BDS Backers Try to Label All Israeli Products in German Town
A team of self-styled “goods inspectors” in a German town tried to label all the Israeli products they could find as being “from illegal Israeli settlements.”
On Saturday, the proponents of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement visited businesses in downtown Bremen, in northwest Germany, checking to see that products from Israeli settlements were not marked “Made in Israel.”
Dressed in white overalls, the self-styled inspectors visited fruit stands to department stores ostensibly to enforce a European Commission rule that will soon go into effect requiring the labeling of foods and cosmetics that are made in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. But a spokesman for the group told the TAZ newspaper that the activists were making an educated guess on which products originated from those two places.
One “inspector” reportedly laughed in the face of a passer-by who accused the activists of anti-Semitism.
In one pharmacy, the activists were shown the door and barred from reentering after trying to record their actions putting little paper flags on the shelves that read “Warning: This product could come from an illegal Israeli settlement.”
They demanded that the shop manager erase the tape from the shop’s surveillance camera, offering to erase their own tape in return. The manager told TAZ that she did not approve of people entering her shop and disturbing business.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
