Inter-faith group joins pro-Palestinian calls for boycott over manufacture of products 'in illegal West Bank settlement'


SodaStream's Super Bowl advertisement. Photograph: SodaStream/AP

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6YUqv3vrMsCnL_SX5nhL5Xu83CUBT9c3

"If you love the bubbles, set them free," urged the makers of SodaStream, in an ad that aired during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVII.

But the bubbles may be about to burst. SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activist groups, who have called for an official boycott of all the company's products.

In a press release, the newly formed Interfaith Boycott Coalition announced that its "representatives from Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations are calling for a boycott" because SodaStream manufactures its products "in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank".

The start of the boycott coincided with the airing of the commercial on Sunday night, during an event which attracted more than 108 million viewers.

According to its website, the IBC claims to be committed to ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine through the boycott of companies who "profit from [the] occupation". The IBC is a project of the US Campaign to End the Occupation, a pro-Palestinian activist community which is made up of more than 400 groups.

The coalition has joined several international activist groups – including the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement – which advocate consumer boycotts of goods produced in Jewish settlements.

The root of the controversy surrounds SodaStream's main manufacturing plant, which is located in the Mishor Edomin industrial zone next to Ma'aleh Adumim, one of the largest settlements in the West Bank. In December, the settlement was at the center of the E1 expansion disputes, in which the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, clashed with European leaders over the settlement's expansion into disputed Palestinian territory.

IBC claims that SodaStream has profited from Israel's occupation of the West Bank, including receiving economic incentives at the expense of maltreated Palestinian workers.

The boycott call follows others against SodaStream, including a call from Code Pink, a US-based women's social-justice organization that counts  pro-Palestinian activism on its roster of causes.

The boycott calls have gained ground abroad. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign – the largest pro-Palestinian movement in the UK – has made SodaStream a campaign target for 2013. In April, the group will stage a protest outside SodaStream's UK flagship store in Brighton; the company is on the group's banned consumer goods list. The group previously boycotted an Israeli cosmetics company, Ahava, staging several protests in 2011 which resulted in the company being forced to close down its London shop.

Asked about SodaStream's presence in the West Bank, Daniel Birnbaum, the company's CEO, told the Associated Press:

"We don't strengthen or support the occupation. What we're doing is taking a facility in the occupied territory and giving Palestinians a career and economic benefits. I've got to laugh when they think we're on the wrong side of this. We're part of the solution. We build bridges, not walls."

Posted by
Raya Jalabi
Tuesday 5 February 2013 13.10 EST guardian.co.uk

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