An American missionary in South Africa who was kidnapped during a church service last week was rescued by authorities following a deadly shootout on Tuesday.
After searching for Josh Sullivan, 45, for five days, police received a tip that the missionary was being held in a safe house in KwaMagxaki, Gqeberha, which is around 20 minutes away from Sullivan&#8217;s church. When authorities approached the house on Tuesday, they saw multiple suspects inside a vehicle who opened fire on police, according to a <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/selnewsdetails.php?nid=60329" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> from the South African Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (HAWKS).
&#8220;The officers responded with tactical precision, leading to a high-intensity shootout in which three unidentified suspects were fatally wounded,&#8221; the statement added.
Following the deadly shootout, Sullivan was found inside the vehicle &#8220;miraculously unharmed,&#8221; according to authorities. He was later assessed by medics and is in &#8220;excellent condition.&#8221;
While the South African authorities did not share the name of Sullivan in their statement, Pastor Tom Hatley, who oversees Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, where the Sullivans were previously members, shared the news of the missionary&#8217;s rescue.
&#8220;Josh has been released. I just got &#8216;the go ahead to let it be known,'&#8221; Hatley wrote on Facebook, adding, &#8220;Thank you for your support and prayers. Please do not stop praying for The Sullivans. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ!&#8221;
Sullivan, a husband and father of six children, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-missionary-kidnapped-at-gunpoint-during-church-service" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was taken at gunpoint</a> by armed men while he was preaching a sermon at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, just outside the city of Gqeberha, last Thursday. Around 30 people, including Sullivan&#8217;s family, were at the church service when Sullivan was kidnapped, but no one was harmed.
The captors reportedly knew Sullivan&#8217;s name when they entered the church, and Fellowship Baptist Church was the target of threats last year, according to human rights group International Christian Concern, sparking concern that Sullivan was taken because of his faith. However, Reverend Jeremy Hall, who also pastors in the Gqeberha area, said the kidnapping was likely “financially related.”
South Africa has experienced a massive spike in kidnappings over the past decade, jumping 264%. From 2023 to 2024 alone, there were more than 17,000 kidnappings in the country.

Josh Sullivan

‘Miraculously Unharmed’: American Missionary Rescued In Deadly Shootout After Gunpoint Kidnapping

Christianity

Church

Religion

Rescue

South Africa

World

An American serving as a missionary in South Africa was kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of men during a church service in Motherwell, just outside the city of Gqeberha, on Thursday.
Josh Sullivan, a Tennessee native, was preaching a sermon at Fellowship Baptist Church when four masked men armed with firearms stormed into the church, robbed people of their cell phones, and abducted the 45-year-old missionary, according to police, The Straits Times <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/world/us-pastor-abducted-at-gunpoint-during-sermon-in-south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Around 30 people were at the church service, including Sullivan&#8217;s wife and six children, when the kidnappers entered the building. No one else was harmed, and only Sullivan was taken captive.
The captors reportedly sped away with Sullivan in his silver Toyota Forerunner. The missionary&#8217;s vehicle was later found abandoned. The U.S. State Department told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y6xq4ex1ro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BBC</a> on Friday that it is aware of Sullivan&#8217;s kidnapping and added that there is no &#8220;greater priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad.&#8221;
Reverend Jeremy Hall, who also pastors in the Gqeberha area, said the kidnapping was likely &#8220;financially related,&#8221; but there is some concern that Sullivan was targeted for his faith. The kidnappers reportedly knew Sullivan&#8217;s name when they entered the church, and Fellowship Baptist Church was the target of threats last year, according to human rights group International Christian Concern.
Sullivan and his family moved to South Africa in 2018 and planted Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell in 2021. The church is a sister church of Fellowship Baptist in Maryville, Tennessee, where the Sullivans were members before going to the mission field. In the Sullivans&#8217; most recent prayer letter <a href="https://sullivansinsouthafrica.weebly.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">update</a>, which was published on March 3, the missionaries said they had just visited fellow missionaries in Mozambique, adding that the &#8220;trip was a wonderful opportunity to see another African country and grow our burden for the African people.&#8221;
Kidnappings have spiked in South Africa over the past decade, jumping 264%, according to the BBC. In 2023-2024, there were more than 17,000 kidnappings in the country. Just two days before Sullivan was taken by armed men, a Chinese national was kidnapped in Gqeberha, according to police.

Church Steeple

American Missionary Kidnapped At Gunpoint During Church Service

Crime

Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa&#8217;s Ambassador to the United States, was no longer welcome in the country this week after he claimed that President Donald Trump was &#8220;mobilizing&#8221; white supremacy around the world.
&#8220;South Africa&#8217;s Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,&#8221; Rubio wrote Friday on X.
&#8220;Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.&#8221;
Declaring that someone is persona non grata is a formal designation that indicates a particular diplomat or politician is no longer welcome in the host country and that they need to leave.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEWS
The United States has declared South Africa’s Ambassador to the U.S. persona non grata (PNG).
Secretary Marco Rubio announced the decision, citing this clip and referring to Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool as a “race-baiting politician who hates America and [President Trump].”… <a href="https://t.co/Dckvf8pxN3">pic.twitter.com/Dckvf8pxN3</a>
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1900671874998354345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
Max Meizlish and Richard Goldberg, national security experts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/5111731-south-africa-foreign-policy-rejection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">encouraged</a> Trump in January to revoke Rasool&#8217;s credentials, citing his extremist views:
<blockquote>Rasool’s track record represents all that is wrong with South Africa’s foreign policy under the [African National Congress]. He has hosted senior Hamas operatives. He has reportedly praised Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as “one of the greatest inspirations.” Just two weeks before the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack against Israel, Rasool gloated about receiving a signed keffiyeh from the group’s former political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, whom Israel assassinated last July.</blockquote>
Rasool has also defended Iran, worked to strengthen the country&#8217;s ties with Russia, and has supported the anti-Western BRICS economic alliance.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-ID) praised Rubio for the move.
&#8220;I applaud @secrubio for calling out the South African ambassador’s disgraceful, anti-American hate speech,&#8221; Risch said. &#8220;Suffice it to say that he is not cut out for diplomacy.&#8221;

