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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Ireland’s biggest food retailer
drops Israeli produce as European boycotts surge</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created"
content="2014-08-15T14:12:43+00:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime"
rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span class="username"
xml:lang="" about="/users/michael-deas"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Michael
Deas</span> on Fri, 08/15/2014 - 14:12<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-deas/irelands-biggest-food-retailer-drops-israeli-produce-european-boycotts-surge">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-deas/irelands-biggest-food-retailer-drops-israeli-produce-european-boycotts-surge</a></small></small></small></b><br>
</span> </div>
<p>Major Israeli food exporters are facing an unprecedented wave of
cancelations in orders from Europe as a result of Israel’s <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack">most
recent massacre</a> of Palestinians in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza">Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>SuperValu, the biggest food distributor in Ireland, told <a
href="http://www.herald.ie/news/supervalu-boycotts-israeli-products-30483160.html">the
Irish media</a> last week that it has withdrawn Israeli products
from its shops.</p>
<p>And Israeli media reports suggest that other major European
retailers have taken similar decisions without announcing them
publicly.</p>
<p>Israeli fruit and vegetable exporters have faced cancelations
from Scandinavia, the UK, France, Belgium and Ireland.</p>
<p>Retailers have become fearful of the rapidly growing consumer
boycott of Israeli goods, <a
href="http://www.themarker.com/news/macro/1.2402510">according
to an 11 August article</a> in Hebrew business website <em>The
Marker</em>.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for EDOM, a major Israeli fruit grower and
exporter that has <a
href="http://corporateoccupation.org/edom-still-sourcing-products-from-tomer-settlement/">extensive
operations in illegal Israeli settlements</a> in the occupied
West Bank, told <em>The Marker</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Importers from Europe are telling us that they can’t sell
Israeli produce … One European buyer has told me that he had
been blocked in several chains in Denmark and Sweden, and then
in Belgium. Last weekend, he told me that mangoes which had been
packaged in the Netherlands, as always, and shipped to Ireland,
were returned, claiming that Israeli produce would not be
accepted …</p>
<p>I’ve heard of major exporters from whom chains in southern
France are no longer buying. There is no official boycott, but
everyone is afraid of selling Israeli fruits. We can only hope
that things do not get worse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among the other exporters interviewed for the article is an
Israeli pomegranate grower who is quoted as saying that they had
been forced to cancel their “entire work plan in the UK” because
major retail chains were no longer interested in Israeli goods,
and that similar messages had been received from importers in
Belgium and Scandinavia.</p>
<p>A <a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/major-israeli-exporter-reports-cancelled-orders-due-to-israeli-massacre-in-gaza-12413">separate
article published</a> in <em>The Marker</em> on 27 July details
how fruit juice producer Priniv had lost a major contract with a
business in <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/sweden">Sweden</a>
after refusing a request to export the produce in a way that would
make it easier to conceal the fact it was produced in Israel.
Customers in Belgium and France also made similar requests.</p>
<p>Priniv director Ido Yaniv attributes the drop in sales to
Israel’s attack on Gaza.</p>
<p>Organized <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds">boycott,
divestment and sanctions</a> (BDS) campaigns have in recent
years succeeded in pressuring retailers across Europe to announce
that they will not stock produce from illegal Israeli settlements
or from companies that operate in settlements. The <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/tesco">Tesco</a> chain
the UK is the latest to make such an announcement.</p>
<p>But it is now becoming increasingly clear that European
businesses are starting to react to growing public support for
Palestinian rights and boycotts of Israel in Europe. They are
deciding not to sell Israeli produce of any kind — at least for
now.</p>
<h2>“Disposal” of Israeli goods</h2>
<p>Ireland’s largest grocery and food retailer distributor SuperValu
instructed all of its 232 stores to remove Israeli products from
the shelves earlier this month.</p>
<p>In an email to store managers, the chain called on store managers
to “remove all stock from available sale and dispose of [it] at
store level.”</p>
<p>“It’s mostly fruit and vegetables, carrots and herbs more
specifically,” a source from the retailer <a
href="http://www.herald.ie/news/supervalu-boycotts-israeli-products-30483160.html">told
the <em>Irish </em></a><em><em><a
href="http://www.herald.ie/news/supervalu-boycotts-israeli-products-30483160.html">Herald</a></em>. </em></p>
<p>Following the <em>Irish Herald</em> story, SuperValu issued a
statement saying that it has not officially endorsed the boycott
of Israel but did not deny that Israeli products have been removed
from its stores. </p>
<p>Major Irish toy store Smyths may have taken a similar decision,
temporarily displaying a poster at one Dublin store stating that
it had removed products made in Israel from the shelves.</p>
<p>The decisions come as part of a huge upsurge in support of the
Palestinian struggle and boycotts of Israel across Ireland.</p>
<p>Protests have been held in retailers across the country and calls
for boycott have been made by national trade unions, local
councils and even sports stars including Irish and Leinster rugby
star Gordon Darcy.</p>
<h2>Building the boycott</h2>
<p>Calls for boycotts of Israeli products, for sanctions and a
military embargo to be imposed on Israel have been a <a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/hundreds-of-thousands-day-of-rage-for-gaza-12439">key
part</a> of the huge mass demonstrations in solidarity with Gaza
that have taken place across the world in recent weeks.</p>
<p>Civil society organizations are responding to the attack on Gaza
by <a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/gaza-sanctions-and-boycott-action-12410">announcing
new boycott initiatives</a>.</p>
<p>In the weeks and months that follow, the challenge for
campaigners will be to ramp up the pressure on retailers to remove
Israeli products and to make their refusal to do so public.</p>
<p>Campaigns against the sale of Israeli fresh produce have been a
major focus of the solidarity movement in Europe in recent years.</p>
<p>BDS initiatives have focused on Israeli companies such as
Mehadrin and EDOM that play a key role in the colonization of
Palestinian land in the West Bank and profit from the siege of
Gaza, as <a
href="http://bdsmovement.net/activecamps/farming-injustice">research
published by Palestinian farming unions has detailed</a>.</p>
<p>In January, Israeli settler leaders in the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/jordan-valley">Jordan
Valley</a> region of the West Bank <a
href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/minister-lack-peace-will-hurt-israeli-economy">told
the Associated Press</a> that the boycott, divestment and
sanctions campaign had cost settlers $29 million in lost sales,
especially in Europe.</p>
<p>Campaigns against Israeli fresh produce exporters have
intensified following the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/bds-milestone-uk-supermarket-chain-boycott-israel-firms-doing-business">decision</a>
by the UK <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/co-operative-group">Co-operative</a>
retail chain to boycott all companies that operate in settlements,
with campaigns also underway in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/france">France</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/spain">Spain</a>, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/belgium">Belgium</a>,
the <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/netherlands">Netherlands</a>,
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/germany">Germany</a>,
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/norway">Norway</a> and
Sweden.</p>
<p>In 2011, Israeli export company <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/carmel-agrexco">Agrexco</a>
entered <a
href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/palestinian-civil-society-welcomes-agrexco-liquidation-calls-for-celebration-of-this-bds-victory-8096">into
liquidation</a> after boycotts and campaigns in thirteen
European countries that saw retailers cut links with the company,
blockades of its UK and Belgium warehouses and a huge mobilization
against plans for an Agrexco distribution center in Sete in the
south of France.</p>
<p>Israeli analyst <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/shir-hever">Shir Hever</a>
suggested at the time that farmers leaving Agrexco to export their
products through other channels because of the boycott campaign
was a major factor behind the company’s collapse.</p>
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