A South African television presenter has been fired after she challenged an interviewee who compared Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza to the Holocaust. The dismissal drew outrage from Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and from the local Zionist federation.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) said Friday that Juliet Newell would be removed from its broadcasting schedule after she asked Mamphela Ramphele, the chair of the Desmond Tutu IP trust, about a statement by the trust comparing Israel’s military operation to Nazi actions against Jews in the concentration camps during World War II.
In the interview aired Friday, Newell, who doesn’t have a record of advocating for Israel, calmly asked Ramphele if she didn’t think her statement likening the famine in Gaza to the Holocaust was “provocative.”
“What provocative? It is a holocaust,” Ramphele answered.
“But how can you compare them?” Newell countered.
“Why can’t I compare them?” Ramphele retorted.
“Because they’re different,” Newell answered. “I’m not saying Gaza isn’t horrific. It is horrific. But comparing them, it almost undermines what the Holocaust was all about.”
Ramphele responded: “It is a holocaust by any definition if you look at the deliberate attack on children, on women, on unarmed citizens, and the starvation, using starvation as a weapon of war. Tell me… how different it is?”
As the conversation continued, Ramphele said: “What happened in the Holocaust was a people, the Nazis, who decided that the Jews have to be exterminated. It’s the same thing.”
After several more minutes of back-and-forth, an exasperated Newell concluded: “I’m not quibbling over whether this is worse than the Holocaust. What I’m saying is there are two completely different issues and I think it’s mischievous of you to bring that up and use it against this. You know it’s provocative.”
The conversation ended with the two agreeing to disagree before moving on to more domestic topics.
Following the interview, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign launched a campaign targeting SABC for “whitewashing” Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
“It is unacceptable that a public broadcaster would consistently adopt language that mirrors Israeli talking points, using phrases like ‘allegations of genocide’ or ‘according to Gaza health ministry,'” a letter to the broadcaster read. “This framing sanitizes mass atrocities, misleads the South African public, and diminishes the reality of crimes committed against Palestinians.”
South Africa’s Sunday Times went so far as to call Newell a “Mampara,” local slang for an idiot or fool.
Shortly afterward, SABC announced that Newell would be taken off its schedule.
“The South African Broadcasting Corporation is aware of the matter relating to the conduct of one of its news presenters in an interview conducted with Dr Mamphela Ramphele,” the company said in a statement. The station said it had “established policies to ensure the dissemination of diverse viewpoints,” with policies “aimed at building trust with the public and in ensuring that our content, in all its formats, continues to resonate with the prescripts of our public mandate.”
Dani Dayan, chairman of Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial, charged that SABC’s decision represented a moral failure.
“Instead of standing by journalist @julietnewell for rejecting a grotesque Holocaust distortion, @SABCNews removed her from the air,” he posted on X. “Punishing integrity while tolerating falsehood is a moral failure. This is intolerable.”
In a statement Tuesday, the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF) slammed SABC’s decision, charging that it was “not a lapse of judgment, it is an attack on editorial independence.”
“In the interview, Dr Ramphele described events in Gaza as a ‘Holocaust,” SAZF said. “That is an extraordinary and provocative claim. Under the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, drawing comparisons between contemporary Israeli policy and that of the Nazis is antisemitic, context considered, while criticism of Israel on the same terms as any other country is not. The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) Code requires that controversial statements be tested for accuracy and context. Ms Newell did exactly that, she challenged the assertion, signposted the existence of opposing views, and sought to inform viewers rather than inflame them. That is correct journalistic practice, and punishing her for it amounts to censorship by proxy.”
By sidelining Newell, SAZF continued, “the SABC has chosen appeasement over principle. This capitulation chills free enquiry and narrows the space for honest debate in a constitutional democracy.”
SAZF called on the SABC to review the decision, issue a public apology, and affirm that “editors, not lobbyists, set newsroom standards.”