South African Healthcare Professionals' Critiques of Israel: Decolonial Solidarity or Antisemitic Bias?

This paper was first published in Kesher, the Journal of the Association of Jewish Psychologists. It is reprinted here with the permission of the editor. It should be cited as: Strous, M. (2025). South African healthcare professionals' critiques of Israel: Decolonial solidarity or antisemitic bias? Kesher: Journal of the Association of Jewish Psychologists, 1 (2), 30-37.

Abstract

This paper critically examines the growing trend among some South African healthcare professionals and/or their associated professional organizations of drawing parallels between Israel's policies and South Africa's apartheid legacy. Legitimate criticism of government policies is important; however, the use of terms like "colonial," "apartheid," or "genocide" to describe Israel raise significant questions about historical accuracy, the application of double standards and antisemitism. The paper explores South Africa's apartheid history, its impact on South African psychologists and allegations levied by psychological and medical organizations against Israel. The paper advocates for a more ethically grounded discourse that avoids harmful stereotypes and the potential destabilization of professional relationships.

Introduction

South Africa's apartheid regime (1948-1994) institutionalized a deeply racist, segregationist order that systematically oppressed the Black majority and privileged the White minority. This history has profoundly influenced the moral and political consciousness of South African health professionals. Today, many of these professionals draw on the apartheid experience to challenge perceived injustices elsewhere in the world and specifically in Israel.

Over the last decade, and particularly since October 2023, criticism of Israel by South African healthcare organizations has intensified. Public statements, academic articles and social media posts on sites hosted by some South African healthcare organizations echo the language of the anti-apartheid movement, alleging "medical apartheid" and "colonialism" in Israel's treatment of Gazans. While such critiques resonate with local experiences of oppression, questions arise concerning the accuracy and fairness of equating Israel with a colonial or apartheid enterprise-especially given the multi-ethnic reality of Jewish communities and the historical context of Jewish self-determination. The critiques of Israel go further to claim that it is guilty of "genocide." This paper examines the critiques, assessing whether they genuinely reflect anti-apartheid values of equity and liberation, or whether such critiques risk slipping into harmful double standards and antisemitic tropes.

Apartheid and Its Impact on Mental Health Services

Under apartheid, South Africa enforced strict racial hierarchies, granting political, economic and social power to the White minority while denying Black South Africans basic human rights. These inequalities were acutely reflected in mental healthcare (Strous, 2003).

Public mental health facilities were poorly resourced and largely inaccessible to the Black majority. By contrast, White communities had more ready access to private mental health services that were well funded and culturally attuned to their needs (Strous, 2003). Compounding this inequality was the near exclusion of Black psychologists and African cultural perspectives from mainstream psychology, which remained largely Eurocentric.

These injustices galvanized a movement within the profession. Progressive psychologists and activists challenged the notion of a "value-free" or apolitical psychology, arguing instead that ethical responsibility required confronting systemic oppression. They advocated community-based, socially engaged mental health initiatives.

Decolonization Discourse in South Africa

Despite South Africa's transition to a nonracial constitutional democracy in 1994, racial inequalities and socio-economic disparities continue to prevail (Modiri, 2012). Renewed calls for "decolonization" have gained momentum, aiming to confront the enduring legacies of colonialism and apartheid that remain deeply entrenched within the country's academic, social and cultural frameworks.

In psychology, some scholars emphasize that the field must free itself from Eurocentric models that once underpinned oppressive structures. Decolonial psychologists urge for a reclaiming of African knowledge systems and cultural practices, reshaping academic curricula and cultivating an explicitly socially engaged psychology (Pillay, 2017; Segalo & Cakata, 2017). The goal is not simply to add non-Western perspectives but to unsettle the 'coloniality' of unequal power relations.

The Psychological Society of South Africa's Position on Israel

Within this milieu, the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) has published statements that express solidarity with Palestinians and compared Israeli policies to apartheid (PsySSA, 2020, 2023). PsySSA's Decolonising Psychology Interest Group emphasizes the need to dismantle colonial mindsets in psychology. In Youth Day 2024 commemorations, the society posted material evoking Nelson Mandela's assertion that South Africa's freedom remains incomplete without the freedom of Palestinians (PsySSA, 2024b).

Furthermore, in October 2024, PsySSA honored South Africa's legal team at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with the 4th Steve Biko/Frantz Fanon Award. PsySSA credited the team for pursuing claims of genocide against Israel (PsySSA, 2024c).

