Woolworths Holdings Limited, the owner of Australia’s Country Road Group, has shut down media claims it has boycotted the sale of Israeli products at its South African department store.
The company said it made the decision to suspend the sale of one product due to ‘significant and credible’ threats. Woolworths did not detail the nature of the threats.
“Media articles claiming that Woolworths supports an Israeli boycott are inaccurate and we want to set the record straight,” the company confirmed in a statement.
”Despite reports commending us for taking a pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli position – we have not. Woolworths would like to explicitly affirm that we neither support nor boycott anyone. Woolworths has no political affiliations and does not support any political party, organisation or country.
“Given the significant and credible threats we have received, and in order to do our best to safeguard our employees and customers, we took the decision to pre-emptively suspend the sale of the one product we had on our shelves that was imported from Israel.”
The department store stocks Country Road Group brands, including Country Road and Trenery. As at June 2023, there were 747 store locations across South Africa and 10 other African countries.
“In a world that is already polarised and where misinformation, misunderstanding, and suffering are fuelling heightened emotion, we refuse to add to the division and divisiveness,” the company said.
“Many of us have been deeply affected in various ways by the atrocities and death of innocent people we are witnessing on our screens. Intolerance is on the rise and, we as an organisation, cannot and will not add fuel to the fire, and will always continue to seek ways to bring people together.”