The South African boycott, divestment and sanctions movement recently started a Facebook campaign to boycott the supermarket chain Woolworths. The move comes as another phase in the movement's battle against Woolworths, which sells products from the Israeli settlements. On May 15, thousands of South African students, including high-schoolers, demonstrated at the Free State province against Woolworths, in a mass rally organized by the Congress of South African Students “in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who continue to experience the harshest form of apartheid by the Israeli regime.”

South African activists are certainly not on their own in their boycott efforts. Stephane Richard, CEO of French telecommunication giant Orange, said in Cairo June 3 that he would have liked to relinquish his company's ties with its Israeli brand representative Partner, if not for the risk of severe financial penalties. His remarks are a sign of the momentum this movement has gathered internationally. Even if Richard tried later to dissociate himself from the BDS movement and actually retracted his initial statements, the Israeli media perceived his remarks as a clear boycott statement. Be that as it may, while the boycott call is spreading rapidly throughout Europe, South Africa is essentially alone among the non-Arab-Muslim countries of Africa.

South Africa's solidarity with the PLO and the Palestinian national movement can be traced back to its own days of struggle against apartheid. Close relations were formed in the 1960s between the two movements, with Israel perceived as an ally of apartheid South Africa. But the South Africa of 2015 as well as 2015 Israel are both a far cry from their former selves politically or economically. South Africa also lies thousands of miles from Israel and has but a tiny Palestinian community. Despite all that, the campaign against Israel there has grown louder over the years.

Already in 2012, South Africa's Trade Minister Rob Davies announced that West Bank settlement products could not be labeled as "made in Israel." Currently, BDS activists call not only for a boycott against Israeli settlement products, but for a comprehensive cultural and academic boycott. Though the boycott is not officially practiced, Israeli artists, researchers and musicians are often welcomed by demonstrations or simply find their scheduled visits canceled. A tour by an Israeli minister in South Africa under the current circumstances could hardly be envisaged.