These public endorsements reflect the views of certain segments within the South African government. The African National Congress has aligned with BRICS nations such as Iran and adopted a critical stance toward Israel.

Broader Critiques by South African Healthcare Professionals

Beyond PsySSA, other healthcare leaders and medical organizations have made anti-Israel statements, including, inter alia, the following:

1. Shabir Madhi, a prominent vaccinologist and medical faculty Dean, posted inflammatory comments, including likening Israel's prime minister to Hitler and lauding a Hamas leader (South African Jewish Report, 2024).
2. The South African Journal of Bioethics and Law published articles denouncing Israel for "medical apartheid," systematic targeting of healthcare infrastructure and genocide (Mahomed, 2023; Soni, 2023; Sathar, 2023). These critiques invoke South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle and at least one paper advocates for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as an "ethical responsibility" congruent with the anti-apartheid movement (Moolla & Jacub, 2024).
3. In 2024, the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) and the Islamic Medical Association of South Africa (IMASA) protested the "Future of Health Summit," hosted by a prominent medical insurer. They denounced the insurer for including several expert speakers from Sheba Hospital in Israel (under the Israeli Ministry of Health). This was even though the summit also featured experts on innovative medical technologies from around the world, including several from Arab countries. SAMNET and IMASA claimed that the International Court of Justice had ruled that Israel was guilty of genocide, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment.

SAMNET and IMASA further claimed, without evidence, that the insurer's members opposed engagement with Israeli institutions. This reflects a broader trend of organizations positioning themselves as representatives or voices for others. PsySSA often presents itself as the representative body for South African psychology, which it is not. The African National Congress makes claims of genocide against Israel, despite differing opinions within South Africa's Government of National Unity on the matter.

Assessing Coloniality and Genocide Claims

Rejecting the portrayal of Israel as Colonial

Arguments that frame Israel as a colonial state often draw on frameworks popularized by Frantz Fanon (1963), who sought to expose the oppression inherent in colonial racism. However, both Fanon and the decolonization movement have erred by oversimplifying Jewish and Israeli history.

Fanon, a significant source of inspiration for decolonization thinkers, investigated how antisemitism and anti-Black racism frequently overlapped. While he observed that Jews and Black people experienced systemic prejudice, he believed Jews generally had a more accessible path to assimilation in European societies (Frosh, 2020). Despite championing the need for both groups to assert their identities in the face of oppression, Fanon focused predominantly on the suffering of colonized people of color rather than that of predominantly white European Jews. Notably, he referred to the Holocaust as a "little family quarrel"-an offensive remark that trivialized the magnitude of the Shoah, a term that describes the calamity of the Holocaust. This may have been to challenge and "decenter" (Cheyette, 2019) Eurocentric perspectives and focus on the experience of the colonized. Fanon, an early activist for decolonization, urged those in previously colonized settings, such as South Africa, not to fashion themselves after Europe (Joosub, 2021). Still, Fanon's depiction of Jews as uniformly "White" and European (Frosh, 2020) failed to account for vast Middle Eastern and North African (Mizrahi) Jewish populations, including Jews of color who fled or were expelled from countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, and Egypt (Burston, 2023; Goldstein, 2023).

From a critical psychology perspective, "whiteness" encompasses the systemic and structural dynamics of power and privilege that have historically advantaged predominantly white, European societies while marginalizing others. However, by neglecting the experiences of Mizrahi and other non-white Jews, the decolonial movement-rooted in these critical perspectives-risks perpetuating the very oversight it seeks to address: the erasure of diverse lived experiences.

Israel's establishment in 1948, following a UN resolution passed in 1947, was part of an anti-colonial struggle against the British Mandate. The founding of the State of Israel took place in the aftermath of both the Holocaust and the expulsion of numerous Jews from Arab countries, situating Israel as a refuge for a historically persecuted people rather than a mere colonial outpost (Burston, 2023; Frosh, 2020). Accusations of "colonial oppression" and the implication of an inevitable Jewish "whiteness" perpetuates antisemitic stereotypes by framing Jews-long subject to persecution-as oppressors.

Jewish identification and solidarity with Israel have largely increased following the October 2023 Hamas attacks, at least in America, the largest Jewish diaspora community outside of Israel. A survey by the American Jewish Committee (2024) reported increased identification with Israel and Jewish heritage. This renewed unity highlights Israel's role as an ancestral Jewish homeland. Portraying Israel as a colonial venture is culturally insensitive, trivializing the deep-rooted Jewish connection to an indigenous homeland.

