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Johannesburg – Activists said on Friday they were ending the #BoycottWoolworths campaign to broaden the campaign to target all Israeli products in any store.
The #BoycottWoolworths campaign has come to an end exactly two years after the National Coalition 4 Palestine (NC4P) called for the complete boycott of Woolworths due to Israeli trade relations in support of Palestine and to raise awareness of “unlawful and inhuman Israeli ‘Apartheid’ policies".
Organisations including the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA), Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) South Africa, Cosatu, ANC Youth League and South African Students Congress (Sasco) endorsed the campaign.
“The campaign had enormous successes over the last two years,” the statement read. Given the achievements in the past two years, organisers have decided to broaden the campaign and will target all Israeli products in any store. “Included in our strategic imperatives, going forward, will be to also ensure that in line with labelling legislation of the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) that no falsely-labelled Israeli products are sold in South Africa.”
Read: Should you boycott Israel
“There were many who supported the campaign and the achievements were important to the on-going struggle in solidarity with Palestinians. We learned a lot from the campaign and hope to use that knowledge in our future campaigns and the struggle for a free Palestine,” the NC4P stated.
The NC4P believes the campaign was successful in raising awareness of the BDS boycott of Israel. “It took an abstract concept and made it a real campaign for many families across the length and breadth of South Africa.”
The activists also received confirmation from Woolworths that the retailer would not purchase Israeli products from occupied Palestinian territories. Among other things, the NC4P said that the campaign was successful in exposing Woolworths for “false labelling” of Israeli products, which led to an investigation by the Consumer Commission.
Also read: Woolworths complaint sparks label, trade probe
As a result of the campaign, some Woolworths stores had to be closed during major protests. The NC4P claims that the company lost close to R250 000 in one protest, due to lost sales.
Woolworths has not yet responded to Fin24's request for comment.
Some supporters shared their congratulatory messages on Twitter:
