ADL, Under Pressure From Elon Musk, Issues Tepid Condemnation of Anti-White ‘Kill The Boer’ Song
Chris Menahan
After Twitter/X CEO Elon Musk called out the Anti-Defamation League for staying “silent” on a South African black party chanting for the “literal genocide” of whites, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt issued a comically tepid condemnation of what he called the “crude lyrics” of their “historic protest song” which “could be interpreted as a call for violence.”
“ADL is focused on fighting the surge of global antisemitism, but we have observed the recent debate over the song ‘Kill the Boer,'” Greenblatt said in a statement released on Wednesday afternoon. “While it is a historic protest song that called for the dismantlement of the racist apartheid system in South Africa, its crude lyrics could be interpreted as a call for violence.”
“At a time of intensifying political tensions worldwide, we see time and again that words matter, and people, especially those in public life, should refrain from expressions that invoke the threat of violence,” he continued.
Greenblatt went on to condemn “baseless claims” of “white genocide” made by “right-wing extremists in the U.S., particularly white supremacists.”
“Such wild charges have been used to excuse hate, to justify harassment and to rationalize violence,” he insisted.
https://t.co/H4yfY5tleT pic.twitter.com/b3ZRwATANb
— ADL (@ADL) August 9, 2023
For more information, please see our resource: https://t.co/9t7fCnaIEl
— ADL (@ADL) August 9, 2023
From ADL.org, “ADL Statement on ‘Kill the Boer’ “:
New York, NY, August 9, 2023 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today issued a statement in response to the recent debate over the song, “Kill the Boer” and baseless claims of “white genocide” that have been made by right wing extremists, and particularly white supremacists, in the United States for years.
Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director, issued the following statement:
ADL is focused on fighting the surge of global antisemitism, but we have observed the recent debate over the song “Kill the Boer.”
While it is a historic protest song that called for the dismantlement of the racist apartheid system in South Africa, its crude lyrics could be interpreted as a call for violence.
At a time of intensifying political tensions worldwide, we see time and again that words matter, and people, especially those in public life, should refrain from expressions that invoke the threat of violence. Such rhetoric can prompt real-world consequences. This is true in the physical world. This is true on social media, including X. It has no place.
At the same time, baseless claims of “white genocide” have been made by right-wing extremists in the U.S., particularly white supremacists, for years. Such wild charges have been used to excuse hate, to justify harassment and to rationalize violence. This is an issue ADL has tracked for decades – and we will continue to call it out. [Emphasis added]
No doubt the ADL would have a similarly nuanced take if EFF leader Julius Malema was chanting “Kill the Jews.”
South Africa political party chants “Shoot to kill. Kill the Boer (Whites), kill the farmer.” pic.twitter.com/48nGFynvFM
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) July 31, 2023
Not exactly subtle. It is unequivocally a genocide song!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2023
Contrast Greenblatt’s lukewarm response in this case with the time in 2018 when he threatened the entire country of Iceland that if they dare to ban circumcision (male child genital mutilation) then the ADL will use their power over the media to destroy their tourism industry by smearing their island nation as being “associated with Nazism,” “even if that association is not justified.”
The ADL has pushed for mass censorship of the internet by claiming that Big Tech platforms allowing free speech is a form of violence but here an explicit call for genocide must be treated with the utmost nuance.
Of course, Greenblatt said nothing about deplatforming Malema, boycotting his party, or prosecuting him for hate speech — instead he just gave a generic suggestion for people in general to avoid talk that “could” possibly be interpreted as a call for violence (even if it’s actually about “dismantlement of the racist apartheid system”).
