Judge Dennis Davis has been told to “get a life” on the website Politicsweb in a comment signed by “Rhoda Kadalie” over comments he made about controversial Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and a US Tea Party candidate, Joel Pollak.
The activist and commentator’s comment says: “Davis, get a life! Dennis Davis you are a member of the party of Mbeki, the Aids denialist, Zuma, Malema, Shaik, Cele, and many corrupt others who believe they will rule until Jesus comes. Joel is free to belong to any party he wishes and is a member of a party that … more believes in democracy and the rule of law, unlike your party that feels entitled to lifelong political support no matter how undemocratic, unaccountable and corrupt!
“With Joel you have met more than your match - so get a life. When it comes to Israel you and your ilk - Zackie Achmat, Doron Isaacs, Nathan Geffen - get a hard-on when Israel does anything wrong because Israel gives you a platform for your dwindling Struggle reputations here in SA. You guys bore me to tears. It is time you find another issue.”
A former DA speech writer, Pollak is Kadalie’s son-in-law.
The comment was later removed from the website. A later comment appeared under the name “Rhoda Kadalie” which said: “There are not three responses to this article. Mine was removed. Why? Is this a freedom of expression website or …?”
Asked to confirm whether she had written the website comments, Kadalie replied: “I do not speak to the Cape Times.”
The “Kadalie” comments were written in response to an article in which Judge Davis took Dershowitz to task for attacking Archbishop Desmond Tutu “in a most hateful manner”.
Davis also wrote that Dershowitz had “misrepresented the judicial record of Judge Richard Goldstone; he has a poor record on academic freedom; he is a qualified supporter of torture in certain cases; he has advocated collective punishment and has trashed international law”.
Davis criticised the local Jewish community’s attitude to Dershowitz, who was invited to speak in South Africa by the SA Zionist Federation this year.
“As the formal Jewish community embraced Dershowitz, and either reacted without demur to the attacks on the archbishop, or worse, applauded them and gave Dershowitz platforms and pulpits to do so, I considered that some of us who are Jewish had to show South Africans that not all of us are part of this shameful episode,” Davis wrote.
He said it was hardly surprising that Joel Pollak, “the failed Tea Party candidate”, would write in “breathless support of his mentor Alan Dershowitz”, invoking first a smear campaign and then invoking “a second Tea Party trick - leave the facts aside”,” Davis wrote.
Davis wrote that South Africa owed a lot to Tutu and his “unbending commitment to non-racialism” and human rights. There was no evidence for Dershowitz’s claim that Tutu was anti-semitic. - Cape Times