Sen. Marco Rubio

Rubio Bans South Africa’s Ambassador To U.S. From Entering Country

Global Politics

Marco Rubio

Politics

Trump Administration

Early in the afternoon of April 16, 2000, a 77-year-old farmer named John Cross and his 76-year-old wife were returning home from church in the province of Limpopo, South Africa. When they arrived, they were immediately attacked by two men who had broken into their house. The men <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/26/southafrica.rorycarroll1">shot</a> the elderly woman three times, but she didn&#8217;t die immediately. So to torture her, for roughly 25 minutes, the assailants poured boiling water on top of her. When it came time to murder John Cross, the attackers tied him up, shot him several times, and poured boiling water down his throat for roughly five hours. 
In the end, the killers made off with a few thousand dollars&#8217; worth of household items. And when they were caught, they weren&#8217;t repentant at all. Afterwards, when she was asked about the motive, the Crosses&#8217; daughter said, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s hatred. It must be race hatred. I think they did it for satisfaction.&#8221;
As horrific as this incident was, it wasn&#8217;t particularly uncommon at the time. Farm invasions were happening at a rate of around 1,000 per year. This barbarism was occurring so frequently that, two years after the Crosses were executed, South Africa commissioned a 500-page report on farm attacks. It found that almost two-thirds of farm attacks <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/26/southafrica.rorycarroll" target="_blank" rel="noopener">targeted</a> &#8220;elderly white people in rural areas&#8221; — often sadistically. But the conclusion of the report was that racism wasn&#8217;t a factor in most of these incidents. Even though white people only made up something like 10% of South Africa&#8217;s population, and accounted for two-thirds of the victims of these attacks, the government insisted that anti-white racism wasn&#8217;t a problem in South Africa.
This was a narrative that no one in the West wanted to challenge. Yes, it was obviously a lie. No serious person said otherwise. But in the eyes of Western leaders, it was a necessary lie. And that&#8217;s because, just about a decade earlier, South Africa had supposedly ended racism when they overthrew the apartheid regime. In a referendum in the early 90s, white South Africans voted to effectively authorize a new constitution — one that would allow universal suffrage, end many forms of discrimination against Black Africans, and ultimately clear the way for majority rule by non-whites. As Nelson Mandela put it at the time, &#8220;The referendum signalled the end of white privilege.&#8221;
That was supposed to trigger a kind of golden age in South Africa, if our leaders were to be believed. After all, white people had just lost much of their political power, and a black majority would soon gain that power, in a free and democratic fashion, supposedly. And inevitably, that was supposed to lead to racial harmony and a high-functioning society. Certainly the media got behind that narrative. Pull up news coverage of this referendum, and you&#8217;ll see how the decision was framed at the time. The choice, we were told, was between democracy and racial segregation. Given that choice, most people would opt for democracy, obviously. What we weren&#8217;t told is that, in the end, democracy in South Africa would produce even more racial segregation and racial injustice. And all along, Western elites knew that would happen. In fact, they intended for it to happen.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mws-ep-1533-member-exclusive">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
In various academic papers, far away from the public view, Left-wing academics admitted to this. Here for example is what the critical race theorist Cheryl Harris <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/print/no-volume/whiteness-as-property/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in the Harvard Law Review, all the way back in the summer of 1993, just as South Africa was <a href="https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/1993/06/1707-1791_Online.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">getting rid</a> of apartheid:
<blockquote>The South African conception of affirmative action expands the application of affirmative action to a much broader domain than has typically been envisioned in the United States. That is, South Africans consider affirmative action a strategic measure to address directly the distribution of property and power, with particular regard to the maldistribution of land and the need for housing. This policy has not yet been clearly defined, but what is implied by this conception of affirmative action is that existing distributions of property will be modified by rectifying unjust loss and inequality. Property rights will then be respected, but they will not be absolute and will be considered against a societal requirement of affirmative action.</blockquote>
In other words, the newly-installed African National Congress was not interested in implementing a system based on equal rights for all races. That was the little secret that we weren&#8217;t told about. Instead, with the backing of Western academics, they were going to start practicing &#8220;equity.&#8221; They were going to be a laboratory for Critical Race Theory, shortly before it would take hold in the United States. And that meant redistributing land, housing, and money on the basis of race. It meant using the law to punish white people.
And they did exactly that. Take a look at this chart. It&#8217;s from the South African Institute of Race Relations, and it tracks the number of race-based laws in the country.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-874549 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Gi91G3XW8AA4UYK.jpeg" alt="" width="900" height="537" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Gi91G3XW8AA4UYK.jpeg 900w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Gi91G3XW8AA4UYK-300x179.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/Gi91G3XW8AA4UYK-768x458.jpeg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></div>
You&#8217;ll notice that, when apartheid was ended in the early 1990s, there was a massive drop, as you&#8217;d expect. Black Africans weren&#8217;t considered second-class citizens anymore. They didn&#8217;t have to carry identification around that specified their racial group, as required by a law from the 1950s. They didn&#8217;t have to self-segregate in residential areas, or in libraries, parks and restaurants. They weren&#8217;t prohibited from marrying whites anymore. And so on. A bunch of race-based laws were taken off the books.
But then look at what happened. Starting around 2000, the number of race-focused laws went back up. In fact, the number of race-based laws is now higher than it was at any other point in South Africa&#8217;s history. It&#8217;s higher than it ever was during apartheid. Only this time around, the laws were intended to exact racial vengeance on whites. And whites lost the protection of the laws that were already on the books.
This has continued for decades, with very little fanfare. That&#8217;s led to scenes like <a href="https://x.com/JackPosobiec/status/1888078897696104477">this one</a>, in a squatters&#8217; camp for whites in South Africa. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="008 Afrikaner squatter camps" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iNP5W8AkDT0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Again, no one in the West stood up while this was going on, at any point. There was no international coalition of the willing that liberated South Africa. The sentiment only began to change (to some extent) in August of 2018, when South Africa&#8217;s government filed papers to seize several white-owned farms, while paying the owners only one-tenth of the value of the properties. That decision prompted the first Trump administration to launch an investigation into the anti-white purge that was occurring in South Africa.
