An urgent court interdict was served on the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in South Africa by Woolworths on Thursday. BDS South Africa said the deputy-sheriff of the South Gauteng high court delivered the court papers at 3pm. The interdict seeks to stop the Palestine solidarity group’s Boycott Woolworths campaign.

BDS spokesperson Muhammed Desai said:

“It seems as though Woolworths South Africa wants to take BDS to court because they are being boycotted …but we are still consulting and our campaigns are very public and have nothing to hide.”

Desai said the fact that the retail company is now resorting to the courts revealed the impact the campaign has had on Woolworths. The impact of the boycott has brought many people to the BDS campaign over the past three months, he added.

Desai said there have been just over 5000 people that have filled a survey on their BDS South Africa page and the response has been positive.

“Many people are boycotting the store as long as it will take for the campaign to succeed.”

When asked why BDS focused particularly on Woolworths and not other stores, Desai said that a full on boycott of all retailers who stocked Israeli products was unrealistic. He said BDS aimed to mirror the boycotts during apartheid regime, where the activists worked on one campaign at a time.

Lawyers representing BDS are currently perusing the content of the documents to be made public later. VOC