It seems like the SodaStream controversy has barely died down when Israel faces another culinary BDS threat. Only this time the source is from the inside. So far.
Shamir Salads youve probably passed the brand in the refrigerator section of a market here or there, identified by its signature green leaf-red tomato graphic icon is being tossed about now as the evil factory in question.
All those divine salads of the Middle East, such as hummus, baba-genouj and Matboucha (a Turkish pepper concoction) are no longer as harmless as they once seemed. Turns out, the factory that manufactures these pre-packaged dips and salads is in settlement territory.
The thing is, few people really knew about it until this week.
Apparently, there are two other salatim companies that have always dominated the market, and Shamir Salads, along with another one or two companies, trailed behind these big two companies.
In an effort to increase revenue, Shamir Salads hired Israeli celebrity chef Israel Aharoni to update its products, giving them a gourmet twist. Aharoni obliged.
Then, this week, Aharoni was publicly chastised for doing work for a company whose factory is outside the Green Line (Israels pre-June, 1967 borders). People should only support blue and white products made in Israel (i.e., inside the Green Line), the claim went.
So it seems the BDS movement has become so insidious that there are Israelis from withing the country splitting Israel into swaths of blue and white vs. controversial land to the point of divesting internally.
Aside from how disturbing this is to me on many levels, not the least of which is the assumption that a Jewish factory cannot operate on the land of a possible future Palestinian state, I really wonder at the naivete of this position.
Do those Jews or Israelis who advocate for the boycott, divestment and sanction of products from land outside the Green Line really fail to understand that the fine distinction they are making is not seen by the rest of the world?
As simplistic as it sounds, to support BDS is to turn against all of Israel, not just in the sterile, precise fashion of isolating one part of the land from the rest of the country.
BDSrs dont want any part of Israel to flourish. To BDSrs, Eilat, Jerusalem and Barkan where Shamir Salads is manufactured are all the same. Israel is Israel is Israel.
And what are we talking about here already? Salads? And with SodaStream carbonated water? These are not factories manufacturing bullets to kill people with. To the contrary, these factories provide sustenance for all and employment for many Palestinians, whom BDS supporters claim to want to help.
The land situation is complicated and needs to be dealt with in what will possibly be some painful compromises and hopefully some kind of a creative solution that will be good for everyone involved.
But boycotting products of companies whose factories are not within the Green Line is silly, and ultimately not helpful to anyone.
Or actually, maybe it can be.
Many supporters of Israel and right-leaning Israelis who had no clue about the Shamir Salads factory are now making a concerted effort to purchase only Shamir. After all, SodaStream was not that well known in the past until the whole hullabaloo.
This week an Internet card with the Shamir Salads signature red tomato was circulating:
With competitors like Oppenheimer, who needs to hire a PR firm? We just wanted to say . . . THANK-YOU.
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