As part of our Friday Drive Palestine Special we discussed boycotting of the major supermarket chains that have been circulating on social media/messages/forums. The boycotting centred around the sale of Israeli goods in our supermarkets and if they should be banned from sale. We asked the following supermarkets for a response, as calls for boycotting Israeli products increase. Below are their responses. Asda failed to respond to several calls and email requests from us for a statement Morrisons statement from their spokesperson said: We are aware of the concern that exists over the conflict in Gaza and understand that some customers may not want to buy products from the state of Israel. “We have no plans to cease stocking products from the state of Israel. These products are clearly labelled so customers can make an informed choice about what they buy.” Sainsbury’s statement from their spokesperson said: “We have approved suppliers in both Palestine and Israel. We are a non-political organisation and source our own brand products according to the ability of the producer to meet our quality, safety and ethical standards. We give our customers the opportunity to make their own decisions by labelling our own brand products clearly and accurately.” Tesco statement from their spokesperson said: “Like all major UK retailers, we sell some products that are sourced from Israel. We do this in line with the Government position on trade with Israel, and we mark all products clearly with the country of origin, so customers can make informed choices about what to buy.” Co op press statement from their spokesperson said: Since 2009, The Co-operative Group has operated a Human Rights and Trade Policy, which establishes the exceptional circumstances under which we will withdraw all trade from a particular state, area or settlement. One such circumstance is where there is a broad international consensus that the status of a settlement is illegal. There are only two examples of such illegal areas: the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the Moroccan settlements in Western Sahara. On this basis, our policy has previously been not to source any produce or own-brand product from the Israeli settlements (or from Moroccan settlements). Since its adoption, this position has been underpinned by a rigorous monitoring process. This position is not a boycott of Israeli businesses, and we recognise the quality of Israeli produce and we continue to have source from Israeli suppliers that do not source from the settlements.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 09:09:16 +0000
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