Tag Archive for Judea and Samaria boycott

| December 6, 2013
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Canadian Protestant church launches boycott campaign against Israel

‘By boycotting Keter Plastic Ltd., SodaStream & Ahava, which have factories in the West Bank, we join with many others striving to bring peace with justice to the Holy Land’ wrote churchgoer to Church members.

 

 

 

TORONTO — Canada’s largest Protestant church launched a campaign to boycott goods made in the West Bank.

The United Church of Canada campaign, dubbed “Unsettling Goods: Choose Peace in Palestine and Israel,” encourages “economic action” against three Israeli companies: Keter Plastic Ltd., SodaStream and Ahava, which all have factories in the West Bank.

“With these efforts, we join with many others striving to bring peace with justice to the Holy Land,” the church’s moderator, Gary Paterson, wrote in a November letter to church members announcing the launch of the campaign.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| November 26, 2013
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PM convenes urgent Cabinet meeting on Horizon 2020, as EU sticks to settlement boycotts

 

EU guidelines require every agreement with EU to include clause specifying that ‘deal’ is not applicable beyond Green Line.

By HERB KEINON
 

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held urgent consultations Sunday to discuss what Israeli officials termed the European Union’s refusal to show the necessary flexibility on its settlement guidelines to allow Israel to join the massive Horizon 2020 project.

Meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with EU Foreign Commissioner Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem. - Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO

Meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with EU Foreign Commissioner Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem. – File Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO

Israel and the EU have been in intensive talks since August looking for a formula that would enable Israel’s participation in the flagship EU Research and Development program in light of EU settlement guidelines published in June barring the transfer of any money or funds to entities beyond the Green Line, including east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| November 14, 2013
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27 EU lawmakers petition Ashton to redo settlement boycott policy

 

27 EU Parliamentarians sign petition to Ashton asking her to rethink guidelines on banning business transactions & funding with Jewish town in the disputed areas.

News comes amid reports Jerusalem attempted to reach a deal with EU over guidelines in bid to save $94B in research funding.

By AFP

Some 30 members of the European Parliament on Wednesday urged the EU to rethink July guidelines banning financial ties with Israeli settlements.

High Representative of the European Union Catherine Ashton – Photo AP

High Representative of the European Union Catherine Ashton – Photo: AP

In a letter to the bloc’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton, 27 MEPs across the political spectrum urged the EU’s executive, the European Commission, to reverse or at least soften the guidelines setting a January 2014 ban on funding and business deals with settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| November 9, 2013
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Calls for boycott from the EU mar the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht

This year, the 75th Anniversary of the pogroms against Jews, their homes, businesses & their synagogues, will be marked by, yes, you guessed it – new calls from Europe to boycott  Jewish businesses!

By Tomas Sandell

 

As Europe prepares to mark the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht this weekend, there will be a certain sense of déja vu in the air. Earlier memorials have been characterised by emotional speeches and complex analysis as to how Kristallnacht could have come about in the first place. This year, the 75th Anniversary of the pogroms against Jews, their homes, their businesses and their synagogues, will be marked by – you guessed it – new calls to boycott  Jewish businesses! Continue Reading »

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| October 24, 2013
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PA President asks Western companies to divorce from West Bank settlements

PA President Abbas makes plea to European Council president to stop all projects in Jewish areas in the West Bank.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, TOVAH LAZAROFF
 

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday called on European and other Western firms to stop violating international law by working in West Bank settlements.

Abbas meets European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels, October 23, 2013

Abbas meets European Council President Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels, October 23, 2013 – Photo: REUTERS

Abbas’s call came during a meeting in Brussels with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council and former Belgian prime minister.

Abbas is currently on a tour of a number of EU countries to urge their governments to activate regulations against settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| September 8, 2013
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EU May only Boycott New Projects & Continue to Fund Old

 

An EU delegation has reportedly agreed to continue funding bodies in Judea & Samaria (West Bank) and the Golan Heights that have received help in the past.

By Kochava Rozenbaum

 

 

The European Union (EU) is seeking to reassure Israelis who are concerned about the economic harm caused  by the EU’s decision to forbid its member states from cooperating, transferring funds, or giving scholarships or research grants to bodies in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.

Ariel University Center

A senior delegation from the European Union will arrive in Israel early this week to examine ways of preventing damage to Israeli entities operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. Continue Reading »

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| August 13, 2013
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New pro-Israel Arab party declares EU boycott to be counterproductive

 

 

“Releasing murderers is not going to bring peace,” exclaimed Bishara Shlayan, an Israeli Christian Arab from Nazareth. He said he is against the release, and that only after a final peace deal should prisoners be released.

By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
 

 

Bishara Shlayan, an Israeli Christian Arab from Nazareth who is creating a new Arab political party, said that the EU boycott of Israeli businesses and institutions operating in the West Bank is counterproductive, since it mainly harms Arabs living there.
Bishara Shlayan

Bishara Shlayan – Photo: Courtesy

“The boycott is a big mistake – it is the livelihood for many, mainly Arabs in the West Bank,” Shlayan told The Jerusalem Post, adding that the absence of Israeli businesses will create more violence, as more Arabs will be left with no way to put food on their tables.
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| July 27, 2013
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Israel stopped aiding EU representatives entering Gaza, European diplomat reports

Diplomat says recent lack of cooperation is part of Israeli response to EU’s new settlement (boycott) guidelines.

