BDS has found new scapegoat in Miss South Africa

9 November 2021

BDS may have changed their name and branding to the PSA and Africa4Palestine but their aggressive, in-your-face bullying and harassment of people who hold an alternate view remains. 

For over a decade they have intimidated members of the SA Jewish community who have dared to oppose their radical anti-Israel narrative. SA Jewry have been threatened in the shops, at concerts and on University campuses where BDS groups routinely resort to threats, intimidation, smear campaigns and even violence to enforce their agenda.   

Now BDS has found a new target, recently crowned Miss South Africa Lalela Mswane. Their relentless and increasingly aggressive campaign against her for declining to buckle to their demand that she withdraw from the upcoming Miss Universe pageant in Eilat is the latest in a long line of thuggish behaviour on their part.  They have trolled and maligned her on social media and even threatened to protest outside her home, an act of personal harassment.  A woman who was victimised as a child is once again being subjected to crass bullying. 

And when their intimidation didn’t work, BDS progressed to their other modus operandi – outright lies and deceit.  First they fraudulently claimed that Miss SA had withdrawn from the pageant and when that was exposed as a blatant falsehood, they added to the lie by saying that there had been a ‘U-turn’ on her part.  There was no U-turn, as they had fabricated the claim that she had withdrawn in the first place.

Preventing our Miss South Africa from participating in Miss Universe will make zero contribution to attaining a resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.  All it will do is deny this young woman an opportunity of participation on the international stage.  

We wish Lalela every success at Miss Universe.  We know that she will gain from this unique experience and that the participants from the other 70 countries will benefit from engaging with this remarkable woman.

Issued by Wendy Kahn, National Director, SAJBD, 10 November 2021