South African State Channel Suspends Anchor Who Questioned Gaza-Holocaust Analogy

The state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has suspended anchor Juliet Newell for questioning a guest over the “provocative” comparison of the Gaza war to the Nazi Holocaust of Jews.

Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, a former World Bank official with radical anti-Israel views, made the analogy during an interview, suggesting that Israel was committing the same atrocities as Nazi Germany.

She did not explain Israel’s strenuous efforts to avoid Palestinian casualties or to provide humanitarian aid, nor did she explain her implication that Jews had somehow attacked Nazi Germany first to provoke a war.

Newell asked Ramphele whether she thought the comparison was, in fact, appropriate.

The Times of Israel reported:

In the interview aired Friday, Newell, who doesn’t have a record of advocating for Israel, calmly asked Ramphele if she didn’t think her statement likening the famine in Gaza to the Holocaust was “provocative.”

…

As the conversation continued, Ramphele said: “What happened in the Holocaust was a people, the Nazis, who decided that the Jews have to be exterminated. It’s the same thing.”

…

Following the interview, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign launched a campaign targeting SABC for “whitewashing” Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

In a statement, the South African Zionist Federation, the country’s oldest and largest pro-Israel group, slammed the SABC as well as the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) — the latter for failing to defend Newell or the principle of editorial independence.

The SABC has long been regarded as the organ of the ruling African National Congress, which is radically anti-Israel and anti-West.
Newell’s suspension illustrates the climate of anti-Israel hysteria to which media outside the U.S. are typically expected to conform.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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