ACDP commends Woolworths for refusing to bow to BDS pressure

Recent actions by the BDS movement against Woolworths stores should be criminalised as they are provoking confrontations, sowing seeds of hatred, and fostering religious and racial divisions. The blatant abuse and intimidation by BDS, particularly of Woolworths shoppers, was despicable.

The ACDP commends Woolworths for refusing to bow to BDS pressure and for protecting the rights of their customers to find what they need in their stores, including Kosher foods.

Similarly, protest action by the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) this past Sunday morning at a Woolworths store in Sea Point, where a pig's head was placed in the Kosher meat section, was grossly insensitive and intolerant, and should be condemned by all South Africans who believe the rights of all religious groups in our country should be respected.

If this shameful intolerance is not condemned, then we may start to see copycats also placing pig heads in sections dedicated to Kosher or Halaal foods, with serious consequences.

While the ACDP fully supports the right to peaceful demonstration or protest, we also support the right of those who don't want to protest.

We were disturbed by the fact that the BDS movement and Cosas mobilised school children to participate in their political anti-Israel agenda when they should rather be encouraging students to prepare for their final examinations.

The ACDP calls on both BDS and Cosas to help focus our students on their studies and stop using them to advance their nefarious political agenda, inspired by hatred for the nation of Israel.

Statement issued by Kenneth Meshoe, MP, ACDP President, October 31 2014

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