The United Party, South Africa’s chief opposition party, has expelled a member of its Transvaal Head Committee who has been campaigning against the party’s recently elected Transvaal leader, Harry Schwarz, because he is a Jew.
The ouster of Jack Dormehl became official last week when the Head Committee accepted a recommendation from the party’s Transvaal Executive to that effect. The official reason given was that Dormehl engaged in “hostile activities within the party.” Beginning with Schwarz’s nomination and following his election as chairman of the Transvaal Head Committee, Dormehl constantly attacked him at party forums and else-where on grounds that a Jew should not hold that office. He accused Schwarz of “trying to push Jews into leading positions.”
Dormehl claims he is not anti-Semitic. He said in an interview in the Sunday Express last month, “I wish publicly to apologize if the impression was created that I was anti-Semitic. I am not. Some of my best friends are Jews.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
