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December 6, 2002/Tevet 1 5763, Vol. 55, No. 15
March glorifies suicide bombers, shocks Jews
MICHAEL BELLING
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
CAPE TOWN - The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is considering filing charges against the or-ganizers of a march here that included boys dressed as Muslim suicide bombers, some even wearing mock dynamite sticks strapped to their chests.
The Nov. 29 march, arranged by the radical Muslim group Kibla to show solidarity with Palestinians, has shocked the Jewish community. It drew more than 300 demonstrators.
The march coincided with the 55th anniversary of the 1947 United Nations partition resolution, which led to the establishment of the State of Israel - an event also marked an hour earlier by a pro-Israel Christian group demonstrating outside Parliament.
The marching children, some as young as seven, carried placards stating: "Death to America, death to Israel." Marchers shouted, "One American, one bullet," echoing a slogan using during the apartheid years to refer to white South Africans - one settler, one bullet.
The march organizers asked the protesters to stop chanting these slogans.
The children also staged a mock attack on a model of an Israeli tank and ripped apart an Israeli flag.
Outside the U.S. Consulate, an Israeli flag was burned amid chants of "Death to Israel, death to Sharon."
Russell Gaddin, national chairman of the Jewish Board of Deputies, told JTA that the board respected the constitutional right to freedom of speech.
"But this goes beyond freedom of speech. It was a disgraceful display of hate speech, incitement and anti-Semitism," he said. "It glorifies terrorism, which has been condemned by the South African government itself."
Another strong condem-nation of the events came from Mervyn Smith, president of the African Jewish Congress and a former national chairman of the board.
Smith said, "It is scan-dalous that murderous thugs should be portrayed as heroes to young children. The sense of values seems to have been totally lost."
One of the march's co-ordinators reportedly said children are vital in driving home the message that Palestinians were sacrificing themselves to fight Israel.
Abdullah Ederies, a member of Kibla, said, "We need to open people's eyes to the murder happening in Palestine."
But Imam Gassan Solomon, spokesman for the more moderate Muslim Judicial Council, said, "As Muslims, we are duty bound to condemn terrorism."
He said it is irresponsible to expose children in a march of this kind, but added that the march and its message are merely symptoms of a bigger problem that needs to be recognized.
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