SAJBD welcomes decision by the Film and Publications Board

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) welcomes the decision by the Film and Publications Board (FPB) to issue a “Refused Classification” ruling regarding the film Hebrews to Negros – Wake Up Black America. In terms of the ruling, the distributor has been requested to remove the film from all platforms in South Africa.

The SAJBD approached the FPB to reclassify the film on the grounds that it propagated racist stereotypes against Jewish people and as such amounted to unlawful incitement to hatred on the basis of both religion and ethnicity. Among other antisemitic slurs, the film portrayed Jews as a nation of liars who falsified history as a matter of strategy and as being a malign hidden hand behind world events through their supposed control of the banking and educational systems and the mass media. It further associated both Jews and their religion with the Devil and other images of extreme evil.

In refusing classification to this offensive film, the FPB has sent a strong message that the right to freedom of expression does not amount to a license to defame and propagate hatred against an entire group of people simply because of who they are and what they believe.

The SAJBD is encouraged to see how the various regulatory systems and institutions that are in place in South Africa to ensure that freedom of speech is not allowed to degenerate into hate speech are successfully fulfilling their mandate, and how in so doing they are helping to safeguard the fundamental right to dignity and equality of all citizens of our country