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South African Jewish Women Protest Hamas Rapes as Government Seeks to Boost Pressure on Israel
South African Jewish women demonstrating on International Women’s Day. Photo: SAJBD
South Africa’s Jewish community has continued to display widespread support for Israel as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has pledged to maintain its pressure on the Jewish state at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Hundreds of Jewish women marched to Constitution Hill in Johannesburg last Friday in an International Women’s Day demonstration calling attention to the plight of 19 Israeli women kidnapped during the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom and still held in Gaza. The area houses a former prison complex where many historic leaders were incarcerated, among them Mahatma Gandhi, the former Indian independence leader, and Nelson Mandela, the late president of South Africa who led the ANC’s struggle against white minority rule. Protesters held signs declaring “Me Too Unless You’re a Jew” — a reference to the denial that mass rapes occurred during the Hamas onslaught expressed by many of the terror group’s international allies.
Speakers at the event included Miriam Gvaram, an Israeli feminist and social activist who represents the Survivors of Sexual Violence Advocacy Group. Gvaram is also meeting with NGOs and media outlets during her stay in South Africa to brief them on the extent of the sexual violence suffered by Hamas’ female victims.
Organizers pointed to last week’s UN-issued report confirming that its field researchers “found clear and convincing’ information that hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza were sexually abused and that there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe that this sexual violence is continuing.”
At the same demonstration, the South African Jewish Board of Deputies handed over a memorandum to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office calling for a condemnation of the sexual violence and pressure to release the hostages.
Speaking over the weekend, Ramaphosa made no mention of the Israeli victims of Oct. 7 as he asserted that, in Pretoria’s view, Israel had failed to implement the ICJ’s recent ruling calling on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to exercise greater restraint in Gaza. The ruling was issued after South Africa failed in its bid to determine that Israel’s defensive war in Gaza constitutes a “genocide.”
“Israel has not been complying with the order that was issued by the court,” Ramaphosa said.
“One other concerning thing is that starvation which many organizations have been warning about has now arrived. People in Gaza are now starving,” Ramaphosa claimed.
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Trump Administration to Release Over $5 Billion School Funding That It Withheld
US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
President Donald Trump’s administration will release more than $5 billion in previously approved funding for K-12 school programs that it froze over three weeks ago under a review, which had led to bipartisan condemnation.
“(The White House Office of Management and Budget) has completed its review … and has directed the Department to release all formula funds,” Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the U.S. Education Department, said in a statement, adding funds will be dispersed to states next week.
Further details on the review and what it found were not shared.
A senior administration official said “guardrails” would be in place for the amount being released, without giving details.
Early in July, the Trump administration said it would not release funding previously appropriated by Congress for schools and that an initial review found signs the money was misused to subsidize what it alleged was “a radical leftwing agenda.”
States say $6.8 billion in total was affected by the freeze. Last week, $1.3 billion was released.
After the freeze, a coalition of mostly Democratic-led states sued to challenge the move, and 10 Republican US senators wrote to the Republican Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The frozen money covered funding for education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment and after-school and summer programs.
The Trump administration has threatened schools and colleges with withholding federal funds over issues like climate initiatives, transgender policies, pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza and diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
Republican US lawmakers welcomed the move on Friday, while Democratic lawmakers said there was no need to disrupt funding in the first place.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon separately said she was satisfied with what was found in the review and released the money, adding she did not think there would be future freezes.
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Israel to Resume Airdrop Aid to Gaza on Saturday, Military Says
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
Israel will resume airdrop aid to Gaza on Saturday night, the Israeli military said, a few days after more than 100 aid agencies warned that mass starvation was spreading across the enclave.
“The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations,” the military added in a statement.
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Trump Says Hamas ‘Didn’t Want to Make a Deal,’ Now Likely to Get ‘Hunted Down’
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – US President Donald Trump on Friday said the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas did not want to make a deal on a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza.
“Now we’re down to the final hostages, and they know what happens after you get the final hostages. And basically because of that, they really didn’t want to make a deal,” Trump said.
The comments followed statements by Middle East peace envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the effect that Israel was now considering “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending the terror rule of Hamas in the coastal enclave.
Trump added he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down.”
On Thursday, Witkoff said the Trump administration had decided to bring its negotiating team home for consultations following Hamas’s latest proposal. Witkoff said overnight that Hamas was to blame for the impasse, with Netanyahu concurring.
Trump also dismissed the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state.
Macron’s comments, “didn’t carry any weight,” the US leader said.
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