--- title: "Audrey Coleman implores SAJBD to break its silence on the atrocities faced by Palestinians" description: "Anti-apartheid and human rights activist Audrey Coleman (92) has written an open letter to the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, sharing her 'horror' at its silence and 'unconditional support of Israel', ignoring or justifying the daily atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people." type: "NewsArticle" publisher: "Daily Maverick" site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za" section: "OPEN LETTER OP-ED" author: "Audrey Coleman" author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/audrey-coleman/" canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-09-08-audrey-coleman-implores-sajbd-to-break-its-silence-on-the-atrocities-faced-by-palestinians/" published: "2025-09-08T21:24:42" updated: "2025-09-08T22:33:36" lang: "en-ZA" word_count: 666 --- # Audrey Coleman implores SAJBD to break its silence on the atrocities faced by Palestinians > Anti-apartheid and human rights activist Audrey Coleman (92) has written an open letter to the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, sharing her 'horror' at its silence and 'unconditional support of Israel', ignoring or justifying the daily atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people. By Audrey Coleman · Published 8 September 2025, 23:24 SAST · Updated 9 September 2025, 00:33 SAST ## Key points - In a heartfelt plea, 92-year-old Audrey Coleman implores the SAJBD to break its silence on the atrocities faced by Palestinians, reminding them that true reconciliation demands not just remembrance of past horrors, but a courageous stand against current injustices. - 92-year-old Jewish activist Audrey Coleman condemns SAJBD's silence on Palestinian atrocities, urging a moral stand for humanity. - Coleman recalls the horrors of apartheid, drawing parallels to the current violence against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. - She calls for a unified political solution that respects the rights and dignity of both Israelis and Palestinians, advocating for peace over war. - The SAJBD declined to respond to Daily Maverick's request for comment on the matter. ## Content Attention: Chairperson Karen Milner and President Zev Krengel Palestine: How can we remain silent? I am a 92 year old Jewish South African mother and grandmother. I am a human rights activist. In 2018 you gave an award to my family, in recognition of our work to end apartheid and usher in a non-racial democracy in South Africa. The award was made in the spirit of reconciliation, forgiveness and a renewed commitment to universal values of humanity, peace and democracy. But I watch in horror as the SAJBD appears, through its silence and unconditional support of Israel, to ignore or justify the daily atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people. This conduct implicates and tarnishes all of us in whose name you supposedly speak. I cry every night when I watch the news and see the atrocities being committed against defenceless men, women and children whose only crime is to live in Palestine. I see them being deliberately starved, bombed, shot, mutilated. The scale of these horrors is beyond even the brutal repression we experienced at the hands of the apartheid regime. I watch in tears at the mass starvation of a population, the bombing and sniper fire on fellow humans whose only crime is to seek food at aid distribution points. But the SAJBD which you lead stays silent. Or springs to Israel’s defence. When the Nazis exterminated six million Jewish people, the international community declared genocide a crime, and many of those responsible were put on trial. ![Audrey and Max Coleman, in the 1980s in the Detainees Parents Support Committee offices. (Photo: Supplied / Neil Coleman)](https://cdn.dailymaverick.co.za/i/eMQAc37en1RSIuEuXA-XhLyPzmI=/200x100/smart/filters:strip_exif\(\)/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/WhatsApp-Image-2023-09-05-at-17.45.09.jpg) *File photo of Audrey and Max Coleman in the 1980s in the Detainees Parents Support Committee offices. (Photo: Supplied by Coleman family)* #### **Crime against humanity** When the apartheid regime brutally and systematically oppressed the black majority, the United Nations declared it a crime against humanity. Peoples and nations of the world spoke up. The SAJBD also decided — albeit late — to speak out against apartheid. There is little doubt that the atrocities of the Israeli regime against Palestinians in Gaza is likewise a crime against humanity. But this is not only happening in Gaza. The displacement and obliteration of Palestinians is being extended to the West Bank. Yet the SAJBD is silent. The horrific attacks by Hamas and other militants on 7 October 2023 on innocent Israelis stand to be roundly and clearly condemned. But those attacks can never justify the ongoing crimes against Palestinians. Silence in the face of these atrocities in Palestine taints and endangers Jews in South Africa, and elsewhere. The attacks that continue to be unleashed by the Israeli state nearly two years after these events are leaving a trail of destruction so extreme, violent and unspeakable that revenge has turned into a campaign seeking extermination of a whole population. Does Israel want to be branded a rogue state, and Jews branded accomplices? We came back from the brink in South Africa fighting for peace and democracy. As Jews we must now stand up for the same in Israel and Palestine. For a political solution that unifies the people of the region in two states that protects, nourishes and promotes the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians. Please: banish the guns of war, marginalise the voices of hatred. Let the voices of peace rise! How can we go on watching children being targeted, bombed and starved? What has happened to our humanity? Speak up now. Before it’s too late. Yours sincerely Audrey Coleman **DM** Editor’s Note: The SAJBD was offered an opportunity by Daily Maverick to send a response prior to publication, but declined the offer. *Audrey Coleman became an active member of the Detainees Parents Support Committee when her sons were arrested and detained. Although not participating actively in politics while bringing up her sons, she later joined*[*Black Sash*](http://sahoseventhree.dd:8083/topic/black-sash)*, eventually becoming national secretary. In 1997, she testified to the*[*Truth and Reconciliation Commission*](https://sahistory.org.za/people/Truth%20and%20Reconciliation%20Commission)*(TRC) on the work of the detention and death of people under the apartheid government.* We have closed comments on this story, please write to letters@dailymaverick.co.za