Chief Rabbi invites counterterror task force to South Africa following bombing attempt at Jewish center

The task force will deliver its findings and recommendations in a forthcoming report, with the goal of making actionable recommendations to safeguard Jewish community spaces.

By The Algemeiner

South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein has invited a counterterrorism task force to his country to assist with the investigation into a recent attempted bombing of a Jewish community center in Cape Town and to make recommendations to protect places of worship, schools, and community centers amid a steep rise in antisemitism.

The move, announced this week in both a YouTube video and social media post, came about a month after the local Cape Town branch of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the umbrella group of the country’s Jewish community, said that an “improvised explosive device” had been thrown over the front wall into the community center and “failed to detonate.”

No one was hurt and no damage was caused in the incident. The facility, located in the neighborhood of Gardens, reportedly contains offices for many Jewish community organizations, including a women’s group, a youth movement, and a Jewish newspaper, among others.

The incident occurred on the same day that arsonists heavily damaged a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, in what both law enforcement and political leaders called an antisemitic attack.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis confirmed at the time that city police were helping the South African Police Service (SAPS) investigate the matter and analyze closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage to find the perpetrator.

He added that the case has been handed to South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, known as the Hawks.

Now an international task force will be assisting the investigation and more broadly assessing the terrorist threat in South Africa, with the added goal of helping Jewish communities in other countries combat similar threats facing them.

“There have been a host of similar terror attacks against Jewish communities worldwide. Out of an abundance of caution, and with the heavy responsibility of my office, I have invited a counter terrorism task force to assist the investigation into the attack in Cape Town, as part of this global trend,” Goldstein said in a statement.

“In carrying out its mandate, the task force is also working with the Security Advisory Council of the World Jewish Congress, and is being advised by an expert legal team.”

Goldstein noted that Iran, whose Islamist leaders openly seek Israel’s destruction and are widely regarded by Western governments as the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, poses a particular threat to Jewish communities around the world.

“There is a growing terror threat from Iran against Jews worldwide, and the task force’s work in South Africa will assist all diaspora communities,” Goldstein continued.

“I have asked the task force to write a report on their findings, including an assessment of the terror threat here in South Africa within the global context, and to make recommendations for protecting places of worship, schools, and community centers in South Africa and worldwide from the threat of terrorism.”

The task force is led by Andre Pienaar, co-founder of the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO), known as the Scorpions, an elite law enforcement unit created by President Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

Other task force members include Dean Haydon, former senior national coordinator for counterterrorism in the United Kingdom and former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; Admiral Mike Hewitt, former deputy director for global operations who also served the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the US Defense Department; and Maj. Gen. (Ret.) David Tsur, former commander of the counterterrorism unit in the Israeli Police (Yamam).

“This investigation is about bringing light into our world: to shed light on terror so that it cannot hide in the dark corners of society, to shed light on the threats so that we can counter them, to shed light on evil so that it may be defeated,” Goldstein said.

“By doing this, we make South Africa and the world not just safer for Jews but for all decent people,” he added. “History has shown that a society that is unsafe for Jews is unsafe for civilized values, and is not a place where people can truly thrive and flourish.”

Drawing inspiration from the book of Genesis, Goldstein framed the mission in terms of moral clarity and the pursuit of safety for all people.

“God’s very first act of creation was to say, ‘Let there be light.’ For goodness and human civilization to exist, there must be light — the light of moral clarity to distinguish between good and evil, the light of knowledge, information, and understanding,” he said. “This investigation is about bringing light into our world. To shed light on the darkness of terror so that it cannot hide in the dark corners of society, to shed light on the threats so that we counter them, to shed light on evil so that it may be defeated.”

The task force will deliver its findings and recommendations in a forthcoming report, with the goal of making actionable recommendations to safeguard Jewish community spaces.

Goldstein’s latest move came amid a surge in global antisemitism, with several countries reporting record levels of anti-Jewish hate crimes and other antisemitic incidents since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

The South African Jewish community has repeatedly lambasted President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress (ANC) for insufficiently combating antisemitism and being one of the harshest critics of Israel since the Hamas atrocities of last Oct. 7.

For the past year, the South African government has been pursuing its case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing “state-led genocide” in its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.

In late October, South Africa filed the bulk of the relevant material to support its allegations, a move that the SAJBD slammed as a demonstration of “grandstanding” rather than actual concern for those killed in the Middle Eastern conflict.

South Africa temporarily withdrew its diplomats from Israel and shuttered its embassy in Tel Aviv shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom, saying that the Pretoria government was “extremely concerned at the continued killing of children and innocent civilians” in Gaza.

Then in December 2023, South Africa hosted two Hamas officials who attended a government-sponsored conference in solidarity with the Palestinians. One of the officials had been sanctioned by the US government for his role with the terrorist organization.

This past May, members of South Africa’s Jewish community protested Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor’s call for students and university leaders to intensify the anti-Israel demonstrations that have engulfed college campuses across the US.

Later that month, Ramaphosa led the crowd at an election rally in a chant of “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free” — a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists that has been widely interpreted as a genocidal call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Ramaphosa’s ANC has also supported a proposal by the City of Johannesburg to rename the street on which the US Consulate is located after notorious Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, who hijacked a Tel Aviv-bound plane in 1969 and attempted another hijacking, this time of an El Al flight, in 1970.

The government’s ardent opposition to Israel did not help its performance in elections last year, when the ANC lost its majority in parliament for the first time in South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic history.

However, it still remained the largest party and retained power at the national level through a coalition.

AntisemitismChief Rabbi Warren GoldsteinSouth Africa