By trying to aid the ‘Palestinian cause’, a Dutch BDS activist spotlighted the sell of Israeli wines in an openly anti-Israeli Tweet; she unintentionally motivated Netherland’s pro-Israel supporters to go out and buy every bottle of Efrat wines at many of the supermarket’s locations.

By Israel Today Staff

Screen Shot: Teperberg Winery website

The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement suffered a major setback in the Netherlands last week when one of its activists inadvertently sparked a rush on Israeli wines in the European country.

Mieke Zagt thought she was serving the Palestinian cause when she took to Twitter to call out local supermarket chain Hema for carrying Efrat wines.

“Hey, Hema, you’re selling Efrat wine from Judean Hills as made in Israel. Is this possible? Efrat and Judean Hills are in occupied Palestinian land. Efrat is an illegal Israeli colony. Can you verify the origin? #hema #notAgainAye!??“

Zagt’s first mistake was identifying Efrat wines as a “settler” product. While the line of wines shares a name with the Jewish settlement of Efrat, it is, in fact, a product of Teperberg Winery located in the town of Tsor’a, west of Jerusalem and firmly within Israel’s pre-1967 boundaries.

But her bigger mistake was tweeting in the first place.

Zagt herself has only around 1,300 Twitter followers, but the attempt to call out Hema quicly caught the notice of Israel supporters in the Netherlands, who responded with a viral social media campaign that resulted in the massive supermarket chain selling out Efrat wines at many of its locations.

The whole episode occurred just a couple days after Purim, which Amsterdam-based Rabbi Yanki Jacobs said was very fitting.

Purim celebrates an unexpected victory for the Jewish people against those who sought to destroy them. “It’s a pleasure to see, just a few days after Purim, something bad turning into something good,” Jacobs told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in regards to Zagt’s accidental assistance to the Zionist enterprise.

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