Scarlett Johansson and SodaStream CEO David Birnbaum discuss the controversial home-beverage product. Image by getty images

Harvard University Dining Service has halted purchases of SodaStream equipment, after Palestinian students and their supporters protested.

The dining service had been purchasing water machines from a company acquired by the Israeli company SodaStream, which has been a target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement due to its factory located in Maale Adumim, a West Bank settlement.

SodaStream announced in October that it would move its West Bank factory to Lehavim, a Negev community near Beersheba in Israel’s South. The move is expected to be completed by the end of 2015. There are currently about 1,100 employees in the Maale Adumim plant, including 850 who are Arab-Israelis or Palestinians, many of whom could lose their jobs in the move.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The dining service made the change after members of the College Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Harvard Islamic Society met with University officials to express their discomfort with the machines and the “potential of the machines to offend those affected by the Israel-Palestine conflict,” the student newspaper The Harvard Crimson reported Wednesday.

Following the meetings, which took place in April, the dining service agreed to remove the SodaStream labels on existing machines and to purchase new machines from American companies.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount