The Day The Terrorist Came to Town

And so, if the 11 Tweets that the BDS chose (maturely) to send me yesterday can be believed, the day will soon come when convicted terrorist Leila Khalid will visit South Africa. According to the article referenced, she will be welcomed at OR Thambo International on Friday by Ahmed Kathrada of the ANC and Malusi Gigaba, South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs.

Khalid, who sits on the Politburo of the PFLP, a violent and unrepentant terrorist organisation that has repeatedly and publicly shunned negotiations, will be welcomed to our country as a “freedom fighter”.

It is a watershed moment for South Africa and will long be remembered as the day that the ANC Government, when faced with a choice, made the wrong one.

It is a sad day for our country. It is a terribly sad day for peace loving South Africans and even more so for the Jewish Community, who until now, could have lived with the naïve belief that the Government would never condone racism and anti-Semitism.

The BDS marketing has been impressive with Leila Khalid being branded as a “Freedom Fighter” hearkening South Africans back to the days of the struggle against apartheid. Whereas nothing could be further from the truth.

Are we as South Africans really that simple that we are unable to look beyond the branding and ask some very basic questions of her? Are we that bigoted that we are prepared to drag our country into global political disrepute by lauding violence at a time when the world is nauseated and repulsed by acts of terrorism? And that we fail to see the irony that Malusi Gigaba, Minister of Home Affairs heads up the very Department who denied the Dalai Lama his entry visa to South Africa? How is it possible to get this so wrong? So embarrassingly wrong.

It is my view that the BDS is not a friend of South Africa. That the organisation has no qualms about using the good intentions of the country’s people for its own purposes. That it has no qualms about causing damage to communities and to reputation. That it is a hate-blinded body with a singular goal and obsessive aspiration. That it cares not for the consequences, and will continue to leave the wreckage in its wake if allowed to continue unchecked. The BDS  has repeatedly and shamefully ignored the plight of fellow Africans who are suffering under radicalism and terrorism and chooses to continue to divert attention away from the multitude of very real issues.

THe BDS has made fools of our government and made South Africa a laughing stock of the world. It has led them astray and they have allowed themselves to be led. It has dragged the country back to the primary school playground with its childish but yet damaging tactics and it seems to relish the attention it draws to itself, like a child in search of any attention, even negative.

The realization that government has chosen the side of violence and anti-Semitism is one that has to be devastating to the Jewish community. It has sent a message that they are easily influenced and disappointingly fickle. It has sent a message that they are unwilling to stand up for people of their land, and that come Friday, if the 11 tweets the BDS sent me yesterday can be believed, they will wait at International Arrivals, smiling, eyes glazed, arms open and outstretched, ready to embrace terrorism.

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