Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - The SA Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) and the SA Zionist Federation (SAZF) met Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies on Thursday about a government move to re-label Palestinian products.
This was after both groups said Davies had repeatedly declined to meet with them, and had met only with lobby groups with a pronounced anti-Israel political agenda.
At the meeting, Davies was asked to reconsider a notice in the Government Gazette announcing steps which could result in products manufactured in the occupied Palestinian territories, and sold in South Africa, labelled to indicate their place of origin.
"... [T]he minister was requested to reconsider the notice issued... and urged that, instead, he deal with the matter on a bilateral diplomatic basis with Israel," the SAJBD and the SAZF said in a joint statement.
"The minister refused on both counts."
The groups said they would challenge "this flawed, tainted and politically biased" process.
"The effect of the action taken by minister Davies is to portray South Africa as endorsing and furthering the aims of the anti-Israel boycott campaign..."
At the meeting, the groups also spoke of Davies' failure to meet with Jewish community representatives.
