New owners of Reggies do not sponsor Israeli fund

The standoff between a toy shop chain and a Jewish-led campaign for Palestinian rights has not been child's play.

Last year, protests were held at Reggies stores across the country because the owner at the time, Issy Zimmerman, was said to support the Jewish National Fund . In December, Mohsin Mia and Christian Larsen took over the company.

According to Alan Horwitz - spokesman for the Stop the JNF South Africa campaign - Larsen "renounced any support" of the fund on Islamic radio station Cii Broadcasting.

"We supply toys to children; we do not support any political or religious organisations," Larson told the station.

Horwitz said the fund is a parastatal linked to the Israeli land authority.

"Its constitution states that only Jewish people may buy or rent land that is controlled by the Jewish National Fund. That is clearly discriminatory," said Horwitz.

Last year, Horwitz claimed that Zimmerman distributed pamphlets to customers urging them to donate to the fund.

Horwitz said his group approached the new owners of Reggies to find out if they supported the fund.

Mia then told Radio Islam that he did not ''sponsor anybody''.

Benji Shulman, spokesman for the Jewish National Fund of South Africa, said: "When we heard that new owners had taken over we found it extremely unlikely that funding would continue."

The fund states that its money is used for projects such as building reservoirs in Israel. In South Africa the fund has interests in forestry.

"The [fund] works for all people of Israel, regardless of religion or ethnicity, and rents out its land on a similar basis."