience. It tells a person that their individuality does not matter. It strips away complexity and replaces it with suspicion. Over time, that can affect self-esteem, belonging, and emotional resilience. It can create the painful feeling that you are seen not as a person but as a symbol onto which others can project anger.

This can be particularly distressing when the people doing the blaming imagine themselves to be moral. There is a special kind of wound that comes from being dehumanised by those who believe they are standing for justice.

Learned behaviour, indoctrination, and brainwashing often begin quietly in the home, where children absorb what they hear, see, and experience from the adults around them. They may repeat profanities, prejudice, aggression, or harmful beliefs without fully understanding the meaning or impact, simply because these attitudes and behaviours have been normalised for them and never questioned. While this does not excuse the behaviour or make it acceptable, it does highlight the urgent need for ongoing education, emotional guidance, and mental health awareness to help break destructive cycles and teach children to think critically, act compassionately, and choose better.

SILENCE HURTS TOO

Not all mental health damage comes from direct hostility. Some of it comes from silence.

When antisemitic incidents occur and friends say nothing, colleagues say nothing, leaders hesitate, or institutions respond in vague and selective ways, the message received can be devastating. It can feel like Jewish pain is negotiable. It can feel like empathy has conditions. It can feel like some people are protected by moral concern while others are expected to absorb hatred quietly.

That silence can deepen loneliness and grief. It can also make people question their place in communities they once trusted. Being unseen is painful. Being unseen while in pain is worse.

WHAT HELPS?

There is no neat answer to the emotional burden of antisemitism, but some forms of support matter deeply.

Being believed matters. Having fear acknowledged matters. Community matters. Family matters. Faith, culture, friendship, therapy, trauma informed care, and safe spaces all matter. So does the simple human relief of not having to explain why something hurt.

Children need adults who listen. Students need institutions that protect them. Employees need workplaces that do not tolerate hostility disguised as opinion. Communities need leaders who can recognise antisemitism clearly, not only when it is politically convenient.

Compassion is not a luxury here. It is part of the repair.

A HUMAN PROBLEM, NOT A JEWSH PROBLEM ALONE

Antisemitism harms Jewish people directly, but it also tells us something broader about the health of a society. When any group is repeatedly scapegoated, threatened, stereotyped, or stripped of complexity, everyone should be concerned. It means fear is being normalised. It means empathy is becoming selective. It means human dignity is being made conditional.

The mental health impact of antisemitism deserves far more attention than it receives. Every slur, threat, smear, exclusion, attack, or silence lands somewhere real. It lands in a body. In a family. In a memory. In a child’s developing sense of safety. In a student’s confidence. In a parent’s fear. In a grandparent’s history. In the private space where someone is trying, with all their might, to keep going.

Antisemitism is never just an argument. It is never just noise. It is never just politics. It is a human wound. And until we speak about it with honesty, courage, and compassion, that wound will keep deepening in lives that are already carrying far too much.

About the writer:

Bev Moss-Reilly is a Jewish freelance content writer living in South Africa with a deep and heartfelt focus on mental health, emotional wellbeing, trauma, grief, and the unseen struggles people carry every day. Through her writing and her Mental Health Packs, she aims to bring comfort, awareness, compassion, and practical support to individuals, families, workplaces, and communities. Her work is rooted in empathy, dignity, and the belief that nobody should feel alone in their pain, especially in times of crisis.

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