Ashton’s spokesperson: The European Union has not received any official communication on orders to limit work with EU on the ground & is seeking ‘urgent clarifications’ from Israel.

By Reuters and

Several European aid staff have been barred from entering Gaza as part of Israeli measures in the wake of new EU guidelines barring cooperation with settlements, a western diplomat said Friday. 

Palestinian workers at the Erez border crossing.

Palestinian workers at the Erez border crossing. – Photo: AP

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the humanitarian aid staff had failed to receive permits to enter the Gaza Strip.  Continue Reading »

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| July 23, 2013
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German supermarket chain rebutes settlement boycott policy

Conflicting remarks between German owners and local Dutch operators.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch branch of the German supermarket chain Aldi has backtracked from its stated policy of boycotting products made by Israelis in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan.

מחרימה. רשת ALDI

Aldi branch in Holland

“Aldi would like to emphatically state that it does not boycott products from the occupied territories,” a spokesperson for Aldi’s Dutch branch wrote on Monday to the Information and Documentation on Israel — CIDI — a Dutch pro-Israel organization.

The spokesperson, Laetitia F. Gruwel, wrote in a letter to CIDI Director Esther Voet that “Aldi is not engaged in political or religious issues.”

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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| July 22, 2013
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Dutch Retailers have begun to ban goods from West Bank

Dutch media reports 2 of Holland’s largest retail chains announce that Israeli products originating beyond Green Line will no longer be sold.


Foreign Ministry: ‘Boycott is tainted with hypocrisy & prejudice’

By Hillel Posek

 

 

Following the European Union announcement regarding official guidelines prohibiting the funding of Israeli bodies and actions beyond the Green Line, it was reported Monday in the Netherlands that at least two large retail chains in the country have stopped selling goods produced in Israeli settlements. A third chain assured its customers that the sources of its products are unrelated to the settlements.

מחרימה. רשת ALDI

Aldi branch in Holland

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded: “This boycott is tainted with hypocrisy and prejudice, and is only worsening the problem it purports to solve.” Continue Reading »

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| July 22, 2013
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Palestinians oppose new EU sanctions for fear of loosing jobs

 

If EU boycott guidelines for ‘Jewish settler’ businesses ever become implemented by any of it’s member-states, it will probably boomerang leaving thousands of Palestinians jobless.

By  Israel Today Staff

 

Now even the Palestinians are fighting back against the decision by the European Union to boycott any Israeli businesses with a presence in the so-called “occupied territories.”

Groups have boycotted SodaStream because some of its machines are built in contested territory. Meanwhile, the company employs hundreds of Palestinians.

A senior PalestinianAuthority official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Israeli media that the European decision was not all that popular in Ramallah, despite ostensibly being made in service to the Palestinian nationalist cause. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| July 21, 2013
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Germany rejects EU’s anti-Israel policies

German chancellor Merkel’s Bundestag spokesman says new EU guidelines are “pure ideology & symbolic politics,” and do not contribute to peace.

He added that the European regulations are not “objective requirements”

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
 

 

Germany distances itself from the “controversial European Union guidelines” banning cooperation with Israeli entities beyond the Green Line, a foreign policy spokesman in the Bundestag announced on Friday.

Hamas cartoon

Palestinian sponsored boycott of Israel – Israel news photo screenshot

In a statement issued by MP Philipp Missfedler, the Bundestag spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party and its coalition partner the Bavarian Christian Social Union, he stated the guidelines are “pure ideology and symbolic politics” and will not contribute to finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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| July 21, 2013
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Experts: EU’s New anti-Israel Policy Could Lead to a Legal Quagmire

Despite Jerusalem’s diplomatic efforts to stop the anti-Israel process, the EU on Friday published its new official policy boycotting the Jews of Judea and Samaria.

By David Lev

 

Despite Israel’s efforts to stop the process, the European Union on Friday published its new official policy boycotting Jews and Israelis in areas of Israel liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, including Judea and Samaria and most of Jerusalem. Beginning next January, contracts and agreements between EU entities and businesses, individuals, and institutions from those areas will not be legally recognized by EU courts and forums.

In a statement, EU foreign affairs head Catherine Ashton said that despite Israel’s protestations to the contrary, “in no way will this prejudge the outcome of peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Continue Reading »

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| July 17, 2013
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PA official: EU’s new Judea & Samaria guideline will hurt Palestinians

 

Palestinian officials approach Europeans, saying that Palestinian laborers are going to lose their livelihoods because of the EU decision to exclude settlement enterprises from future cooperative agreements.

Leading manufacturer calls move illegitimate & destructive.

By Daniel Siryoti, Shlomo Cesana & Hezi Sternlicht

 

A senior Palestinian Authority official confirmed to Israel Hayom on Tuesday that many in Ramallah were dissatisfied with the European Union’s decision to withhold economic grants and incentives to Israeli companies situated in Judea and Samaria.

Palestinian laborers want to work – Photo: Aryeh Tadmor

“For our part, we approached a number of [European] Union officials, in the [Palestinian] Authority and also in Israel, to try and prevent the decision or at least to keep it unofficial,” said the official, who declined to give his name.

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