United with Israel
“I’m under an obligation as a Christian to love Israel, to pray for [the] peace of Jerusalem, which actually means the peace of Israel,” said South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
South African Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said the Bible obligates him to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and rejected claims by an anti-Israel group accusing him of bias.
“I’m under an obligation as a Christian to love Israel, to pray for [the] peace of Jerusalem, which actually means the peace of Israel, and I cannot, as I Christian, do anything other than love and pray for Israel, because I know, hatred for Israel by me and for my nation, can only attract unprecedented curses upon our nation,” the judge said during a recent webinar discussion with South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein, hosted by The Jerusalem Post.
The anti-Israel group Africa4Palestine, the South African branch of the BDS movement, filed a complaint with South Africa’s Judicial Service Commission over the chief justice’s comments, accusing him of breaching the judicial code of conduct.
Mogoeng slammed the criticism of his call to pray, saying South Africa’s judges should not be “censored, gagged or muzzled.”
Mogoeng said Africa4Palestine took his remarks out of context to make an example out of anyone who differs with it, the South African news website News24 reported.
“Somehow, Africa4Palestine has, in my view, found a way to build a case by taking these remarks completely out of their obvious context to achieve its goal of making an example of me to any who would ever dare to knowingly or unknowingly differ with them,” Mogoeng wrote in a 19-page affidavit to the Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC) in response to the complaint.
The BDS movement calls for countries and organizations to boycott Israel and Israelis, divest their investments in Israeli companies and put sanctions of the Jewish state. Aside from its anti-Israel messages, the group does not call for peace with Israel. BDS has been branded by countries like Canada and Germany as an anti-Semitic organization.
Mogoeng said that his Bible-based prayers for peace in Jerusalem and his refusal to hate or curse were now being made out to look like a preference of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“In sum, these are all being weaponized against me, and made to look like conduct so unbecoming of a judge as to justify the imposition of some form of punishment on me. And all this, in the name of human rights,” Mogoeng said.
Mogoeng wrote that judges should not be needlessly “censored, gagged or muzzled” and should “be free to continue to write articles or books, deliver public lectures or participate in radio or television programs to share reflections on human rights, constitutionalism, policies or any other subject of public interest.”
南非首席法官Mogoeng Mogoeng说：“作为基督徒，我有义务爱以色列，为耶路撒冷的和平祈祷，这实际上意味着以色列的和平。”
亚基尔·本森（Yakir Benzion）与以色列联合
南非首席法官Mogoeng Mogoeng说，《圣经》规定他有义务为耶路撒冷的和平祈祷，并拒绝了反以色列组织指责他的偏见的主张。
“作为基督徒，我有义务爱以色列，为耶路撒冷的和平祈祷，这实际上意味着以色列的和平。作为基督徒，我除了爱和为以色列祈祷外，别无他法，因为我知道，对我和对我国家的仇恨只会给我们国家带来空前的诅咒。”法官在最近与《耶路撒冷邮报》主持的南非酋长拉比·沃伦·戈德斯坦举行的网络研讨会上说。
BDS运动南非分部的反以色列组织Africa4Palestine就首席大法官的言论向南非司法服务委员会投诉，指责他违反了司法行为守则。
莫古恩（Mogoeng）抨击了他呼吁祈祷的批评，他说南非的法官不应“受到审查，堵住嘴巴或被枪口”。
南非新闻网站News24报道说，Mogoeng表示，Africa4Palestine的言论是不合情理的，以举例说明与之不同的人。
“我认为，非洲4巴勒斯坦已经找到了一种建立案例的方法，将这些言论完全从其明显的上下文中剔除，以实现其目标，使我成为任何敢于有意或无意与之不同的人的榜样。 ”，Mogoeng在针对投诉的19页宣誓书中向司法行为委员会（JCC）写道。
BDS运动呼吁各国和组织抵制以色列和以色列人，撤出对以色列公司的投资，并对犹太国家实行制裁。除了发出反以色列的信息外，该组织并未呼吁与以色列实现和平。 BDS已被加拿大和德国等国家标记为反犹太组织。
莫古恩说，他的基于圣经的为耶路撒冷的和平祈祷，以及拒绝仇恨或诅咒，现在看来像是以色列在巴以冲突中的偏爱。
“总而言之，这些都是对我的武器，并使其看起来像法官不愿采取的行为，以证明对我施加某种形式的惩罚是正当的。而所有这些，都是以人权的名义。”