In response, pretty much every outlet in corporate media <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/23/white-farmers-trump-south-africa-tucker-carlson-far-right-influence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> Trump of promoting a dangerous far-Right conspiracy theory. They told us not to besmirch the good name of South Africa&#8217;s government. We were just supposed to continue sending them hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid every year, and ask no questions whatsoever.
We certainly weren&#8217;t supposed to notice, for example, when the South African black nationalist politician Julius Malema led a packed stadium — full of 100,000 people — in a chant of &#8220;Kill the Boer,&#8221; which essentially means &#8220;kill the white farmer.&#8221; (And by the way, Malema leads the political party that raided the whites&#8217; camp in the video I just played). Here&#8217;s his rally in Johannesburg, if you haven&#8217;t seen it yet:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Why should White people care about the White South Africans??? 🤔 
Plays clip of South African political leader Julius Malema shouting “Kill The Boer.” (White farmer) to the thunderous applause of thousands of people….
That’s why. <a href="https://t.co/FGBWBPdhAH">pic.twitter.com/FGBWBPdhAH</a>
&mdash; Uncommon Sense (@Uncommonsince76) <a href="https://twitter.com/Uncommonsince76/status/1888267755771531607?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After this footage went viral, the corporate press went into a panic. They tried to convince people, in comical fashion, that they hadn&#8217;t heard the things they had just heard. The New York Times, as is so often the case, led the propaganda effort. They <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/world/africa/south-africa-kill-boer-song.html">reported</a> that, &#8220;Right-wing commenters claim that an old anti-apartheid chant is a call to anti-white violence, but historians and the Left-wing politician who embraces it say it should not be taken literally.&#8221;
So it&#8217;s really a term of endearment, or something like that. He didn’t mean kill them, as in actually kill them. He meant &#8220;kill them with kindness.&#8221; And you were supposed to believe that spin, even after the same politician made it as clear as he possibly could that he wants white people to die. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="010 Julis Malema" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6LHb3JrC4Uk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Again, we were told that there was nothing to see here. To the extent that anyone criticized this in the mainstream press, they labeled this politician as a rare &#8220;extremist&#8221; in South African politics. But that was never true. His perspective is actually pretty popular over there.
That&#8217;s why South Africa&#8217;s president just signed the &#8220;Expropriation Act of 2024&#8221; into law last month. This law permits the government of South Africa to seize white people&#8217;s land without providing any compensation whatsoever. Specifically, the law states that, &#8220;It may be just and equitable for nil compensation to be paid where land is expropriated in the public interest.&#8221;
So what&#8217;s the &#8220;public interest&#8221;, you ask? The law doesn&#8217;t limit that concept in any way. But it does <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/project-event-details/1670" target="_blank" rel="noopener">state</a> that, among other things, it&#8217;s in the &#8220;public interest&#8221; to promote the interests of, &#8220;vulnerable groups including women, children, youth, LGBTQI+ and people with disabilities.&#8221; In other words, yes, if you&#8217;re a white farmer in South Africa, you could soon be forced, under principles of equity, to surrender your farm — without any compensation whatsoever — to the transgender community.
This time around, the Trump administration is taking decisive action in response to this development. Trump isn&#8217;t just assigning the Secretary of State to investigate or convening hearings so that we can talk about it. Instead, he just <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-hell-cut-off-aid-to-south-africa-over-land-seizure-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cut South Africa&#8217;s foreign aid</a>. We&#8217;re no longer going to be sending them hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance. The other day, Trump signed an executive order that reads:
<blockquote>It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation: (a) the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and (b) the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.</blockquote>
With that executive order, Trump became the only major world leader to speak out, in any meaningful way, about the unfolding atrocity in South Africa. And this order matters: Over the past decade we&#8217;ve sent something like $6 billion in assistance to South Africa. All of that&#8217;s gone now. So you have to ask: Where exactly are the other leaders of Western democracies who supposedly value &#8220;human rights&#8221;? Why aren&#8217;t they cutting South Africa&#8217;s funding? And why are we supposed to care more about Palestinians and Ukrainians than white South Africans?
These are not rhetorical questions. They need answers. That&#8217;s why the last part of Trump&#8217;s executive order is so important. He says that the United States &#8220;shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation.&#8221;
We&#8217;re offering white South Africans a refuge — one they&#8217;ve never been offered before. They&#8217;ve already been fleeing South Africa in large numbers, but now they have an open invitation to come to the United States. And that makes a lot of sense. It makes far more sense than welcoming refugees from many other places on the planet. These are &#8220;refugees&#8221; who are productive. They&#8217;re skilled. And they&#8217;ve seen the worst of radical Left-wing racial ideology.
But there&#8217;s another reason to accept these refugees, which is this: There&#8217;s no better way to signal the end of &#8220;critical race theory,&#8221; and the various efforts to demonize white people in this country, than to abandon the mythology of South Africa as some kind of harmonious, post-racial utopia. That&#8217;s the narrative that&#8217;s been sold to Americans for decades. But it&#8217;s not true. It was never true. That narrative was always a part of a larger plan to incorporate similar anti-white laws in this country.
With the second Trump administration, that plan is being dismantled, piece by piece. Now the government of South Africa is going to have to find some other country to pay them billions of dollars. And the whole world can see why this is happening. Put simply, with its new executive order, the Trump administration has dealt a fatal blow to race-obsessed arsonists who have sought — for decades — to model our country&#8217;s decline after the collapse of South Africa. That effort has now been exposed and rejected. This is a major victory. And for everyone in this country — and particularly for white farmers who endured years of overt racial discrimination under the Biden administration — it&#8217;s a victory that&#8217;s long overdue.

