The South Africa Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) staged a demonstration Thursday, outside the Sea Point store, part of the upscale national chain Woolworths.
The protest was held against the Congress of South African Students’ (COSAS) Western Cape branch in response to COSAS placing a pig’s head in what they thought to be the store’s kosher meat section, the previous week.
Protestors held posters reading “Free Speech not hate speech” and “Say No To Anti-Semitism” to highlight what the board said is rising anti-Semitism and persecution of minorities under the guise of anti-Israel protests.
The board also accused COSAS of intimidation, anti-Semitism and hate speech.
Wendy Kahn, SAJBD’s national director told protesters that levels of anti-Semitism and hate speech against Jewish South Africans has been escalating in the past few months. Incidents include verbal and physical threats of violence, all which culminated “in the ultimate anti-Semitic emblem.”
She continued: “a pig’s head being smuggled inside a baby’s pram and placed in a freezer that was assumed to contain kosher meat shows a vicious and vulgar hatred. Every South African citizen who cherishes our democracy should be horrified by this.”
COSAS claimed its tendentious action were done in protest of Woolworths continuing to stock Israeli goods in the wake of this summer’s Israel-Gaza conflict. They added that the act was committed in support of the call by the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS) not to buy from Woolworths.
However, BDS distanced itself from COSAS’ actions, saying, “We believe that the methods used, namely placing pigs heads in South African Woolworths stores, are very controversial and may not have been properly thought through.”
Paula Disberry, Woolworths’ group director of retail operations, said the company was “appalled by this incident,” and called COSAS’ action, “unacceptable and offensive to our employees and customers.”
African National Congress, the country’s ruling party, has also “expressed concern” at COSAS’ action, with deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, describing it as “misguided and extremely unfortunate.” Duarte called on COSAS to “desist from further engaging in such acts.”
“Our calls for solidarity with the people of Palestine and for heightened action to boycott and isolate Israel is not a call or a campaign against Judaism, nor is it anti-Semitic,” she added.
South Africa has frequently been critical of Israel and has claimed that Israel is applying a policy of “apartheid” towards Palestinian Arabs. At the same time, South African president Jacob Zuma has emphasized that his government is committed to combating anti-Semitism.
