{"id":119461,"date":"2025-02-25T17:00:27","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119461"},"modified":"2025-02-25T10:25:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T08:25:49","slug":"25-00-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119461","title":{"rendered":"South African Jews Slam President for Failing to Condemn Hamas Murder of Bibas Children"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>South African Jews Slam President for Failing to Condemn Hamas Murder of Bibas Children<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Ailin Vilches Arguello<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, on the day the bodies of deceased hostages, identified at the time by Palestinian terror groups as Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children, were handed over under the terms of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS\/Itay Cohen<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Jewish community has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to condemn the murder of\u00a0Israeli children Ariel and Kfir Bibas<\/a>, their mother, and another elderly hostage kidnapped by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists, lambasting his silence during a recent address to a major international gathering on the same day that the hostages\u2019 bodies were paraded in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a statement shared with\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>\u00a0on Monday, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) \u2014 the umbrella group of the country\u2019s Jewish community \u2014 slammed Ramaphosa for failing to condemn Hamas\u2019s brutality or even acknowledge the hostage victims in his speech last week to senior diplomats from leading rich and developing countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his remarks at the Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers\u2019 meeting in Johannesburg, Ramaphosa \u201conly mentioned the suffering of the Palestinians\u201d without noting the\u00a0Israeli hostages who were killed<\/a>\u00a0while in captivity in Gaza, according to SAJBD.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Africa welcomes the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas as a crucial first step toward ending the severe humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians in Gaza,\u201d Ramaphosa said at the gathering.<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, SAJBD\u2019s president, Zev Krengel, and national chairperson, Prof. Karen Milner, penned an open letter to Ramaphosa in which they denounced his remarks as \u201creprehensible,\u201d criticizing the South African leader for his failure to call out Hamas for its atrocities and questioning his government\u2019s credibility to lead international forums such as the G20.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the same day that these comments were made,\u00a0Hamas paraded four coffins<\/a>\u00a0of Israeli civilian hostages in a macabre ceremony that violated basic human rights principles and every standard of basic human decency,\u201d they wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the bodies of 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir \u2014 the youngest hostages abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 \u2014 were returned to Israel as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the handover, Hamas had staged what it called a victory celebration in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. The Palestinian terrorist group placed the coffins of the four hostages on a makeshift stage in an abandoned cemetery, turning their deaths into a theatrical condemnation of Israel and its leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lining the back of the stage was a massive poster of\u00a0Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u00a0shown as a vampire dripping with blood, with the four slain hostages in front of him alongside the sentence: \u201cThe war criminal Netanyahu and his Nazi army killed them with missiles from Israeli warplanes.\u201d Around the stage, mock missiles bore messages shifting the blame onto Israel and the United States. One read: \u201cThey were killed by USA bombs.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thousands of onlookers had gathered, including many children and babies, cheering as masked Hamas terrorists brandished weapons. Music blared from loudspeakers, punctuated by chants of victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is reprehensible that on the very day that these depraved acts that so shocked the world, once again exposing the brutality of Hamas, you chose to omit any mention of this in your comments regarding Palestine in your speech at the G20,\u201d the SAJBD letter read, accusing Ramaphosa and his government of failing to take any action to help secure the hostages\u2019 release, despite their ties with Hamas.<\/span><\/p>\n

In December,\u00a0South Africa hosted two Hamas officials<\/a>\u00a0who attended a government-sponsored conference in solidarity with the Palestinians. One of the officials had been sanctioned by the US government for his role with the terrorist organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Krengel and Milner argued that instead of working toward peace, South Africa\u2019s ruling African National Congress (ANC) has lost its \u201cmoral compass\u201d and further polarized opinions toward the Gaza conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYour complete lack of any form of sympathy for this elderly man, these babies and their mother, and your failure to call out Hamas for this atrocity shows how far your government has deviated from the moral compass we were recognized as having in 1994,\u201d the SAJBD wrote. \u201cWhen the brutal murder of babies is ignored, we know that we are no longer a beacon of human rights.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ariel was 4 years old and Kfir was 10 months old at their time of death in November 2023, according to the Israel Defense Forces. They were held\u00a0hostage in Gaza for 503 days<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Friday morning that based on forensics finding from the identification process, examination of Kfir and Ariel\u2019s bodies showed Hamas terrorists killed the young brothers \u201cwith their bare hands.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, tensions between Israel and Hamas escalated after an Israeli forensic examination revealed that the body of the boys\u2019 mother was not returned. The Israeli military said the received body \u201cis not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body.\u201d Hamas\u00a0returned her actual body later<\/a>\u00a0in the week, following outcry from Israeli leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel ashamed as South Africans that our leadership has failed the Bibas babies and other hostages whose return could have ended the war to the benefit of both the Gazan and Israeli people,\u201d the SAJBD letter read. \u201cWe wonder if South Africa has lost its credibility to lead such an important organization as the G20 during these critical times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists started the war in Gaza when they murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during their invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel responded with a military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas\u2019s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fighting stopped last month, when both sides\u00a0agreed to an ongoing ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0brokered by Egypt and Qatar, with US support. Talks have begun to extend and expand the ceasefire, which so far has included limited hostage releases in exchange for releasing many times more Palestinian prisoners, including terrorists serving life sentences.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 60 hostages remain in Gaza, roughly half of whom are believed to be dead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7 massacre and the onset of the Gaza war, South Africa has been of the harshest critics of Israel on the world stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the past year, the South African government has been pursuing\u00a0its case at the International Court of Justice<\/a>\u00a0(ICJ) accusing Israel of committing \u201cstate-led genocide\u201d in its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ramaphosa led the crowd at an election rally in a chant of \u201cFrom the river to the sea<\/a>, Palestine shall be free\u201d \u2014 a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists that has been widely interpreted as a genocidal call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.<\/span><\/p>\n

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South African Jews Slam President for Failing to Condemn Hamas Murder of Bibas Children Ailin Vilches Arguello Israelis sit together as they light candles and hold posters with the images Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, seized during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, on the day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119461"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119475,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119461\/revisions\/119475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}