EFF Hold Press Conference Following 1st Prenum Of 3rd NPA In South Africa

Trump Takes A Stand Against Anti-White Persecution

Apartheid

Blacks

Matt Walsh

Murder

Opinion

Whites

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he would not attend the G20 summit in South Africa next November, citing the South African government’s laws permitting them to expropriate private property and their commitment to leftist priorities, including DEI and climate change.
In late January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa <a href="//213B64F0-D835-434D-A583-A5697B1A9E9E/replaces%20the%20pre-democratic%20Expropriation%20Act%20of%201975,%20which%20placed%20an%20obligation%20on%20the%20state%20to%20pay%20owners%20it%20wanted%20to%20take%20land%20from,%20under%20the%20principle%20of%20%22willing%20seller,%20willing%20buyer%22.%20Anger%20over%20land%20set%20to%20explode%20in%20South%20Africa%20The%20new%20law%20allows%20for%20expropriation%20without%20compensation%20only%20in%20circumstances%20where%20it%20is%20%22just%20and%20equitable%20and%20in%20the%20public%20interest%22%20to%20do%20so." target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed into law</a> a bill permitting the government to seize private land without compensation. That law replaced the Expropriation Act of 1975, which obligated the state to compensate private owners for land that the government seized. The new law permits the government to seize private land where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest” to do so.
“Under the theme of Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability, our G20 Presidency reflects the essence of South Africa’s vision for global leadership,” South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana <a href="https://g20.org/news/lets-leverage-the-strength-of-collaboration-ahead-of-the-wef-and-g20-godongwana/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a> in January.
“Sustainability” is often linked to DEI principles, as shown <a href="https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2024/11/09/the-state-of-sustainability-in-2024-dei-will-survive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, <a href="https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/equity-diversity-and-inclusion-in-sustainability/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, and <a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2024/02/08/preparing-students-for-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-sustainability/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
“I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” Rubio stated on X. “South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, &amp; sustainability.’ In other words: DEI and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote “solidarity, equality, &amp; sustainability.” In other words: DEI and climate change.
My job is to advance America’s national interests, not…
&mdash; Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio/status/1887288685517021298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
In addition to its commitment to DEI and prioritizing climate change, South Africa has also supported the terrorist group Hamas. As Israeli spokesman Daniel Rubenstein noted, the government of South Africa actually condemned Israel during the October 7 massacre.
“Didn&#8217;t even wait a day,” Rubenstein pointed out on X. “The government of South Africa that condemned Israel on October 7 is the same government of South Africa that brought the fake ‘genocide&#8217; case against Israel to the International Court of Justice. Americans may be interested in knowing that the government of South Africa welcomed the Russian and Chinese navies recently. The government of South Africa deserves much more scrutiny for its behavior.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Another bad thing that the government of South Africa is doing is supporting the Islamic Supremacist Movement known as Hamas. The government of South Africa loves Hamas so much that it condemned Israel DURING the October 7 Massacre. Didn&#39;t even wait a day. The government of South… <a href="https://t.co/oiaZKoizF8">https://t.co/oiaZKoizF8</a>
&mdash; Daniel Rubenstein (@paulrubens) <a href="https://twitter.com/paulrubens/status/1887409475151077752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
As Hamas and other citizens of Gaza slaughtered more than 1200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023, the South African government issued a <a href="https://dirco.gov.za/south-africa-calls-for-the-immediate-cessation-of-violence-restraint-and-peace-between-israel-and-palestine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> saying, “The new conflagration has arisen from the continued illegal occupation of Palestine land, continued settlement expansion, desecration of the Al Aqsa Mosque and Christian holy sites, and ongoing oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing For Secretary Of State Nominee Marco Rubio

Sec State Rubio Won’t Attend G20 Summit In South Africa, Cites Country’s Leftist Priorities

G20 summit

Hamas

Israel

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> said Sunday that he would cut off funding to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Africa</a> pending a probe over a new law that allows the government to seize land when it is “equitable” to do so. 
Trump posted on Truth Social that funding to South Africa had been suspended pending an investigation into the country’s land seizure policies. The move comes after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg9w4n6gp5o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a law earlier this month allowing the government to take possession of a person’s land when deemed &#8220;just and equitable and in the public interest.&#8221;
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
Ramaphosa <a href="https://x.com/cyrilramaphosa/status/1886319401101910311" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> that the country was not “confiscating” any land but acknowledged that its law allowed land to be taken under certain conditions without compensation. 
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution,” he wrote on X. “South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.”
Before the Expropriation Act, South Africa had a &#8220;willing seller, willing buyer&#8221; law in place requiring the government to provide compensation for land, according to the BBC. The new law was passed because of complaints over the amount of land that white South Africans owned. 
Elon Musk, a top Trump ally originally from South Africa, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886321811937189902" target="_blank" rel="noopener">replied</a> to Ramaphosa&#8217;s defense of the law by asking, &#8220;Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?&#8221;
Reporters at Joint Base Andrews asked Trump on Sunday night if he planned to cut aid to other African countries. Trump replied that the current suspension of funds only applied to South Africa because “the leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things.”
“They’re confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are, perhaps, far worse than that,” he added, saying the situation was under investigation. During his first term, Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-south-africa-cut-funding-aid-musk-92529403c0902bacd9d5cc5985d429cb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> for an investigation into a number of murders of white farmers in the country. 
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trump Explains Why He Is Cutting U.S. Aid To South Africa" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wp4TQEO6Lzw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Trump Says He’ll Cut Off Aid To South Africa Over Land Seizure Policies

