South Africa bans Holocaust-denialist documentary
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Businessday
South Africa’s Film and Publication Board has banned distribution of the American documentary “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America”, deemed Holocaust-denialist and antisemitic. Possessing or distributing the film carries heavy fines or prison sentences, according to an official notice from the regulator.
South Africa has banned the distribution of the American documentary “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America”, which denies the existence of the Holocaust and spreads antisemitic statements. The Film & Publication Board, the South African body responsible for classifying works, refused to give it a classification, according to a government notice.
The board said the film trivialises the suffering of Holocaust victims and incites hatred. It specifically condemned the comparison of Jews to “parasites among the nations” and the dissemination of false claims about their control of the media. The decision bars the distributor from offering the documentary on platforms in the country; people who possess or distribute it face fines or imprisonment.
The decision followed a complaint by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, the representative organisation of South Africa’s Jewish community. It was alerted after the film was screened at the Soweto Theatre in June 2023 and welcomed the refusal to classify it, saying the work conveys racist and antisemitic stereotypes.
