{"id":26092,"date":"2015-09-20T23:32:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T05:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=26092"},"modified":"2015-09-20T23:32:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T05:32:02","slug":"pharrell-williams-concert-venue-in-south-africa-drops-legal-bid-to-fend-off-bds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/pharrell-williams-concert-venue-in-south-africa-drops-legal-bid-to-fend-off-bds\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharrell Williams concert venue in South Africa drops legal bid to fend off BDS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE TOWN, South Africa (JTA) \u2014 Organizers of a concert by American pop star Pharrell Williams have abandoned their legal action against pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting against his presence there.<\/p>\n<p>The Sun International hotel group had launched an urgent court interdict on Sept. 14 to limit the number of protesters outside Williams&#8217; Sept. 21 concert in Cape Town, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/ewn.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\">ewn.co.za<\/a>. But the group withdrew its court application, due to be heard last Friday, against the local branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS.<\/p>\n<p>BDS South Africa spokesman Kwara Kekana described the hotel company\u2019s move as an about-face.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor us it\u2019s not only a Palestine victory, but it\u2019s a victory for freedom of expression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Pro-Palestine protesters have been agitating against the American pop star since he concluded a promotional deal with major national retailer Woolworths, due to its trade ties with Israel. Woolworths denies sourcing produce from the West Bank or other disputed territories.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, BDS South Africa board member Braam Hanekom said, \u201c[Williams] is about to face the biggest backlash any artist has faced in South Africa in over 30 years, since the days of apartheid. He is walking into a very angry, unhappy environment because he has chosen to walk with Woolworths,\u201d he told Reuters following a decision by the City of Cape Town to deny an application by thousands to protest at Williams\u2019 concert.<\/p>\n<p>Hanekom threatened that protesters may block roads on concert nights or rally inside venues. A second concert is due to take place in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Pharrell%20Williams%20concert%20venue%20in%20South%20Africa%20drops%20legal%20bid%20to%20fend%20off%20BDS\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7137],"tags":[8790,8795,7332,8788,7347,1047],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26093,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26092\/revisions\/26093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}