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Home | Friday 13th February 2009 | Issue 666

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MY BLOODY VALENTINE

A number of actions against Israeli national fruit and vegetable exporter Carmel Agrexco have been carried out across Europe in the weeks building up to Valentines Day (see SchNEWS 664). This is a busy time for the company as it usually rakes in cash from tonnes of flowers, grown illegally on Palestinian soil. Whilst the blooms are dished out across Europe as love tokens, Palestinians in the occupied Jordan Valley (where the majority of Agrexco’s settlement produce comes from) will be shivering in tents and shacks due to building restrictions imposed by the Israeli military authorities.

On 12th February 15 women locked themselves to the gates of Carmel Agrexco to stop the delivery of Valentine’s roses. At the time of writing three women had been violently arrested. One of the activists said, “The world did nothing as over 900 people were killed in Gaza last month. Carmel Agrexco, a state owned company, is at the heart of Israel’s colonisation and exploitation of Palestinian land”.

A large protest was also held last Saturday outside the Agrexco head quarters in Hayes. The British retailers’ cooperative also chose this time of the year to send a letter to Carmel Winery saying it will not market products with any part produced in ‘illegally occupied territories’, simultaneously announcing plans to enter into dialogue with Palestinian farmers in hopes of launching the first fair-trade Palestinian products later in the year’.

See www.bigcampaign.org

Keywords: boycott israeli goods, carmel agrexco, gaza, israel, palestine, protest


 

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