Donald Trump

Executive

Foreign Policy

Jewish students were “literally confined and stuck” on a cruise ship as anti-Semitism took over this year’s Semester at Sea trip. With anti-Israel genocidal slogans plastered on doors, and on-ship performers saying Israelis were “thirsty for blood,” the dean comforted students by telling them they were fortunate it was easy to hide being Jewish, according to interviews and materials reviewed by The Daily Wire.
This year&#8217;s Semester at Sea voyage, in which college students spend a semester aboard a cruise ship traveling to different study abroad locations, took place amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that has sparked anti-Semitic college protests around the world. Just weeks into the trip, the anti-Semitism arrived on the ship, with swaths of students wearing keffiyehs and posting anti-Israel materials throughout the ship, including on the doors of Jewish students.
“I know this is happening all over the world on college campuses, but the difference here… is our students are on a ship,” said Leora Azoulay Short, whose daughter Emily was aboard the ship. “They are literally confined and stuck on a small ship where they are feeling attacked, unsafe, and in an unfriendly environment by many of the other students.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
A mother says her daughter and other Jewish students were &#8220;literally confined and stuck&#8221; on a cruise ship as anti-Semitism took over this year&#8217;s Semester at Sea trip.
Reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/KassyDillon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@KassyDillon</a> spoke with her, and reviewed the evidence: <a href="https://t.co/P7CXbJUKbw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pic.twitter.com/P7CXbJUKbw</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1803834555733774778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">June 20, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Short said the anti-Semitism of the trip became apparent after a stop in Malaysia, a majority-Muslim country in Southeast Asia that has openly backed Palestinians against Israel. Students returned to the ship wearing keffiyehs and t-shirts with anti-Israel slogans.
Shortly after, a lecturer boarded the ship to speak about South Africa and went on a tirade about Israel, according to Short.
“Before the port of South Africa, they had a lecturer come on board… and at the end of her lecture, she made a statement to the students that many years ago South Africa had dealt with apartheid and once again, this is happening in the world with Israel,” Short said.
The next day, students reportedly woke up to anti-Israel posters around the ship, including on some Jewish students&#8217; doors.
“They were saying, ‘from the river to the sea,’ ‘stop the genocide.’ Just all kinds of offensive and often untrue &#8230; anti-Israel propaganda that they had probably seen in Malaysia and then heard from the South African lecturer.”
<div id="attachment_752869" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-752869" class="size-large wp-image-752869" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-10-1024x576.png" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-10-1024x576.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-10-300x169.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-10-768x432.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-10-1536x864.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Cover-images-10-2048x1152.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Students&#8217; doors that had anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian posters, including one with the genocidal anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea.” (Photo: Courtesy)</div>
A few Jewish students retaliated by ripping down the posters and scheduling a meeting with the ship’s dean, Marti Fessenden. According to Short, Fessenden told students not only that the slogans on the posters were not offensive, but also that they should be grateful they can hide their Jewish identity, unlike other minorities.
“She proceeded to tell them that they should, in fact, find themselves to be lucky and grateful that they can hide their Jewish identity and that black people do not have that opportunity,” Short said, adding that the dean eventually took back the statement after complaints from parents.
The next day, one of the Jewish students — who scheduled the meeting with Fessenden — found a letter in her mailbox with the genocidal anti-Israel slogan “from the river to the sea.”
A world map, which is a central symbol to SaS, was also vandalized with the words “terrorist” and “Nazi” written next to Israel with the Jewish state’s name crossed out and replaced with “Palestine.”
<div id="attachment_752853" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-752853" class="size-large wp-image-752853" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Map-432x576.jpeg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Map-432x576.jpeg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Map-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Map.jpeg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" />Semester at Sea map vandalized with the words “terrorist” and “Nazi” written next to Israel. (Photo: Courtesy)</div>
This was just the beginning of on-ship rhetoric targeting Jewish students. During a rap performance held on the ship, the spouse of a “life-long learner” who serves as a mentor on the trip accused Israel of terrorism, genocide, being “thirsty for blood,” and being “about the money,” video of the event shows.
“In Ukraine, Putin is a criminal, but Netanyahu is getting a pass like he is invisible. We picking and choosing exactly who we call a terrorist… it’s f***** up that we can’t agree what is the human side, if it ain&#8217;t white kids dying then we just let it slide,” the man rapped.
“Look at Joe Biden, he don’t even hide it. Israel is thirsty for blood and he just get behind it. Complicit in genocide America is very quiet… the point is to gentrify through occupation,” he added. “It’s about the money, it’s always about the money.”
He then broke into song encouraging the enthusiastic crowd to chant “f*** that” after he shouted “apartheid” or “genocide.”
Semester at Sea posted a video on Instagram of the performer dancing with a dean on stage during his act — the video didn&#8217;t include his comments about Israel.
While in South Africa, students visited the Desmond Tutu Foundation and had photos of them featured in the Dean’s Memo with some holding a Palestinian flag, donning keffiyehs, and holding signs calling to “stop the genocide” and stating that “Zionism is racism.”
<div id="attachment_752859" style="width: 293px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-752859" class="size-large wp-image-752859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-11.00.15%E2%80%AFAM-283x576.png" alt="" width="283" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-11.00.15%E2%80%AFAM-283x576.png 283w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-11.00.15%E2%80%AFAM-147x300.png 147w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-11.00.15%E2%80%AFAM-768x1565.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-11.00.15%E2%80%AFAM-754x1536.png 754w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-11.00.15%E2%80%AFAM.png 800w" sizes="(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px" />Photos included in the Dean’s Memo with students holding a Palestinian flag, donning keffiyehs, and holding signs calling to “stop the genocide” and stating “Zionism is racism.”</div>
“Since we had two extra days at port due to our diversion, we were asked to visit two places that highlighted South Africa’s rich history of human rights activism,” the memo read, adding a quote from a student who went to the Desmond Tutu Foundation and met with with the head of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Usuf Chikte. “Thanks Kam for sending in your submissions and for sharing your reflections.”
In <a href="https://x.com/CAMERAorgUK/status/1733764231076471058" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a December interview</a>, Chikte called Hamas “liberator fighters” and denied the atrocities Hamas committed during its October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians in a December interview.
In a March 26 email to Jewish students, Fessenden said she made a “correction” to the Dean’s Memo and that the photos were “mistakenly included.”
“As I trust you are well aware, we mistakenly included a student group photo that included antisemitic signage in the memo yesterday,” Fessenden wrote. “As soon as it was pointed out, we removed the photo. We feel awful that the language on the signage was not noticed prior to it making into the memo [sic].”
In her public correction, Fessenden apologized for “this error and any harmful impact it may have caused.”
Short said she believes Semester at Sea’s relationship with the Desmond &amp; Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation is problematic in itself.
“In spite of all the good that Desmond Tutu has done, he is also known to be one of the biggest anti-Semites of our time,” Short said, referring to a <a href="https://www.jns.org/bishop-tutu-was-the-most-influential-anti-semite-of-our-time/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">label given</a> by Alan Dershowitz. “He has continuously supported anti-Israel movements and has been really offensive to the Jewish and Israel community.”
Tutu, who died in 2021, was an anti-apartheid human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Anglican bishop. He also was a pro-Palestinian activist, who spoke about the “influence” of the “Jewish lobby” and who made a speech at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum, urging forgiveness for the Nazis.
<div id="attachment_752871" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-752871" class="size-large wp-image-752871" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/06/GettyImages-452465510-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />ST PAUL, MN &#8211; JULY 20: Archbishop Desmond Tutu takes the stage during the 2014 Starkey Hearing Foundation So The World May Hear Gala at the St. Paul RiverCentre on July 20, 2014 in St. Paul, Minnesota.(Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Starkey Hearing Foundation)</div>
With no signs that anti-Semitism was subsiding on the trip and at the demand of parents, Semester at Sea flew the director of Hillel of Colorado, Daniel Bennett, onto the ship to provide support.
“For the past six weeks I’ve spoken, Zoomed, and texted daily with SAS parents (helpless and furious doesn’t do justice to how they feel, and I can only assure them I will do all I can when I get to Portugal – and after),” Bennett wrote in <a href="https://hillelcolorado.org/hillel-of-colorado-on-the-high-seas/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a blog post</a> before he boarded the ship in Portugal.
“Administrators at Colorado State University and in the SAS office in Ft. Collins now understand that what Jewish students onboard have faced is far more than garden-variety antisemitism.”
His blog claims the lecturer prior to South Africa said “Israel is a worse example of Apartheid than South Africa ever was” and that students wore t-shirts depicting the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, on the ship.
Bennet also said he spoke several times with “an onboard academic dean” who “cannot or will not check student behavior.”
According to Short, Jewish students were unable to meet with Bennett because his brief visit to the ship came while students were exploring a port.
“I don&#8217;t know if it was planned or not, but they had him fly on when the students were actually at port,” Short said. “They were aware of him being on the ship, and they were offered the opportunity to come back to the ship and meet with him but as you can imagine, most of these students already had plans and were on tours and could not make it back to meet with him.”
Bennett did not respond to a request for comment on his trip.
Semester at Sea&#8217;s Vice President of Marketing and Recruitment Jason Hughes, condemned anti-Semitism in an email to The Daily Wire. He declined to speak to the specific incidents alleged by students, and instead shared <a href="https://www.semesteratsea.org/each-voyage-is-life-changing-and-challenging-including-this-one/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a blog post</a> calling the past voyage “challenging” and not immune to “global happenings.”
“Like many people around the world, members of our shipboard community are impacted by the Middle East conflict,” the blog by Hughes states. “Sadness, fear, and anger over this conflict have sparked conversations and resulted in public displays of stances and beliefs. Visceral reactions to discourses and signs of support or disapproval have created discomfort for some and trepidation for others.”
Though the blog states that the program does not tolerate intolerance, it also includes a quote from Semester at Sea&#8217;s CEO stating that he welcomes last semester’s conditions on the ship.
“While we might wish that there were no challenging conditions on our ship, I don’t wish for that. I welcome it, as difficult as it may sometimes prove to be,” Scott Marshall, the president and CEO said.
While the voyage is over Short said she wants Semester at Sea to take responsibility for what students went through, and ensure its staff is better prepared for future semesters.
“I&#8217;m speaking out now because I don&#8217;t want future students to have to deal with what these students dealt with on this journey,” she said. “We know that this is going to happen again—unfortunately, this is the world we live in.”

