This petition is aimed at requesting both the South African Film and Publication Board and Film and Publication Review Board (known as Film and Publication Appeal Tribunal after the amendment of the A

This petition, hereby submitted by the Universal Hebrew Israelite Society of South Africa (UHISSA), is aimed at requesting both the South African Film and Publication Board and Film and Publication Review Board (known as Film and Publication Appeal Tribunal after the amendment of the Act of 2019) to urgently remove the unlawful restrictions of the documentary film by Ronald Dalton Jr., called ‘FROM HEBREWS TO NEGROES: WAKE UP BLACK AMERICA’ as imposed, on more than one occasions, by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies. 

UHISSA hereby asserts that the restriction is unlawful for the following reasons:

1. The public of South Africa has, up to this moment, never been formally notified of any decisions, and valid reasons thereof, taken by the above boards (FPB and FPBRB) in response to a formal complaint, if any, submitted by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.

2.The restriction of the documentary film in question is both unlawful and unfair in that it undermines the South African society’s right to knowledge that has a potential of providing insights into pockets of hidden knowledge that pertains to nuances of black people’s identities and histories.

3.The restrictions uphold obsolete colonialist views and actions that are detrimental to the majority of the culturally and socially marginalised people of South Africa.  Being restricted from viewing any supposedly controversial movie amounts to gross cultural and social marginalisation.  UHISSA also notes that such a restriction seems like an attempt, on the part of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies and other possible allies, at suffocating Ronald Dalton’s efforts towards digging for and publishing knowledge outside the old colonial archive, as it were.

4.In the context of democratic values that allow and even promote the dissemination of knowledge around a people’s identity, such restrictions reflect a tendency to cling to outdated colonialist power upon the oppressed majorities such as black South Africans.

5.The South African public, which enjoys constitutional rights to knowledge, has never been made privy to hidden narratives on their collective history and identity before the historic event of 70 A.D., as well as other waves migration of Hebrew Israelites from the Holy Land.

6.The aim of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies seems to be to halt the flow of knowledge that will awaken black people’s awareness of their true identity before they were called ‘Negroes’.  UHISSA contends that such an attempt would contradict the contents and provisions of the South African Constitution as well as the Films and Publications Act 65 of 1996 (with amendments including that of 2019 (Act 11 of 2019)).

7.We, the democratic society of South Africa, hereby refuse to be unlawfully controlled by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, concerning matters of epistemic empowerment.  UHISSA feels that the unfortunate restriction in question is an attempt towards imposing despicable intellectual genocide upon the rest of the black community. 

8. UHISSA hereby contends that the film itself is not misleading in any way since it is based on profound research that has been forthcoming since the beginning of the era of global awakening of Hebrew Israelites.  One of the black intellectuals whose research work has come to our attention is Prof. Rudolph R. Windsor who came up with an astounding insight into streams of knowledge around global Hebrew identities (see his book entitled FROM BABYLON TO TIMBUKTU).

9.UHISSA also invites the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to engage in a healthy, robust public debate around this matter.  We can provide our representatives who are capable of deeply engaging in such debates without grossing over a number of important aspects of such unifying knowledge of SELF.

10.Lastly, UHISSA feels that the restriction in question has a potential of delaying or derailing the process of re-uniting Africans in the Motherland and those in the Diaspora.  Our acute awareness of the brutal treatment that has been endured by African Americans and other blacks in various parts of the world has necessitated our deep involvement in opposing any attempt to block the flow of such knowledge.  Lack of such knowledge only benefits those who are beneficiaries of slave trade, enslavement of blacks in and outside Africa, global colonialism and imperialism for which no reparations have ever come forth.  Perpetrators of such atrocious acts have never shown any remorse even in the twenty first century. 

In addition to the above points, we hereby urge both legal bodies to carefully consider removing the restriction in accordance with the provisions of Films and Publications Act, Act 65 of 1996 (amended in various years including 2019).  This Act does not restrict the screening or publishing of such documentary movies because it does not discriminate against any citizens along gender and racial lines.  In essence, (viii) of Chapter 1 of the above Act reads thus: ‘"degrade'~ means advocate a particular form of hatred which is based on gender…’  Therefore, the film in question does not, in any way, constitute hatred against the white Jewish community anywhere in the world including South Africa.

 One would be interested in getting to know how the same Jewish body responded to the following publications by their fellow Jewish scholars, Arthur Koestler and Shlomo Sand who published The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) and The Invention of The Jewish People (2008), respectively.  Were both Koestler’s and Sand’s work ever censored?  Both publications refute the claims made by the global Jewry around their genetic connection to ancient patriarchs of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who clearly originated and lived among black communities (as confirmed by Windsor). 

The same South African Jewish Board of Deputies should inform the South African society in general and blacks in particular how they understand the definition of Ham in the Zondervan Bible Dictionary.  Ronald Dalton should be given an opportunity to state his case by unpacking the table of postdiluvian nations of the world because that is what has always been ignored by contemporary scholarship especially when it pertains to the contents of his ground breaking movie. 

According to Bertus de Villiers, ‘SECTION 235 OF THE CONSTITUTION: TOO SOON OR TOO LATE FOR CULTURAL SELF-DETERMINATION IN SOUTH AFRICA,’ the South African Constitution is still silent on the question of ‘Self-determination’, but one should question the apparent exclusive right that is always given to white ethnic groups, including the white Jews in South Africa, to practise self-determination when the rest are obviously not granted the same liberty.  The screening of the movie in question has a potential of fresh examination of Section 235 and its problematic gaps.  If this is truly a democratic society, the movie in question would not just be summarily restricted without any broad consultation with the black sector of the South African society. While this matter is being addressed, UHISSA suggests that the screenings of the movie should continue as planned because there is no legislation that prohibits its publication and consumption by the public. UHISSA hereby gives the relevant authorities 21 working days to respond to this petition while the restriction of the dissemination and/or screening of the movie is declared invalid.

Universal Hebrew Israelite Society South Africa(UHISSA)    Contact the author of the petition