Tag: farming

Apartheid in the fields: Part 3 How the food gets to us and what we can do

1st April 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

A new report from Corporate Watch outlines exactly how the food grown in the illegal settlements of Palestine gets to our plates in Britain. This final summary looks at what we in Britain can do to support the boycott called for by Palestinians.

Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers are asking us to boycott not only produce which we think was produced in the occupied territories, but to boycott all produce exported by Israeli export companies who benefit from economic conditions and exploitation in Gaza and the West Bank, particularly as ambiguous labeling can make it difficult to distinguish where exactly products originated.

BDS activists demonstrate outside Sainsbury's in Brighton. Photos provided by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign
BDS activists demonstrate outside
Sainsbury’s in Brighton. Photos provided
by Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity
Campaign

These companies include Arava, Mehadrin, Hadiklaim, Carmel Agrexco, and Edom and Valley Grown Salads. They export products such as peppers, tomatoes, onions, chillies, grapes, strawberries, avocadoes, figs, dates, aubergines, and herbs, and these foods end up at all the main supermarkets in the UK. They may be labelled as coming from Israel (wrongly, when produced in the occupied territories), Palestine, Jordan Valley, and even allegedly, Saudi Arabia.

In 2009, after intense pressure from campaigners, the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued new guidelines regarding the labelling of products being imported from the West Bank: ‘the Government considers that traders would be misleading consumers and would therefore almost certainly be committing an offence if they were to declare produce from the OPT, including from the West Bank, as “Produce of Israel”.’

UK supermarkets now say they label such produce as “West Bank” but labels indicating produce of Israel remain common.

What can you do in the UK?

  • Read the full report for more detailed advice
  • Boycott Israeli goods altogether (read the label and also check for barcodes beginning 729)
  • Apply pressure to your local supermarket and its national office to stop using companies that benefit from illegal land seizure, appalling employment practices and child labour (this is a Fair Trade issue too).

For the full report: https://corporatewatch.org/publications/2016/apartheid-fields-occupied-palestine-uk-supermarkets

Apartheid in the fields: Part 2 Injustice in the Jordan Valley

30th March 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine

A new report from Corporate Watch outlines exactly how the food grown in the illegal settlements of Palestine gets to our plates in Britain, and what we (in Britain) can do about it. In this second summary report we look at what is happening in the Jordan Valley.

Much Jordan Valley produce is marketed as organic but is certainly not grown fairly
Much Jordan Valley produce is marketed as organic but is certainly not grown fairly

Israeli agricultural companies operate on land in the Jordan Valley taken from Palestinians by force. This leaves Palestinians there with few options but to work for the illegal settlements on land which was once Palestinian, and sometimes land which was once theirs. The research conducted in 2013 found that companies pay well below minimum wage, with workers being paid between £12.60 and £14.50 a day. They found evidence of children as young as ten being employed. There are often no written contracts, or contracts are in Hebrew only, there is no sick pay, no health insurance, no holiday pay, few health and safety precautions. Trade unions are not permitted. Some workers leave at 3 am to get through checkpoints to work and others sleep in barrack like accommodation, illegal under Israeli law.

Support for a boycott is widespread: ‘They are working on stolen land, using water that they have stolen from us. If the boycott campaign damages these companies then the settlers will leave our land’ says Fares from Beit Harava. ‘We support the boycott even if we lose our work. We might lose our jobs but we will get back our land. We will be able to work without being treated as slaves,’ agrees Zaid from Beqa’ot. (Names have been changed.)

For the full report: https://corporatewatch.org/publications/2016/apartheid-fields-occupied-palestine-uk-supermarkets