The South African Board of Jewish Deputies disclosed today it had urged the Parliament to consider the importance of preventing publication of anti-Semitic material.
Gustav Saron, general secretary, told the monthly meeting of the Deputies that the proposal was contained in a memorandum which the organization had been invited to submit in connection with an “undesirable publication” bill now before the Parliament.
He said the board position had been that freedom of expression in general should be interfered with as little as possible but that it also was aware of what harm could be done by publicly distributed material inciting ill-will against Jews, and that the same argument applied to incitement of racial feeling against other sections of the population.
The board said in the memorandum that it was possible for situations to develop where such evils could be prevented only by appropriate legislation. The board appended to its memorandum examples of anti-Semitic material which it said it believed properly should be considered undesirable literature, circulation of which should be punishable by law.
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