The British Co-operative Group has become the first major European supermarket group to end trade with firms that export produce from settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. “The Guardian” reported, the retail and insurance giant has taken its boycott one step further by “no longer engaging with any supplier of produce known to be sourcing from the Israeli settlements.”

However, the Co-op stressed this is not an Israeli boycott and that its contracts will go to other companies inside Israel that can guarantee they don’t export from illegal settlements. According to “The Guardian”, Co-op’s decision will immediately affect four suppliers, Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin, Israel’s largest agricultural export company. A spokesperson for the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees said, “Israeli agricultural export companies like Mehadrin profit from and are directly involved in the ongoing colonization of occupied Palestinian land and theft of our water. Trade with such companies constitutes a major form of support for Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people, so we warmly welcome this principled decision by the Co-operative.

The Co-operative Group stresses that its move is not an Israeli boycott and that it will use other suppliers in the country that do not source from illegal settlements (Photo: The Observer)

In early 2010, Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched the National Dignity Fund, which aimed to increase the availability of Palestinian produce in local markets and end the sale of produce from illegal settlements.  As part of the campaign, the PA distributed a pamphlet detailing well-known brand names, furnishing companies, farms, dairy produce, water, wine, household fixtures, toys as well as plastics and surgical equipment manufactured in illegal West Bank settlements.