Maariv: Targeted boycott and divestment pushing companies out of the settlements
Didi Remez, 21 June 2010
The cover story of this morning”s (June 21 2010) Maariv business section reports that targeted boycott and divestment actions – Israeli, Palestinian and international – are pushing an increasing number of Israeli companies out of the West Bank settlements and into Israeli proper:
He [Yaakov Malach, CEO and owner of a company located at the Barkan Industrial Zone] says, “there is not a single factory in Barkan today that is not searching for alternative locations inside Israel, particularly if the construction freeze continues.” However, other factory owners are not willing to discuss the matter at the moment, for fear of prematurely harming their workers. “Clearly, we”re concerned, and we are also examining things, but we don”t want to reveal the name of the factory,” a CEO of one of the largest factories in the area told Ma”ariv.
Along with this, Avraham Barkan, director of the Jezreel-Afula industrial zone administration, reports that he has received a number of requests from owners and managers of factories located over the Green Line, regarding the relocation of their activity to the Alon Tavor industrial park. Barkan attributes this to the factories” fear of a shortage of workers as of the start of 2011, because of the Palestinian boycott, and to the fear that the construction freeze will continue
On June 17 2010, Calcalist”s Weekend Supplement profiled Who Profits?, the organization that compiles much of the data enabling targeted action:
Dr. Dalit Baum and Merav Amir watched all of that media noise from the side. They prefer to remain behind the scenes: to manufacture the thunder but to be away from the stage when it rolls into the media. The two are responsible for the project “Who Profits From the Occupation” that maps Israeli companies that earn money from the Israeli presence in the territories. Baum and Amir, with another 10-20 activists, do an in-depth study of each company, “based on stock exchange reports, newspaper reports and more,” explains Amir.
Full translations of both articles are posted below.
