South African motorists disturbed by ‘Apartheid Israel’ signs

Motorists in South Africa were dismayed to find signs along their highways calling to boycott Israel.   

Billboard signs defaming Israel and calling for boycotts on the Jewish state have been posted on highways in South Africa, causing distress to some motorists who found the messages to be false and laced with hate speech.

The signs have appeared all along a highway that leads past OR Thambo Johannesburg international airport and on the R21 highway.

One billboard called for boycotts on Israel, alleging that it is an apartheid regime. Another claimed that Israel stole land from the Palestinians.

The signs refer viewers to the National Coalition for Palestine’s (NC4P) website, which features virulent anti-Israel content.

Anouske Truter, a mother of four children and a resident of Boksburg, told World Israel News that she has been finding it “really hard to see false lies and generalizations being put up in our home town.”

She said she reported the disturbing signs to the necessary authorities, but to no avail.

About the messages accusing Israel of apartheid, she said, “It really isn’t something that should be taught to a country already battling past and current apartheid.”

Truter is demanding that these billboards be removed.

“Its hate speech,” which only causes “confusion and misinformation,” about “an amazing country and its people,” she said.

A Cover for Anti-Semitism

The South African government is notorious for its extreme anti-Israel sentiment. Anti-Israel activism in the country is often used as a cover for anti-Semitism.

South Africa’s ruling party in 2015, the African National Congress (ANC), urged its citizens not to travel to Israel unless it is to promote “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.”

“Apartheid in South Africa was a picnic compared to what we have seen in the occupied territories,” South African Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete said.

The ANC later hosted a meeting with Hamas leader Mashaal on the same day that the terror organization called for suicide bombings against Israelis.

During Operation Protective Edge in 2014, the ANC’s social media manager posted an image of Adolf Hitler with the embedded text, “I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to let you know why I was killing them,” adding below, “Yes man, you were right.”

However, former South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk has expressed opposition to the anti-Israel boycott movement. Comparing Israel to apartheid in South Africa is “odious,” he stated.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News 

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