Israeli Businesses Counter Boycott Push

By JTA May 14, 2012

Israeli businessmen have launched a website to help counter calls to boycott products made in Israel.

The campaign, called Shop-A-Fada – a play on the word of the violent Palestinian uprising, the intifada, was launched Monday. It encourages the public to counter anti-Israel boycotts with the purchase of merchandise manufactured in Israel.

Shop-A-Fada was developed by a team of Israelis who own and operate the website JudaicaWebStore.com, an online clearinghouse of more than 8,000 Israeli gifts and Judaica manufactured by 120 Israeli companies.

The campaign is intended to “Fight back against those who think that they’ll be able to destroy Israel by waging economic warfare,” said Israeli sports star Tal Brody, who serves as honorary chairman for the initiative.

“The time has come to show our enemies that as resolved as they are to practice hate against us, we’re equally committed to come out in unwavering solidarity for Israel,” Brody said in a statement.

For the next month, 5 percent of all sales will be donated to American Friends of Magen David Adom.

Arik Barel, CEO of JudaicaWebStore.com, said the economic toll exacted on Israel by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is “by no means negligible, and we wanted to respond on behalf of the business community before the damage is irreversible.”

Last month, a major British supermarket chain announced that it would halt trade with Israeli companies that export goods manufactured in the West Bank, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Israeli exporters.

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