French Cookware Firm Scraps ‘Palestine’ Label
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The French kitchenware maker Tefal removed references to “Palestine” from three of its websites following earlier complaints over Israel’s omission from them.
The removal of “Palestine” from the Middle East versions of the firm’s website seems to have occurred sometime this week, following a publication by the news site lemondejuif.info, which reported that Tefal had omitted its Israeli resellers from the online lists of its Middle East service providers while it kept references to “Palestine.”
A Tefal representative told JTA on Friday that Israel’s omission from the firm’s Middle East websites in English, French and Farsi was the result of a “technical problem that had been fixed.”
The websites on Friday still made no mention of Israel but had been altered to omit any reference also to “Palestine,” as cached versions of the same websites showed.
Tefal’s international website in English does mention Israel. It also lists a reseller based in east Jerusalem as its representative in the Palestinian Territories.
Approached for a reaction by JTA on Friday, Caroline Simon, a representative of the SEB Group which owns the Tefal brand, denied allegations that the website had replaced Israel with “Palestine,” as the lemondejuif news site claimed.
“We had a technical problem in one of our scroll-down menus. Israel was removed or didn’t appear, as it should have. We are sorry for this malfunction, which was fixed as soon as it was brought to our attention,” Simon said.
She was not immediately available for comment on further questions as to why neither Israel nor “Palestine” currently appear on the Middle East versions of the company’s website.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
