WOOLWORTHS ACTIVELY DEFENDING TRADE WITH APARTHEID ISRAEL
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Woolworths is now clearly going out of its way to defend its trade with Apartheid Israel against the wishes of several South African Government Ministers, trade unions and various human rights organizations. The intended court interdict and action against BDS South Africa is being viewed as an attempt by Woolworths to protect Israeli agricultural companies that are the main beneficiaries and directly complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and theft of natural resources. Woolworths currently imports 12 million Rands of mostly agricultural products from Israel. These products could easily be sourced locally or from countries other than Israel. Click here for a report of Israeli agricultural companies. |
WOOLWORTHS BIAS TOWARDS ISRAEL
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A few months ago a group of pro-Israeli supporters from the pro-Israeli organisation Bnei Akiva draped themselves in Israeli flags and Woolworths harassed customers. They forcefully handed out Israeli imported produce from Woolworths to shoppers inside Woolworths and shouted racist remarks to those shoppers that refused the Woolworths Israeli produce. Bnei Akiva itself posted pictures of this pro-Israeli protest inside the Sandton branch of Woolworths on its official FaceBook page. Woolworths it would seem has endorsed this action of the pro-Israeli organization Bnei Akiva while at the same time it is taking pro-Palestinian human rights organization BDS South Africa to court for a non-violent boycott campaign. Click here for more info. |
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| WOOLWORTHS TAKING HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP BDS SOUTH AFRICA TO COURT OVER ISRAEL BOYCOTT |
South African retail and corporate giant Woolworths (that owns David Jones Stores in Australia) is taking the Palestine solidarity and human rights organisation BDS South Africa to court over the Israel boycott.
The use (or rather, abuse) by Woolworths of our courts to force an end to the non-violent #BoycottWoolworths campaign is unnecessary when this issue
could
easily have been resolved if
Woolworths had accepted the
numerous
requests by BDS South Africa and the NC4P to meet and resolve
this
issue. The company's resort to using the courts is an indication of the growing impact of the #BoycottWoolworths campaign.
Early in August 2014 a call for the complete
boycott of Woolworths until it ends its Israeli trade links was made by
the NC4P, BDS South Africa, COSATU, ANC Youth League, MJC and various
others. The #BoycottWoolworths campaign (as it has been dubbed) has
received wide spread attention and support from various South African
Government Ministers, artists, well known personalities and
anti-apartheid stalwarts. Click here for an ENCA report. |
MORE INFORMATION AND BACKGROUND TO THE WOOLWORTHS CASE AGAINST BDS SOUTH AFRICA
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Woolworths,
in its court papers (page 14, paragraph 21) state that:
“With the
imminent onset of the festive season and the expected
increased customer
activity the Applicant [Woolworths] no longer has a
choice. It now has
to act in order to protect its business
operations…the present court
application is accordingly the Applicant’s
[Woolworths] only option to
restore the rule of law and to enable it
to trade freely as it has done
until the [#BoycottWoolworths] protests
started.”
Firstly, by
Woolworth’s own admission the
#BoycottWoolworths campaign is having an
impact, financially. Secondly, Woolworths
claims, amongst other things, that they are
concerned about a drop in
business for the upcoming festive season -
this it would seem is the
intention of their court application, to stop the boycott campaign from affecting their bottomline. Thirdly,
however, we disagree
that the only option that Woolworths had was to go
to court. The NC4P
and BDS South Africa view this legal bullying and
intimidation by a
retail giant such as Woolworths of an activist
organisation like BDS
South Africa as unnecessary when the company could easily have met. Click
here for more information on the #BoycottWoolworths campaign as well as
to download flyers, videos, banners and other campaign material. |
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