Report: Major UK retailer boycotts settlement goods

[Scurrilous]

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"One of the United Kingdom's largest food retailers has boycotted four companies that export products from illegal Israeli settlements, British daily The Guardian reported on Sunday.

The decision by the Co-operative group, which is the UK's fifth largest food retailer, will reportedly affect contracts worth around £350,000.

Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin will all be affected by the Co-op's latest decision, itself an upgrade on an existing policy not to source produce from illegal settlements in the West Bank, The Guardian said.

"Israeli agricultural export companies like Mehadrin profit from and are directly involved in the ongoing colonization of occupied Palestinian land and theft of our water," a spokesman for the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees said.

"Trade with such companies constitutes a major form of support for Israel's apartheid regime over the Palestinian people, so we warmly welcome this principled decision by the Co-operative," he added."

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=480586

[Jefferson23]

1. Major British supermarket chain announces boycott of produce made in West Bank settlements

Co-op, fifth biggest supermarket chain in Britain, emphasizes it will continue doing business with companies that can guarantee none of their products come from outside the Green Line.

By Anshel Pfeffer

One of the largest supermarket chains in Britain has announced that it intends to boycott Israeli agricultural exporters that market also produce from the West Bank settlements.

While British food retailers have for some years now been labeling products that are grown or manufactured in settlements and in some cases boycotting them entirely, this is the first move by a major company to end all dealings with companies that export products from within the Green Line and from the settlements. The main companies that will be impacted by this decision are Agrexco, Mehadrin and Arava.

The announcement came this weekend following years of campaigning by pro-Palestinian organizations in Britain that have been lobbying for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) of Israel. Co-op, the fifth biggest supermarket chain in Britain has emphasized that this is not a boycott of Israel and that it will continue doing business with companies that can guarantee none of their products originate from outside the Green Line.

The attempts to limit the export of settlement produce to Europe were led in the past by the European Union and the British government. In 2009, the British government, at the express instructions of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, issued guidelines to retailers on clear labeling of produce made in settlements, differentiating it from Palestinian produce and products that were made within the Green Line. These guidelines followed Israeli refusals to label settlement products before being exported to the EU. The issue of labeling settlement produce was a major bone of contention between the British and Israeli governments at the time.

in full: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/major-british-supermarket-chain-announces-boycott-of-produce-made-in-west-bank-settlements-1.427121