To:
1. The Manager
Food Lovers Market – Lenasia Branch
Lenasia, South Africa
- The Head Office
Food Lover’s Market
1 High Street, Crowthorne
Johannesburg, 2158
South Africa
Email:feedback@foodloversmarket.co.za/ info@foodloversmarket.co.za
Dear Manager,
The Media Review Network (MRN), an advocacy and research organization committed to human rights, writes to express profound concern regarding products sourced from Israel and sold at your Lenasia and possibly other branches.
It has come to our attention that your Lenasia branch is currently stocking a snack product — specifically, Pressels pretzels produced in Israel and distributed by Dream Pretzels LLC — as indicated on the attached photographic evidence taken from your store shelf. The packaging clearly states “Product of Israel,” alongside distribution and packing information.
We are deeply disturbed by this discovery, particularly in light of:
- South Africa’s official stance of solidarity with the Palestinian people, expressed through consistent parliamentary resolutions, Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) statements, and most recently, the government’s filing of a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
- The fact that Lenasia is home to a community that has historically stood in support of Palestinian rights and has played a crucial role in the anti-Apartheid movement, making this stocking decision particularly tone-deaf and offensive.
- The call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli companies and institutions complicit in human rights abuses, a call endorsed by broad sections of South Africa tions.
Furthermore, the product in question—Dream Pretzels, branded and distributed in the U.S. by Dream Pretzels LLC—is manufactured in Israel by a company known as Meir Bagel Ltd. as certified by OU Kosher, linkedin.comoukosher.org+1amazon.com+, a commercial food producer with ties to Israeli agricultural export networks. While the company’s precise manufacturing location is not publicly disclosed, numerous Israeli food processing companies operate in settlements built on land illegally seized from Palestinians, in violation of international law, including UN Security Council Resolution 2334. Many such businesses directly benefit from the ongoing occupation and the dispossession of indigenous Palestinian landowners.
It is therefore deeply disturbing that a South African retailer would supply such goods, particularly when Israel is currently under investigation by the International Court of Justice for acts of genocide. As of June 2025, According to UNICEF over 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, many of them by starvation due to Israel’s deliberate blockade of food, water, fuel, and humanitarian aid. Independent reports and UN agencies have confirmed that children are dying of hunger in Gaza—a direct consequence of Israel’s siege and attacks on aid convoys.
Save the Children’s Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, Ahmad Alhendawi, expressed frustration at the levels of hunger created by Israel, saying:
“This is a deliberate humanitarian catastrophe. Children are being starved by design, under Israeli authorities’ total siege. We have the food, we have the aid and we know how to treat malnutrition in children—what we don’t have is access. There is food, water and medical aid ready to go, but it’s being blocked at the border while families are forced to eat animal feed and leaves, taking unimaginable and dehumanizing measures to survive. This is not a crisis of supply; it’s a crisis of access. At any given moment in Gaza, a child, someone’s whole world, could be killed by bombs and bullets, starvation and disease. The international community must act now to open the crossings and deliver life-saving aid. We cannot stand by while an entire population is starved in plain sight.”
By stocking Israeli products, your store is profiting from a state apparatus that not only violates international law but also weaponizes hunger as a means of collective punishment—a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
We therefore express serious concern that by stocking these products, Food Lovers Market may—unknowingly or otherwise—be complicit in normalizing and economically supporting this system of dispossession and occupation.
We urge Food Lover’s Market to:
- Immediately remove Israeli-made pretzels (and all other Israeli products) from your shelves.
- Commit to ethical sourcing by excluding goods from regions implicated in systematic human rights violations.
- Publicly align with South Africa’s solidarity with Palestine through your procurement choices.
The MRN believes retailers have a moral duty to ensure their supply chains do not perpetuate injustice. We request a written response outlining your actions to address this concern. We are open to dialogue and collaboration on ethical sourcing frameworks.
Thank you for your urgent attention. We trust you will act in accordance with the values of justice and human dignity.
Mariam Jooma Çarikci is a Senior Researcher at the Media Review Network (MRN) in Johannesburg, focused on the politics of Africa, Zionism in Africa, and Türkiye’s evolving role in the Middle East and Africa.