Israel Criticizes the British Retail Giant for Boycotting Settlement Goods
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- Published on Wednesday, 02 May 2012 10:55
PNN
On Wednesday, 2nd May, the Israeli Foreign ministry criticized the decision of a major British supermarket chain, to boycott a product exported from Israeli settlements, saying that this decision targets the state.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said "they say that they target the settlements goods, but actually they are targeting everything Israeli."
"The Settlements are just a pretext to boycott everything Israeli, withdraw divestment and put sanctions." Said Palmor
The UK's fifth biggest food retailer and its largest mutual business, the Co-op took the step as an extension of its existing policy, which had been not to source produce from illegal settlements that have been built on Palestinian territories in the West bank.
Now the retail and insurance giant has taken it one step further by "no longer engaging with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements".
The Co-op hasn't bought any goods from the Israeli settlement since 2009, and pointed out that its final decision will immediately affect four suppliers, Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin, Israel's largest agricultural export company. Other companies may be affected by the policy.
