(Thanks to Rachel
O'Donoghue – Honest Reporting)
Boycott, Sanctions and
Divestments (BDS) supporters have been celebrating over the past week following
an announcement by American food giant General Mills that it had sold its stake
in its joint venture in Israel. The BDS movement hailed the decision as a
“decisive step towards ending the company’s complicity in Israeli
apartheid and violations of Palestinian human rights.”
A statement posted on the group’s
official website asserted that the multinational company had moved “following
several years of BDS pressure.”
Likewise, the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC) – a Quaker organization that spearheaded the crusade
against General Mills – suggested its
two-year-long “No Dough for the Occupation” campaign was somehow linked the
company’s decision.
Wholly ignored was a statement by General Mills
that the decision to close the Pillsbury dough factory had absolutely nothing
to do with pressure applied by BDS campaigners.Bottom of Form
Indeed, the multinational
company, which makes household brands including Pillsbury, Häagen-Dazs and
Yoplait, thoroughly debunked claims that BDS had a hand in prompting the
closure of its factory in Israel, describing such allegations as “false.”
“We have made clear the global
business strategy that drove this decision. Any claims by others taking credit
for this decision are false. We continue to sell our products in Israel and
look forward to continuing to serve Israeli consumers with our other brands.”
An earlier statement pointed
out that the company was also planning on selling its European dough business
as part of a new strategy.
‘East
Jerusalem’: Media Parroting BDS Falsehoods
True to form, the media have
taken the BDS baton and run with it. Numerous reports about General Mills’
decision assert that the company’s factory in the Atarot Industrial Zone is located
in “East Jerusalem” (see here, here and here).
Aside from the fact that “East
Jerusalem” is a misnomer, which falsely suggests the holy city is divided, the
factory is not even located in the eastern part of the city – it is actually in
northern Jerusalem.
Furthermore, as attorney Stephen M. Flatow noted, the area is an
industrial zone and is not a hub of “settlers” as has been suggested in several
reports (see here and here), Indeed, the
factory closure will disproportionately affect Arab workers:
[Atarot] has become one of
Israel’s successful industrial zones and, incidentally, has employed quite a
few Palestinian Arabs over the years. In a 2017 study it was estimated that 80%
of the employees within the Atarot were Palestinian Arabs.”
And this is but the latest
example of media outlets uncritically parroting BDS falsehoods.
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When sportswear giant Nike announced plans to terminate its
business relationship with some Israeli retailers last year, outlets such
as The Independent linked the move to BDS.
That Nike had no intention of
closing any of its 15 company-owned stores in Israel and encouraged customers
in Israel to purchase its products via these outlets mattered not one iota to
BDS supporters who declared it a major win for the campaign to turn Israel into
a pariah state.
Even more scandalously, BDS
advocates, many of whom have openly stated they wish to see the destruction of
the Jewish state, gloss over the very real harm the movement has on those it
claims to want to protect – Palestinians.
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When SodaStream capitulated to BDS calls in 2015 and moved its
operations from the West Bank to southern Israel it came at a high price, which
was the loss of hundreds of jobs held by
Palestinians who had been earning approximately three times the
average local salary.
If BDS really cared about
Palestinians – and was not primarily driven by an animus toward the Jewish
state – why would it be trying to drive out the employers who pay Palestinian
wages?
