Outside the Durban Holocaust and Genocide Centre, anti-Israel activism crossed into political theatre.

On 9 May, outside the Durban Holocaust and Genocide Centre, anti-Israel activism crossed into political theatre.

Unable to find an actual local branch of “South African Jews for a Free Palestine” in Durban, activists from the South African Palestine Movement simply put on SAJFP t-shirts themselves and protested outside a Jewish communal institution as “friends of” the organisation.

Apparently, when there were no Jews available for the protest, the protesters improvised some.

The incident exposed a growing problem: fringe Jewish voices are repeatedly used to provide cover for campaigns directed at Jewish communal spaces. In Durban, even that cover had to be manufactured.

The irony is striking. Activists seemingly understood that protesting outside a Holocaust and genocide centre as non-Jews targeting a Jewish institution would look deeply uncomfortable. So instead, they dressed the protest in borrowed Jewish legitimacy.

Quite literally.

SAJFP represents a tiny fringe within South African Jewry, yet groups like this are routinely amplified as though they speak for the Jewish community broadly. They do not.

The Durban Holocaust and Genocide Centre exists to educate about the dangers of hate. Turning Holocaust memory into a backdrop for political performance demeans that mission.

A costume is not a community. And wearing a t-shirt is not the same as representing South African Jews