BDS IN SOUTH AFRICA-AN ABJECT FAILURE

Despite all the opportunities offered by ‘Operation protective Edge' in Gaza to harness latent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, (BDS) movement has come up empty handed. This despite investing huge human and financial capital in this endeavour.

Over the past month BDS have initiated a strident call on the South African government to cut diplomatic relations with Israel and to send the Israeli Ambassador, Aurthur Lenk, packing back to Israel. They have harnessed the support of all the usual suspects, like COSATU, NUMSA and the ANC Youth League and even the ‘venerable' Archbishop Tutu, to rally the masses.

They have succeeded to rally the masses, but to little or no practical effect, other than to allow these strident voices to vent their frustrations, which in fact have nothing to do with Israel or even with the Middle East conflict. The Palestinian Ambassador, Abdel Hafiz Nofal added his voice to these demands, which failed to gain any muster with those it was targeted at. Last week, both President Jacob Zuma and Vice President Cyril Ramaphosa, took principled stands, rejecting outright these calls to recall the South African ambassador or to send the Israeli ambassador home.

During the Gaza conflict, at the end of July, during the budget speech, Minister of International Cooperation Maite Nkoane-Mashabane, announced that she would send two envoys to Israel and Palestine, led by former deputy Minister, Azziz Pahad. On their return the envoys delivered a balanced and nuanced rendition of the situation, in which they apportioned blame equally to both sides. Again BDS was left with egg on its face, as it had tried repeatedly to have the notorious ‘Cape Town Declaration' adopted in parliament, which called for sanctions against Israel.

BDS has conducted a relentless boycott campaign against Woolworths. It justifies picking on Woolworths, because Woolworths claims to have an ethical approach, which BDS asserts precludes doing business with Israel. Again, only Israel is targeted, not Zimbabwe, or China or Iran, which have dismal human rights records, exposing their thinly veneered agendas to destroy the only state that functions as a democracy in the whole region.

The BDS agenda is arrogant and racist, in that Israeli imports serve the very orthodox sector of the Jewish population and there are no other sources for these products. If business were to succumb to BDS pressure, the floodgates would be opened to have a whole plethora of products being boycotted. Those supporting the BDS boycotts against Woolworths, do not fit the profile of shoppers that frequent this chain, which emasculates the power of the boycott.

Thankfully Woolworths has stood its ground and has refused to bow to BDS pressure. To rub salt into the BDS wounds, Woolworths continues to flourish and outperform the retail sector. Other stores, that have been targeted like Dischem, have likewise not caved in to pressure, and have not suffered any adverse effects as a result.

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