Semester at Sea

How Semester At Sea Failed To Navigate College Anti-Semitism On This Year’s Cruise

Anti-Semitism

Gaza

Forty-five Christians are dead and a young girl seriously injured after a bus crashed off a cliff in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/south-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Africa</a> en route to an Easter church service.
The bus crash <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DoTransport" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> took place in Limpopo, the northernmost province of South Africa, and occurred after the vehicle veered off a cliff and burst into flames upon hitting the ground. According to various reports, the lone survivor of the accident was an 8-year-old girl who was now receiving medical attention at a nearby hospital.
The group was reportedly from Botswana and headed to Moria, South Africa, for Easter church services as Christians around the world prepare to commemorate the resurrection.
&#8220;I am sending my heartfelt condolences to the families affected by the tragic bus crash near Mamatlakala,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DoTransport" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> South African Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga. “Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time. We continue to urge responsible driving at all times with heightened alertness as more people are on our roads this Easter weekend.”
The South African Police Service and Limpopo Accident Response Team responded to the crash.
“It is alleged that the driver lost control, colliding with barriers on the bridge causing the bus to go over the bridge and hitting the ground, where it caught fire,” the South African Transportation Ministry said in a statement. &#8220;The Minister assures the public that the precise cause of the crash is under thorough investigation.&#8221;
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The Limpopo Department of Transportation said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LimpopoInMotion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> on Facebook that the truck had a Botswana license plate and that both South Africa and Botswana would be working to verify the citizenship of the victims of the crash.
“According to reports, the driver lost control, and the bus fell onto a rocky surface, some 50-metres under the bridge and caught fire,” the department said. “Rescue operations continued until the late hours of Thursday evening, as some bodies were burned beyond recognition, others trapped inside the debris and others scattered on the scene.”
Photos posted online showed Florence Radzilani, a member of the Executive Council for Transport and Community Safety for Limpopo, visiting the site of the disaster alongside police.

