Carmel Agrexco. 'No such boycott'
Italy groups urge boycott of Israeli goods
Pro-Palestinian groups, left-wing Gush Shalom movement call on supermarkets in Italy to ban Israeli products from West Bank settlements and Golan Heights. To ensure full enforcement, they seek to take move one step further, boycotting all Israeli goods because 'you can't differentiate'
As the Palestinian Authority ups its efforts to boycott Israeli products made in the West Bank settlements and the Golan Heights, pro-Palestinian groups in Italy sought to take the effort one step further and boycott all Israeli products "because you can't differentiate."
Pro-Palestinian groups in Italy demonstrated in front of the headquarters of two large supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, demanding that they stop selling Israeli produce exported by Agrexco.
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A statement issued by the organizations already announced their success. They claimed that Agrexco insists on mixing produce from West Bank settlement in with products from all of Israel, marketing the entire mix under the Carmel brand. As such, they claim, there is no way for Italian consumers to know the source of the products they purchase.
Israelis were also involved in the boycott effort. In a letter written to Agrexco management, the organization Gush Shalom wrote, "What happened in Italy needs to be a blinking red warning light for you. The time has come that you understand that agriculture in the settlements and the occupied territories – especially the farming settlements in the Jordan Valley that were established as part of the Alon Plan which have long since died and been buried – is like a grindstone on the neck of Israeli agriculture.
"If you continue your policy of mixing Israeli products with settlement products, to which opposition is growing around the world, you are tangibly endangering all of Israel's agriculture exports," the Gush Shalom letter claimed.
'Law forbids boycotting'
Agrexco said in response that these are merely rumors.
"There is no such thing. We are working with these companies for 50 years. We receive contacts of this sort all the time. There is a law in Italy that forbids boycotting products for political reasons, and these claims are baseless," explained Shira Segal Kuperman, the public relations manager of the company.
The Agriculture Ministry confirmed that there is no boycott against the Israeli company "in Italy or any other country."
The Palestinian Authority is currently flaunting a major campaign in the West Bank to boycott Israeli settlement products.
Recently, figures in Europe have become more vocal on the matter. Last September, British trade unions decided to support a boycott of goods from Israeli settlements. Not long after, the British government recommended that supermarkets prominently mark products made beyond the Green Line.
Three months ago, the European Court in Brussels ruled that customs would be imposed on Israeli products made in the West Bank. President of Israel's Manufacturers' Association explained that some countries have imposed such a tariff for many years already.
