And Then They Came For Litchis – Making sense of the boycott in South Africa –

By Howard Feldman

This time I fear that they have gone too far. Haribos? Litchis from Israel? Its like the infrastructure of everything that we believe in is crumbling around us.  And I can no longer remain silent. First they came for Israeli tomatoes, and I did not speak out, for I hate tomatoes, then they removed the Dead Sea products from the shelves, and I did not speak out, as I have never really tried their moisturizer (but I hear is excellent, especially in our harsh dry

winter), and then they came for Oaklands Garage and unlike Martin Niemoller, I need to speak out.

The problem is that I am so confused. Are there not two Oaklands garages? I swear I don’t even know which one I am boycotting! Hold on, are we boycotting them or are they boycotting us? And it seems that I can’t even listen to John Robbie on the way, because he had an opinion, dammit, so now he is the Taliban so I think we are now boycotting him.  And I am way too old to listen to Radio Five (which I am told that they are now calling Five FM). Who knew?

By the time we are done with this dastardly war I am going to be left with listening to Chai FM on the way to Kosher World where I can quickly Face Book Darren Sevits to find out if the kosher “Hechsher” is one that we accept. Our world is shrinking with us in it!

Of course they are smart – those anti-us people. They know that we won’t give a hoot if they boycott complicated medical things or tiny little computer stuff. But start with our litchis and Haribos and all hell breaks loose. It might even constitute a war crime. Remain silent on that Navi Pillay and you show your true colours. Fail to condemn the attack on innocent litchis and we know where you stand. You know full well what food means to us – shame on you for your bias. You are not fooling anyone.

I fear for Sally Williams. I really do. I have long held the belief that only one box of nougats was ever manufactured and sold in South Africa, and this gets passed from Jewish home to Jewish home every Friday as a Shabbat gift. It is the proverbial conch that symbolizes the beckoning of Shabbat and I fear that without this product Shabbat might not happen at all. The “Shabbes Project” will be in danger if this madness is allowed to continue and there is no knowing where it will end.

So I am trying to make sense of this, because it turns out that everyone is boycotting various items and it is important to know what is what – because the consequences could destroy shabbat. If I understand it correctly, they are boycotting fruit and sweets but not the little “thingies” in computers and cell-phones and stuff, and we are boycotting John Robbie (cause he has a view) and Oaklands (cause they don’t) and definitely not Woolworths, at least for now. Sally is still kosher and Chai FM is mehadrin. Kosher World is still in Glenhazel, and we can buy water from anywhere – I think. Or is that Pessach?

I think that the most important thing is not to be silent but maybe sometimes, it’s not such a bad idea.