A modest Passover products display at a South African Pick n Pay leads to antisemitic rage and the Johannesburg supermarket’s surrender.
By Tim Flack
Let’s not sugar-coat this.
I’m not Jewish. Never claimed to be. But I’ll be damned if I stand by while open antisemitism gets paraded as activism in the middle of a grocery store. What happened at Pick n Pay Norwood on 11 April wasn’t protest. It was targeted harassment, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows it.
This wasn’t about foreign policy or the Gaza war. It wasn’t about challenging so-called Israeli aggression. It was about matzah and kosher grape juice. That’s it. A display of basic Passover products in the kosher section of a supermarket was turned into a battlefield by a group of attention-seekers who think yelling “genocide” into an iPhone makes them freedom fighters.
The kosher section featured traditional food items used during Passover, alongside symbols of Jewish identity, the colour blue, known as tekhelet, and the Star of David. That was enough to send the mob into a meltdown. Why? Because in their minds, even existing as a Jew is now a provocation.
Let’s set the record straight.
The Star of David is not a Zionist logo. It’s a Jewish symbol. Full stop. It predates the modern State of Israel by centuries. It’s etched into synagogues, stitched into prayer shawls, and engraved on gravestones around the world. Calling it controversial because it appeared next to matzah on a shelf is not political critique. Its antisemitism dressed up as moral outrage.
Pick n Pay stocks Halaal food (allowed under Islamic law) year-round. It runs specials during Ramadan. It marks Diwali – the Hindu ‘Festival of Lights’. It hangs tinsel and puts up Christmas trees in December. Nobody complains. Nobody stages a protest in the bakery aisle over hot cross buns. But when Jewish South Africans get a small, modest display for Passover, out come the hashtags and the rage. The double standard is blinding.
Norwood has a long-standing Jewish community. These products are local staples. It’s not some Zionist plot to destabilise South Africa. It’s people buying the food their families have eaten for millennia during one of the holiest times of the year.
And let’s not ignore the obvious. If this were any other religious group, the outrage would be instant. Imagine someone tearing down a Ramadan display and accusing Muslims of terrorism. They’d be charged with hate speech before they made it out the parking lot. But when it happens to Jews? It’s uploaded to Instagram with a filter and a “Free Palestine” slogan.
There is a clear line between political dissent and religious discrimination. That line was bulldozed at Pick n Pay Norwood. BDS and its affiliates don’t care about nuance, coexistence, or real solutions. They care about vilifying Jews under the false flag of human rights.
It’s time we called this what it is: an attack on Jewish life in South Africa.
WHICH WAY PICK n PAY?
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is right to demand an apology. Not because they want extra privileges, but because they want equal treatment. Jewish families should be able to shop in peace without being shouted at by strangers armed with smartphones and slogans.
Pick n Pay has a decision to make. Either it stands for all South Africans or it allows bigotry to masquerade as political activism. There is no middle ground here.
Apologise. Clarify your position. Reinforce that your stores are places of inclusion, not platforms for intimidation.
Because once you legitimise this kind of behaviour, it doesn’t stop with one community. Today it was the Jews. Tomorrow, it could be anyone.
About the writer:
Tim Flack is the CEO and Head of Comms and Public Relations and founder of Flack Partners PR, a boutique public relations firm in Cape Town, South Africa. Tim specialises in providing tailored communication strategies for businesses in the political, safety and security, and small business fields.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)
