Israel Is Forever: Special feature to the Calling Out Community, Posted March 2, 2016

Former Palestinian employees of the Israeli SodaStream drinks firm show their identity cards before leaving the plant for the last time, victims of the failed BDS movement

In our June 1, 2015 posting about the global BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement against the people and businesses of Israel, we warned in our title that if you Boycott Israel, Only Palestinians Suffer.  To our heartache, it seems we couldn’t have been more accurate.

We told the story of global carbonated drink maker Sodastream, a Israeli-based company employing 2,000 around the world – an iconic corporate role model that almost singlehandedly created its entire industry -manufacturing  DIY carbonated beverage machines and flavoured syrups.

Palestinian employees openly weep as they learn they can no longer work for Sodastream,

Let me say at the offset that we hold no shares in this company.  We truly wish we did.  We have no connection to the leadership, marketing, retail sales, finances, human resources, manufacturing or material sourcing for this company.  We really wish we did, as its an interesting product and a well run company with great leadership that closely care about their employees and have demonstrated that rather dramatically.

I am not Jewish nor Israeli though I am extremely fond of both.  I am a Canadian evangelical Christian that has never been to Israel but would consider such a visit the highlight of my life.

Sodastream is not an Israeli government agency, they do not make products that benefit the Israeli military or government.  Likely the majority of their sales are in North America and Europe.  A good portion of the staff – over 700 of their 2000 employees – were Palestinian Arabs.  Their corporate site indicates that each year, they provide 1.5 billion liters of home-made soda to millions of homes worldwide, making Sodastream…

…one of the largest beverage companies in the world.

Enter the extremely-stupid and short-sightseeing BDS movement against Israel – a program to Boycott, Divest and Sanction anything made in Israel, demonically birthed by the neo-Nazi bastards running the Palestinian Authority. Everyone of these camel-loving freaks ought to thank whatever backwards impotent creature they worship as a god that I dont own a gun, for when they declared war in Israel, they got at least one more infuriated enemy out for their disease-ridden blood – ME.

Though Sodastream has been an outstanding employer to the Palestinian people, reportedly paying between three and five times the average local wage, these leftwing university groups, mainstream (aka dying) Christian denominations, unions and other raging antiSemetic ASSHOLES have sought the financial destruction of Israel and, as a result, have targeted Sodastream because it’s successful – something that none of these towel-headed jackasses knows anything about.

There, I got it out of my system.  For now.

These are some of the Palestinians who lost their jobs thanks to BDS.

Bowing to financial pressures and the need to restructure as a result of the boycott’s success, SodaStream was forced to move out of the West Bank in October 2015 under pressure from BDS, and 500 Palestinian employees lost their jobs. Another 74 were able to continue working at the new factory close to the southern town of Rahat, but only on temporary work permits. On Monday, February 29, 2016 those permits expired and SodaStream was forced to let its last Palestinian employees go.

Thanks to the BDS movement’s actions, close to 600 Palestinians have now lost their jobs.  At this one company alone.  Good job.  soon there will be no one left to pay taxes to pay for the Presidential Palace there.

BDS activists have clearly demonstrated beyond all doubt that their only goal is to harm Israel, and they don’t care one iota if that causes Palestinians to suffer. Mahmoud Nawajaa, the BDS coordinator  in Ramallah, called the loss of the Palestinian jobs at SodaStream:

part of the price that should be paid in the process of ending the occupation.

Easy for that idiot to say – he’s still got a job.  BDS caused irrevocable damage by costing 600 Palestinians their livelihoods, but the movement got what it wanted. BDS supporters claim they are against “the occupation,” and SodaStream has moved out of the West Bank. What more could there possibly be left for them to do now?

The boycott movement will still be targeting SodaStream as leaders claim that operating from the Negev “amounts to participation in Israel’s plans to forcibly displace at least 40,000 Palestinian Bedouins into townships,” and according to BDS leader Omar Barghouti, “colluding in the ethnic cleansing of Bedouin Palestinian citizens.” Except the Bedouins are not Palestinians, and BDS is simply hijacking their identity to fit their narrative portraying Israel as an occupier of Palestinian land.

This is in reference to the contentious Prawer-Begin plan which was dropped while the government sought to formulate a new version, but aimed to resolve the issues of illegal Bedouin settlements and to more fully integrate them into Israeli society.

The SodaStream factory was built in a new industrial zone in the Negev administered by the Bedouin city of Rahat, the Jewish town of Lahavim and the Bnei Shimon Regional Council.  Around 40 factories will be based in this industrial zone when it is fully developed, providing employment for hundreds of workers, including many Bedouins from nearby towns. A college and hospital are also being built.

The Negev is uncontested land under Israeli sovereignty, but to BDS it is another area that can be used in the attempt to delegitimize Israel altogether.
Just like the 600 Palestinians who lost their jobs, the plight of the Bedouins and the reality of the situation are irrelevant to BDS. The movement will take any opportunity to demonize Israel, even if it is to the detriment of the people it claims to care about.

SHAMELESS PROMOTION

These revolutionary Sodastream systems and related supplies can be purchased at:

• Amazon: USA and Canada
• Bath, Bed and Beyond: USA and Canada
• Wal-Mart: USA and Canada