The SA Jewish Board of Deputies welcomes the judgment handed down in the Durban Equality Court today (15/12/2015) in which Snowy Smith is restrained from sending anti-Semitic emails, which form the subject matter of the complaint, as they impinge adversely on the dignity of the Jewish people and constitute hate speech. A final interdict was granted prohibiting Smith from disseminating any further hate speech.
The Hate-Speech Complaint was lodged by the SAJBD in April 2013 following mass emailings by Snowy Smith of dozens of antisemitic emails over the previous three years, including to Jewish individuals and institutions, journalists, and news editors. The matter was heard in the Equality Court on 16 & 17 November, 2015.
In her evidence before the Equality Court SAJBD National President, Mary Kluk, stressed that while the SAJBD fully supported the right to freedom of expression, the nature of the material disseminated by Snowy Smith crossed the line and could not be tolerated in a free and democratically-based constitutional democracy. This was confirmed by the Equality Court Magistrate, Aletta Moolman, who ruled that “the emails distributed by Snow Smith impinge adversely on the dignity of the Jewish people and constitute hate speech against people of the Jewish faith or belief and ethnic origin”.
Mary Kluk, has applauded the ruling saying that racism in this country will not be tolerated and that religious, ethnic and minority groups are and remain protected within the laws of this country by this important ruling.
The SA Jewish Board of Deputies welcomes the judgment handed down in the Durban Equality Court today (15/12/2015) in which Snowy Smith is restrained from sending anti-Semitic emails, which form the subject matter of the complaint, as they impinge adversely on the dignity of the Jewish people and constitute hate speech. A final interdict was granted prohibiting Smith from disseminating any further hate speech.
The Hate-Speech Complaint was lodged by the SAJBD in April 2013 following mass emailings by Snowy Smith of dozens of antisemitic emails over the previous three years, including to Jewish individuals and institutions, journalists, and news editors. The matter was heard in the Equality Court on 16 & 17 November, 2015.
In her evidence before the Equality Court SAJBD National President, Mary Kluk, stressed that while the SAJBD fully supported the right to freedom of expression, the nature of the material disseminated by Snowy Smith crossed the line and could not be tolerated in a free and democratically-based constitutional democracy. This was confirmed by the Equality Court Magistrate, Aletta Moolman, who ruled that “the emails distributed by Snow Smith impinge adversely on the dignity of the Jewish people and constitute hate speech against people of the Jewish faith or belief and ethnic origin”.
Mary Kluk, has applauded the ruling saying that racism in this country will not be tolerated and that religious, ethnic and minority groups are and remain protected within the laws of this country by this important ruling.