MixCollage-28-Mar-2024-04-19-PM-5474

45 Dead After Bus Crashes Off Cliff En Route To Easter Church Service

Christians

Easter

General

Last week, the U.N.’s International Court of Justice <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/12/1224363666/israel-hamas-war-palestinians-south-africa-genocide-case-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convened</a> at The Hague to hear arguments from South African representatives <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/10/south-africa-israel-icj-genocide-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accusing</a> the State of Israel of violating international law by carrying out a genocide to “destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”
Many influential figures across social media have agreed with the accusation, such as former UFC fighter Jake Shields who <a href="https://x.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1745592245615558846?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claims</a> America is clashing with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/11/1223238786/us-strikes-houthis-yemen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yemen</a> so that “&#8230; Israel can continue their genocide in Gaza.”
South Africa has also been backed by many in the film industry. A video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcwdep4oM5M&amp;t=8s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> last week by the Palestine Festival of Literature shows 29 actors from television series like “Game of Thrones” reading South Africa’s official case file.
So, is Israel actually committing genocide? The answer is simple — absolutely not.
The term “genocide” was originally <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/ideas-week/where-did-word-genocide-come" target="_blank" rel="noopener">coined</a> in 1944 by Jewish-Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in his book “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe.” Lemkin created the term as a response to the systematic killing of the Jews in Nazi occupied Europe. He chose the Greek prefix ‘genos,’ meaning race, and the latin suffix ‘cide,’ which means killing.
So, to claim the only Jewish nation in the world — formed by Holocaust survivors — is carrying out the same crime that befell its ancestors just eight decades ago is something that should not be taken lightly.
According to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Article II</a> of the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the term is defined as a group of acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
All it takes is a single word in that definition to establish their innocence, “intent.”
A quick glance into Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows they have no intention of eradicating the Arabs who live there.
As Israeli Defense Forces combat Hamas, a terror organization who purposely embeds themselves in hospitals and civilian areas to use the general population as human shields, they take countless steps to save as many innocent lives as possible. For example, before an airstrike occurs, Israel often sends <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/the-hamas-terrorist-organization/how-is-the-idf-minimizing-harm-to-civilians-in-gaza/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warning signs</a> to civilians in the strike zone. These signs include roof knock warning bombs, leaflet droppings, direct phone calls, and even complete abandonment of strikes they can&#8217;t clear out in time. One could argue that no nation on earth does more to prevent harm to civilians, because doing so can ultimately compromise the effectiveness of the operation.
A <a href="https://x.com/hashtag_NP/status/1744384492180021458?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">common argument</a> made by critics, especially in response to the aforementioned point, is the casualty count coming out of Gaza. Before addressing it directly, it should be understood that the number, which is now reportedly over 20,000, comes <a href="https://scrippsnews.com/stories/gaza-health-ministry-says-at-least-23-469-palestinians-killed-in-war/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">from</a> the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas is a terror organization who purposely places their own civilians in harms way, so their numbers should be taken with not only a grain, but a truckload of salt. Taking Hamas at their word is comparable to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-03-04/la-fg-russia-ukraine-military-casualties" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trusting</a> the Kremlin to give accurate figures for the number of Russian casualties sustained in their current war.
If the numbers are accurate, however, it is important to understand a high casualty count does not equate to genocide. During World War II, the United States and Britain <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51448486" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carried out</a> a joint bombing campaign against Dresden, Germany. While their overall goal was to defeat the Axis powers, 25,000 people died as a result of the campaign. To this day, the bombing of Dresden is not considered a genocidal act and rightfully so.
Another example from World War II are the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States. The damage caused by these operations was so extensive, historians have never been able to produce a concrete casualty count. <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2020/08/counting-the-dead-at-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Some estimates</a> place the figure around 110,000. Despite the soberingly large figure, America never went on trial for genocide against the Japanese because (similar to Israel) they never showed any intent to wipe out an entire race.
Many critics of South Africa’s actions at the U.N. have responded by criticizing them in return. British author and commentator Douglas Murray <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/preposterous-douglas-murray-rips-south-africa-for-accusing-israel-of-genocide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a>, “Its government is profoundly anti-Semitic, has been anti-Israel for years.” He also said they, “&#8230; always do this sort of thing to try to sort of distract attention among their own population from the failings of their own government.”
Similarly, Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman has shown a surprising willingness to differ from his party by openly defending Israel. At a luncheon hosted by the Orthodox Union, Fetterman <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sit-this-one-out-fetterman-blasts-south-africa-for-accusing-israel-of-genocide" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> South Africa by saying they should “sit this one out.”
Israel is not committing a genocide in Gaza. For almost two decades they have worked tirelessly to defend their citizens from Hamas and other terrorist organizations. At any point, Israel’s superior military could have wiped out their enemies in the Gaza Strip, but they haven’t. The population in Gaza, on the other hand, has <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/HRV/palestine/population-growth-rate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">grown</a> consistently at an unprecedented rate. Hamas started this war on October 7, 2023, with a massacre of innocent civilians, and it will continue until the terrorists who carried it out are no longer a threat. Let&#8217;s hope that happens soon, so civilians on both sides can live safely.
* * *
Jacob Falach is a writer and student in Nashville, TN. You can find him on Instagram at: @jacobfalach
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The International Court of Justice Public Hearing On South Africa’s Gaza Genocide Case Against Israel

Why South Africa’s Claims Of Genocide In Gaza Are False

Why South Africa's Claims Of Genocide In Gaza Are False

Israel Defense Forces (IDF)

Palestinians

Readers Pass

United Nations

British author and commentator Douglas Murray blasted South Africa for accusing Israel of genocide in its war against Hamas, calling the claim “preposterous.”
This week, South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice.
Murray appeared on Talk TV with host Julia Hartley-Brewer, who asked if claims of genocide against Israel had any foundation, Murray replied, “Absolutely not. As I’ve mentioned before to you, Julia, the population of Gaza has grown by almost a million in the last 16 years, so it’s a very strange type of genocide where the population actually increases.”
“You mention, of course, this preposterous action by this South African government,” he continued. “If you go to South Africa, as I have been, you’ll find that South Africa is one of the most beautiful and amazing countries in the world — and it’s one of the most hideously run. Major cities like Johannesburg have massive electricity blackouts. There’s horrible corruption by the government; they can’t provide the most basic things to the people. Terrible violence and much more, and horrible, horrible poverty in the townships.”
“Its government is profoundly anti-Semitic, has been anti-Israel for years,” Murray said of South Africa’s government. “And they always do this sort of thing to try to sort of distract attention among their own population from the failings of their own government.”
Murray pointed out that one of Great Britain’s leading anti-Israel advocates had joined with South Africa in its efforts: “It’s very telling, by the way, Julia, that one of the people that’s joined this initiative of the South Africans to try to take Israel to the Hague for a non-existent war crime, one of the people who’s joined that effort is Jeremy Corbyn.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Douglas Murray slams South Africa’s “preposterous action” in The Hague after they accused Israel of committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza.
“South Africa’s government is profoundly antisemitic &#8211; has been anti-Israel for years.”<a href="https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JuliaHB1</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasKMurray?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DouglasKMurray</a> <a href="https://t.co/K4gde1ZpP1">pic.twitter.com/K4gde1ZpP1</a>
&mdash; Talk (@TalkTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/TalkTV/status/1745447275911057824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Murray followed by tweeting, “South Africa support[s] Hamas which carried out the 7th October massacres. Hamas is not a state, but South Africa is. So they should be taken to The Hague for supporting genocide. Please report this to the Met Police and others so South Africa can be held to account for its crimes.”
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South Africa support Hamas which carried out the 7th October massacres. Hamas is not a state, but South Africa is. So they should be taken to The Hague for supporting genocide. Please report this to the Met Police and others so South Africa can be held to account for its crimes.
&mdash; Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) <a href="https://twitter.com/DouglasKMurray/status/1745834929097761121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Edinburgh International Book Festival 2017

