Cape Union Mart and pro-Palestine activists gear up for court battle
Company owner Philip Krawitz denies funding Israel’s army
Pro-Palestine activists picket outside the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday. Photos: Matthew Hirsch
- Since November 2023, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has held weekly protests outside stores owned by Cape Union Mart.
- They accuse the company’s chairperson, Philip Krawitz, of being complicit in genocide in Gaza.
- Krawitz holds senior positions with Israeli organisations that fund IDF projects.
- But Krawitz denies funding the Israeli military and says his fundraising efforts on behalf of the organisations are for humanitarian ends.
- Krawitz and Cape Union Mart want the court to prohibit protesters from making “defamatory statements” and intimidating customers.
Cape Union Mart and its chairperson, Philip Krawitz, have taken the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to court over weekly protests held outside the company’s stores since 2023.
At the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday, Krawitz and Cape Union Mart came to an agreement with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which is expected to be made an order of the court by Judge President Nolwazi Mabindla-Boqwana. The parties will return to court for a hearing in February.
In terms of the agreement, the activists have undertaken not to harass or intimidate customers. The PSC denies having ever done so, but Cape Union Mart’s in-house legal counsel Simone Sulcas told GroundUp there is video footage and pictures that prove customers were harassed.
“Unidentified protesters” will also be included in the court case. They will be served court papers via notices posted at Cape Union Mart stores and have until 5 September to notify the court if they want to oppose the case.
Krawitz and Cape Union Mart had wanted the court to also interdict the protesters from making defamatory statements and claiming that Cape Union Mart and its brands (e.g. Poetry, Old Khaki and K-Way) are “associated with the State of Israel” and “funding genocide or any military conflict in Gaza”; or that Krawitz himself is funding the Israeli army and is “complicit in the killing of children.”
They wanted protesters to be prohibited from inciting “hatred of other persons”, encouraging violence against Krawitz and his companies, or wearing disguises or masks during protests.
The PSC opposed the application. They said their statements are not false – Krawitz is a “prominent Zionist”, and his senior positions on Israeli state-linked organisations implicate him in the funding of the Israeli Defence Force and, by extension, the war in Gaza, the PSC argued.
Outside the court on Tuesday, dozens of people gathered in support of the PSC. They chanted “boycotts have got to start, voetsek Cape Union Mart” and “Cape Union Mart, you can’t hide, you’re complicit in genocide”. They also banged empty pots and pans to symbolise famine in Gaza.
“We as South Africans in a free democracy, will stand firm until no South African company supports the Israeli Defence Force and the Israeli state,” said Jamie Rosengarten of South African Jews for a Free Palestine during Tuesday’s picket outside the court.
PSC coordinator Usuf Chikte said they had a constitutional right to protest and to express their political views. “They are trying to say that we should stop the support that we provide to Palestine. We won’t be muzzled. We are going to exercise our right to boycott them,” he said.
Krawitz denies funding Israel’s military
In his founding affidavit, Krawitz said that the boycott campaign against his company has been “for no apparent reason other than the fact that the company was founded by and is owned by Jews,” who are “collectively blamed” for the war in Gaza.
He argues the protests have defamed him and Cape Union Mart through false statements. He says there have been “serious threats” to his and his family’s safety, and that protesters have displayed swastikas. Threats to his safety have led him to employ full-time bodyguards and use a bulletproof vest, he says.
The court application is not intended to limit the right to protest, Krawitz says, but to protect himself and his company. Cape Union Mart has 3,000 employees from diverse backgrounds across 270 stores, he says.
“Cape Union Mart and I have no involvement whatsoever with the war. The ties I have with Israel in my personal capacity stem from my family’s religion of Judaism, which ties are with the Jewish state as a spiritual homeland for Jews and not with the government of Israel.”
Cape Union Mart has never donated money “to any person or organisation outside of Southern Africa,” he says.
Krawitz acknowledges he is the South African chairperson of Keren Hayesod, a non-profit organisation based in Israel, and that he was also one of four recipients of an award by Keren Hayesod in 2015. He acknowledges that he met Benjamin Netanyahu at the ceremony.
But he denies that he helped Keren Hayesod raise funds for military action. He says that he has helped raise funds for the organisation to support “victims of terror” in Israel, which was “purely humanitarian” to support “civilians impacted by violence”.
The funds were not for the Israeli government or military action, he says. His fundraising work for Keren Hayesod took place in 2014, and is not connected to the current war “that started on 7 October 2023”, he says.
The PSC says Krawitz is complicit in Israeli military action by virtue of his involvement in Israeli organisations.
PSC stands firm
In a letter from Ashraf Mohamed Attorneys, sent on behalf of the PSC activists to Krawitz’s lawyers on 24 July, the activists deny harassing or intimidating customers or preventing them from entering stores. They say they condemn such actions and do not object to an order interdicting them from doing so.
But the activists say they cannot agree to the request to stop associating Krawitz and Cape Union Mart with Israel, claiming that they fund genocide or military action in Gaza, or that they kill children.
They maintain that Krawitz is a “prominent Zionist”, as chair of Keren Hayesod in South Africa, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). Both of these organisations fall under the World Zionist Organisation (WZO) and are “formally established by an Israeli statute”. They are “each an apparatus of the Israeli state”, the letter reads.
The institutions are “integral to the development and strengthening of Israel as a Zionist state”. Keren Hayesod “has various programs directly related to the Israeli Defence Forces” and lists the IDF as “one of the seven key constituencies to which donations were channelled”.
“The Israeli state and the IDF are waging a genocidal military campaign in Gaza, including the widespread killing of children.”
Because Krawitz is involved with organisations that fund the IDF, the statements made by protesters “are true” or at least “constitute fair comment”.
“They in any event constitute political speech, protected by the Constitution.”
Sulcas, on behalf of Krawitz, told GroundUp she cannot comment on the PSC’s allegations beyond what is addressed in his affidavit because it is sub judice and will form part of the main matter in February.
“We really wished to avoid this application,” Sulcas said. “This not an assault on freedom of expression but rather about balancing the right to protest against respect for others. You cannot tell untruths that Cape Union Mart is ‘killing babies’ and ‘funding genocide’ under the pretence of freedom of speech.”
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