Israeli Companies Leaving West Bank in Apparent Response to Boycott Pressure
A soon-to-be-released report by peace group obtained by Haaretz suggests that international pressure may have affected companies’ decisions to move within the Green Line.
Judy Maltz Mar 27, 2016, Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.711096
Responding to international boycott pressures and other constraints, a growing number of Israeli companies operating in the West Bank are moving their facilities to locations within the country’s internationally recognized borders, according to a report prepared by Gush Shalom, an anti-occupation organization that monitors such activities.
The report, obtained by Haaretz, shows that aside from the recent high-profile cases of Ahava, the Dead Sea skin care product company, and SodaStream, the seltzer-machine manufacturer, other prominent Israeli companies have also been part of this trend, even if they have managed to evade publicity.
The last time Gush Shalom compiled a list of companies operating in the West Bank was 20 years ago. Roughly 20 to 30 percent of the companies that appeared on that original list are no longer there, according to Adam Keller, a spokesman for the organization. Some have shut down completely and others have relocated.
“This is a very rough estimate,” he said, “and clearly there are other businesses that have sprouted up in their place, but when it comes to big companies that export their goods and are interested in building international connections, the trend is very clear. There has been a sharp decline in their number.”
Among the Israeli companies whose moves back inside the so-called “Green Line” have not been widely reported, according to the Gush Shalom report, are the following:
– Delta Galil Industries, a major clothing exporter, which transferred its warehouse from the Atarot industrial zone outside Jerusalem to Caesaria
– Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest manufacturer of generic drugs, which moved its biological laboratories from Atarot to Beit Shemesh
– Adanim Tea, which relocated from the settlement of Ofra to the Galilee
– The Intercosma cosmetics company, which moved from Atarot to Ashdod
– The Ikoo Designs children’s furniture manufacturer, which moved from the Barkan industrial zone near Ariel to Ashdod and Nesher
– The United Seats chair maker, which moved from Barkan to Tel Aviv
– Yardeni Locks, which moved from Barkan to Misgav in northern Israel
– Modan Bags, which moved its headquarters from the settlement of Shaked in the northern West Bank to a moshav outside Petach Tikva and transplanted its manufacturing facility to China.