‘Preposterous’: Douglas Murray Rips South Africa For Accusing Israel Of Genocide

Douglas Murray

genocide

Pennysylvania Democratic senator John Fetterman, who has recently shown a willingness to publicly differ from the party line espoused by his Democratic colleagues, harshly denounced South Africa — which has a history of racial violence — for accusing Israel of genocide in its war against Hamas.
South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the United Nations’ top court, the International Court of Justice. Eylon Levy, a spokesman for Israel, said Israel would send a legal team “to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel.”
“Who are &#8230; they really fighting?” Fetterman declared about Hamas at a luncheon hosted by the Orthodox Union. “It’s a group of cowards. They hide in tunnels; they hide behind civilians. They attack, kill, mutilate children, women; and they do that. Stop talking about proportion on that. They shot their best shot on October 7, and they would have taken more lives if they could have &#8230; but they couldn’t do it.”
Then he turned to South Africa’s accusation targeting Israel: “And now let’s also talk about that: Now we’re talking about genocide. And now, South Africa now, is bringing that kind of a trial. Maybe South Africa &#8230; ought to sit this one out when they’re talking about criticizing Israel. Sit it out!”
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“Maybe you ought to sit this one out!” A fiery <a href="https://twitter.com/SenFettermanPA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SenFettermanPA</a> responds to the libelous claims made against <a href="https://twitter.com/Israel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Israel</a> by South Africa at the International Court of Justice.<a href="https://t.co/7pKvOr1eKA">https://t.co/7pKvOr1eKA</a> <a href="https://t.co/1I9BJoSAdW">pic.twitter.com/1I9BJoSAdW</a>
&mdash; Dovi Safier (@safier) <a href="https://twitter.com/safier/status/1745237454070681725?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Fetterman also spoke of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who have created havoc in American cities, saying, “Protests all around the nation. They’re blocking tunnels; they’re blocking roads. Why? Why aren’t they protesting, ‘When will we get the hostages back home?’ Why aren’t they protesting Hamas? Why aren’t they protesting systemic rape and torture of Israeli woman and children? I will never get it.”
“Hamas is anathema to peace,” he stated. “We’ll never have a stable two-state solution. We will never have any peace for Israel until they are fully eliminated. It is the right for Israel to eliminate them. That right doesn’t come from me or anyone other than from Israel, and not only do they have the right to do that. I encourage them to do that. I hope they do that. Every last one.”
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NEW — Fetterman, at <a href="https://twitter.com/OrthodoxUnion?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OrthodoxUnion</a> luncheon, on nationwide pro-Palestinian protests: 
“Why aren’t they protesting, ‘When will we get the hostages back home?’ Why aren’t they protesting Hamas? Why aren&#39;t they protesting systemic rape and torture of Israeli women and children?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/kkfzh9nSZj">pic.twitter.com/kkfzh9nSZj</a>
&mdash; Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobkornbluh/status/1745233087099727981?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Soon after the October 7 Hamas massacre of 1200 Israelis, Fetterman released <a href="https://www.fetterman.senate.gov/press-releases/statement-from-senator-fetterman-on-israel/">a statement</a> expressing strong support for Israel and even countered the political Left&#8217;s false claims that Israel bombed a hospital inside Gaza when, in reality, the parking lot at the hospital was struck by a rocket that was launched by Palestinian terrorists.
“Innocent Israelis were the victims of a terrorist attack that resulted in the largest loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust,” Fetterman <a href="https://twitter.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1714776985098940706">wrote</a> on X. “Now we know that the tragedy at the Gaza hospital was not caused by Israel. I grieve for every innocent person and brave Israeli soldier killed since Hamas started this war.”
“If not for the horrific attacks by Hamas terrorists, thousands of innocent Israelis and Palestinians would still be alive today,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1714776987816910959">continued</a>. “Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women, and children.”
“Hamas does not want peace, they want to destroy Israel. We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1714776990589325759">concluded</a>. “In the meantime, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to quickly deliver the aid our ally Israel needs.”
After Reps. Rashida Tlaib (MI) and Ilhan Omar (MN) promoted accusations from the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry that falsely claimed that Israel killed 500+ people after bombing a hospital inside Gaza, Fetterman wrote, “It’s truly disturbing that Members of Congress rushed to blame Israel for the hospital tragedy in Gaza. Who would take the word of a group that just massacred innocent Israeli civilians over our key ally? I will always stand with Israel and look forward to supporting any military, intelligence, or humanitarian aid to get the job done.”
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I will always stand with Israel and look forward to supporting any military, intelligence, or humanitarian aid to get the job done.
&mdash; Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1714724242040770887?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Senators Meet For Their Weekly Policy Luncheons

‘Sit This One Out!’: Fetterman Blasts South Africa For Accusing Israel Of Genocide

John Fetterman

Convicted murderer and former South African Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius, who competed with carbon fiber prosthetic legs, was granted early release and will go on parole in January. 
Pistorius was granted parole on Friday by the Department of Correctional Services in South Africa, which will go into effect on January 5, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/blade-runner-oscar-pistorius-granted-parole-10-years-killing-girlfriend-valentines-day">reported</a>. The sprinter, nicknamed “Blade Runner,” was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp, after shooting her multiple times on Valentine’s Day morning in 2013. Pistorius was initially sentenced to 13 years and five months in prison for the slaying.
The sprinter gained popularity and fame after qualifying for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Pistorius was born without fibula bones, requiring doctors to amputate both of his legs when he was just 11 months old. He was the first amputee to <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/africa/athletic-legacy-the-first-amputee-to-win-able-bodied-track-medal-1.1927516">win</a> a world track medal among nondisabled participants at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and became the first double amputee to compete against able-bodied Olympians in 2012. 
Less than a year after shocking the world and competing in the Olympic Games, Pistorius fired four shots into a closed bathroom door at his Pretoria, South Africa, home, killing Steenkamp. Prosecutors argued that Pistorius shot Steenkamp, whom he had been dating for three months, in a fit of rage after the model had fled to the bathroom during an argument with the Olympian. Pistorius pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and a gun charge, arguing that he mistakenly shot Steenkamp thinking she was an intruder. 
He was convicted of manslaughter in 2014 and sentenced to five years in prison, but that conviction was overturned by a higher court, and Pistorius’ conviction was changed to murder with his sentence increasing to six years. Prosecutors appealed the ruling, arguing the sentence was too lenient, and in 2017, the sprinter’s sentence was increased to 13 years and five months by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeals, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/24/africa/oscar-pistorius-parole-intl/index.html">according</a> to CNN.  
Earlier this year, it was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blade-runner-pistorius-who-murdered-model-girlfriend-might-get-24-hour-guard-if-freed-on-parole">reported</a> that Pistorius would be given 24-hour police protection upon his possible release. A police source told The Daily Mail that Pistorius would be a target for criminal gangs after getting out of prison.
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“Pistorius killed a young woman and that in itself is a major no-no as far as Johannesburg’s criminal fraternity is concerned,” the source said, adding, “Oscar is a murderer, but once he has served his sentence, he should be able to rebuild his life and live safely.”

Oscar Pistorius

Former Olympic Sprinter Oscar Pistorius To Be Released On Parole Less Than 11 Years After Murdering Girlfriend

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Olympics

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