Claims of Genocide

Some South African healthcare professionals laud their government's accusations of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Under international law, genocide requires specific intent to eradicate a particular group. However, demographic data show the population allegedly being eradicated is to the contrary increasing(Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2023), which challenges claims of systematic extermination.

Because of the October 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel's military response is directed against Hamas, a group designated as a terrorist organization in numerous countries, though not in South Africa. Hamas has a history of targeting Israeli civilians, most notably in its brutal attack on 7 October 2023, which heightened Israel's existential concerns. Equating Israel's response to genocide downplays the Holocaust, fosters antisemitism and undermines the country's responsibility to protect its citizens and sovereignty.

South Africa has faced criticism for employing "lawfare," a strategy that utilizes judicial processes to pursue political objectives (Dent, 2021). Its legal actions against Israel, accusing the state of genocide in the International Court of Justice, are widely viewed as part of a broader geopolitical agenda shaped by Iran and Qatar to undermine Israel, under the pretense of upholding international law (Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, 2024). Many Jewish commentators contend that Iran's deep-seated hostility toward Israel has spilled over into civil society, fueling a global surge in antisemitism.

Double Standards and the Question of Antisemitism

Movements such as BDS have been criticized for disproportionately criticizing Israel while overlooking countries with more severe human rights violations (World Jewish Congress, 2022). The enthusiasm with which they criticize Israel usually becomes muted when humanitarian crises involve non-Western or Muslim perpetrators, such as in the Sudan, Syria, China and Iran. This selective scrutiny indicates a double standard, contravening the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which includes the application of unique expectations to Jews or Israel (IHRA, 2021). 

Ethical Considerations in Healthcare Discourse

Professional Guidelines

Ethical rules from the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and acknowledged by the Psychological Society of South Africa (2007) stress impartiality, cultural competence and non-maleficence. Yet, the statements of healthcare organizations criticizing Israel have effectively escalated divisive rhetoric, overlooked Jewish suffering or justified terrorism against Israel and its citizenry. Such one-sided condemnations may erode trust in professional bodies, marginalize specific individual professionals within such professions, cause secondary trauma within Jewish communities and subvert the goal of healing. 

Advocating for international human rights and exercising freedom of expression are, of course, fundamental rights. However, it is essential to ensure that such expressions do not cross the line into hate speech, thereby inciting violence, intimidation or the marginalization of certain professionals within their professional organizations.

The Role of Reflective Practice

No professional is immune to cultural bias (Strous, 2023). Critical, reflective practice demands an honest examination of one's biases, whether they stem from Eurocentrism or anti-Jewish sentiment. While engaging with decolonial perspectives can be instrumental in challenging oppressive structures, applying these perspectives inconsistently undermines the principle of universal human rights. Overlooking the diverse historical and ethnic realities of Jewish communities risks perpetuating cultural erasure-the very injustice that decolonial theory seeks to confront.

Broader implications for Psychology

Jewish mental health professionals (2024), including the current writer, raised concerns with PsySSA, the Psychological Society of South Africa, regarding its endorsement of selective criticism of Israel. They highlighted this stance as a manifestation of contemporary antisemitism. They further argued that PsySSA's position could undermine the safety and integrity of psychological practices, therapeutic relationships and collaboration among local and international psychological organizations. Furthermore, they cautioned that members of the public who disagree with PsySSA's views might feel discouraged from seeking psychological support, even when needed, due to PsySSA's frequently claimed representation of the broader South African psychology community (which is not factually substantiated). These concerns by South African Jewish professionals echo a growing global trend, where disputes over the Middle East conflict strain collegial relationships and threaten psychoanalytic organizations (The Guardian, 2023).

Conclusion

South African healthcare professionals have rightfully taken on social justice causes. Their critiques of Israel, however, are often framed within an inaccurate and culturally insensitive understanding of history and legal context. Labelling Israel "colonial" or "genocidal" oversimplifies its complex, multi-ethnic reality, and perpetuates antisemitic stereotypes-casting a historically persecuted group as oppressors. Not acknowledging that the founding of the independent State of Israel reflected the realization of an indigenous movement and a response to Jewish refugee crises constitutes a form of ideological denial or 'social amnesia' (Jacoby, 1975).

The principle of "do no harm" extends beyond patient care; it entails a professional's responsible public discourse that avoids demonization or double standards. South African healthcare professionals seeking to fulfill a critical or decolonial mandate need a more balanced approach that acknowledges the complexities of Jewish history and identity. Promoting genuine liberation rather than reinforcing antisemitic narratives requires no less.

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