News / Palestine

Israeli cooperative boycotts goods made in illegal settlements

Sunday, 06 December 2015 7:13 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 06 December 2015 12:14 PM ]

Two Palestinians walk near the Israeli settlement of Beit El, north of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, April 7, 2015. (AFP photo)

An Israeli supermarket cooperative has announced plans to ban products made in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a report says.

The South Tel Aviv Organic Cooperative, located in the city’s southern neighborhood of Florentin, said on its website that “producers from the settlements are not welcome,” the Times of Israel online newspaper reported on Sunday.

The decision seems to be part of an anti-Israel international boycott campaign identified as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

The BDS movement uses economic and political pressure on Israel to make it comply with the goals of the movement, which is ending the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land particularly through illegal settlement constructions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

In this April 20, 2015 photo, an Egyptian wears a T-shirt with a logo of the BDS during the launch of its campaign at the Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate in Cairo, Egypt. (AP photo)

Much of the international community, including the EU, regards the Israeli settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East al-Quds (Jerusalem), in 1967 as illegal because the territories were occupied and they are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied land.

The campaign has also influenced the laws of EU member states, which are now barred from cooperating with the Israeli companies that are linked to the occupied territories.

The EU has also blocked all grants and funding to any Israeli entity based in the illegal settlements.

The 28-nation bloc last month passed new guidelines for labeling produce from the settlements.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian lands.

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