Cape Town - Protesting Jews expressed their outrage at “anti-Semitic” behaviour after a pig’s head was smuggled inside a Woolworths store and placed inside a freezer containing kosher meat last week.
On Thursday dozens of people brandishing posters reading “Say no to anti-Semitism” and “Free speech not hate speech” stood shoulder to shoulder and sang the national anthem outside the Sea Point Woolworths.
The pro-Palestinian BDS South Africa (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) has called for boycotts of the Woolworths chain because it sources goods and products from Israel.
Wendy Kahn, national director of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies, said the board had lodged a complaint with the SA Human Rights Commission against the Congress of SA Students and its Western Cape provincial chairman Siphakamise Ngxowa for the anti-Semitic demonstration and hate speech.
“What happened here exactly a week ago with a pig’s head being smuggled inside a baby’s pram and placed in a freezer assumed to contain kosher meat, shows a vicious and vulgar hatred that cannot be tolerated by South Africans,” said Kahn.
Their protest outside the store was in no way against Woolworths, she said. “It is time for South Africans to say no to hate.”
There had been an escalation in levels of anti-Semitism and hate speech against Jewish South Africans, including verbal threats, anti-Jewish grandstanding by political and civil society leadership, as well as physical threats of violence through social media.
Labour lawyer Michael Bagraim joined the protest and said he was against “the persecution of a minority”.
“We come from a sordid past and have a particular problem with hate speech.
“People need to speak up.”
DA MP Darren Bergman said he felt the incident was an attack on all minorities and was a “highly offensive act”.
Sea Point resident Angela Rothbart said she was in support of fostering peace among all communities. “We have room for everyone in South Africa and today we’re doing our bit for peace. Minority groups are also important. There comes a time when you have to stand up and say you can’t accept anti-Semitism.”
She was revolted by the pig’s head protest and could not understand the reasoning behind the move.
Cape Argus