An anti-Semitic outburst was heard in South Africa’s Parliament yesterday when a deputy of Premier Daniel Malan’s Nationalist Party attacked the Jews and blamed them for making him an anti-Semite.
The anti-Jewish attack followed a speech by Dr. Bernard Friedman, a leading member of the opposition to the Malan administration. Responding to Dr. Friedman’s political assault on the government, Nationalist deputy J. L. Liebenberg insisted that the Afrikans people have aided the Jews “until they were fat” and now the Jews are deserting the Afrikans people.
“If I am an anti-Semite it is because the Jews have made me one. I am tired of Afrikaners being insulted by Jews.” Liebenberg said. “They have no respect for Afrikaners as Friedman has just shown.”
The Nationalist speaker was followed by another Jewish deputy, Abe Bloomberg who is also in opposition to Malan. Mr. Bloomberg denied that Jewish MP’s encourage attacks on the Afrikans people, challenging Liebenberg to cite an example. Mr. Bloomberg insisted that many Jews are champions of the Afrikans people who have “stood by” the Jewish people in difficult circumstances.
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.
