Palestinian Voices: Israeli Settlement Boycott

(March 25, 2014)

The BBC Arabic held a discussion with a group of Palestinians about the boycott efforts targeting Israeli settlements.

Some of the things they talked about were: how the movement began overseas first ... and why sometimes Palestinians buy Israeli products, and where they can find different options. One lady was explaining that often times, buying imported goods from Syria or Jordan is cheaper than buy goods produced at the higher wages that Israelis get.

This is a student at a university:

 She says they've boycotted Israeli goods in their cafeteria since 2007. She took us on a tour of all the chips and candy to show us that "the cafeteria is 100% clear", as the sign below assures.

Then they were talking about the foreign companies which have joined the boycott movement, and you should know that Sweden and Norway came off looking so good!

They talked about how the European Union had put regulations in place targeting Israeli companies ... and that a company called Veiola had lost $20 billion through the boycott. Veiola does stuff in the illegal Israeli settlements. It lost all that money after companies in Sweden, Ireland, the UK, and the US pulled out from investing in it.

Finally, the University of Bergen in Norway got its own special shout-out: such-and-such company lost this much money when the University of Bergen divested from it. 

But, they also mentioned a Danish-British company called G4S, which is under scrutiny by the boycott movement for its activities. I think they sell defense equipment to Israeli settlements, or something like that.