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Unilever shuts down Ariel settlement factory, moves production west of the Green Line (Updated)

Unilever at night A840x630
Unilever headquarters in Rotterdam.

Update:

United Civilians for Peace released the following statement:

Unilever fully withdraws factory from West Bank

British-Dutch multinational Unilever has informed Dutch NGO United Civilians for Peace (UCP) that the company no longer operates two production lines of daughter company Beigel and Beigel. Beigel and Beigel is a snack food factory, established in Barkan, the industrial zone of the Israeli settlement Ariël in the occupied West Bank. The production lines have been transferred to Unilever’s plant in Safed, behind the Green Line in Israel proper.

UCP expresses its content for the fact that Unilever, after years of hesitation, finally came to terms. From 2006 onward UCP has urged the company to withdraw Beigel and Beigel from the occupied territories. UCP stresses that dialogue and pressure from society have prevailed in bringing the British-Dutch giant towards its decision. Unilever will now serve as an example for each and other company [involved in the illegal West Bank business].

“Unilever’s decision is a clear message to the Israeli government that international businesses will back off from its settlement policy. UCP has always stressed that ‘no justice can result from unjustice’, and that Unilever’s decision was both justified and unavoidable” – says UCP spokesman Guido van Leemput. “It will serve as the ultimate example for other Dutch and multinational companies to give up their interests in and with the settlements.”

Original Post:

Multinational global giant Unilever confirmed Monday that as of January 1, 2013 its snack and pretzel factory located in the Barkan industrial zone of the Ariel settlement is no longer operational. The company has withdrawn the production line of its subsidiary, Beigel and Beigel, and transfered it to a plant in Safed, Israel on the other side of the Green Line.

The announcement comes just four days after UN fact finding mission issued a blockbuster report calling on governments and companies to terminate business interests in the settlements. Unilever claims the move is a result of “pure business motives‘.

beigel and beigel orig jun 2008
Beigel&Beigel Ariel WB, Palestine (Photo:WhoProfits)

Regardless of the motives the significance of this decision can not be underestimated. Unilever, a UK and Dutch company headquartered in Rotterdam, Netherlands, is the third-largest consumer goods company in the world measured by 2011 revenues.

The Dutch group United Civilians for Peace (UCP) began pressuring Unilever over their Barkan factory in 2006. Two years later in 2008 the French supermarket group Carrefour and British department store Harrods boycotted the snacks and Unilever announced it would divest from Beigel and Beigel but that didn’t happen.

The UN report released last Thursday calls for companies and governments to “assess the human rights impact of their activities” and end any connection to the settlements:

117. Private companies must assess the human rights impact of their activities and take all necessary steps – including by terminating their business interests in the settlements – to ensure they are not adversely impacting the human rights of the Palestinian People in conformity with international law as well as the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Mission calls upon all Member States to take appropriate measures to ensure that business enterprises domiciled in their territory and/or under their jurisdiction, including those owned or controlled by them, that conduct activities in or related to the settlements respect human rights throughout their operations. The Mission recommends that the Human Rights Council Working Group on Business and Human Rights be seized of this matter.

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Ma sha allah

But what were Unilever doing in “Ariel” in the first place?

Excellent. Now it needs to shift all of its production outside “israel” completely until the Palestinians are free of their oppressors.

undoubtedly someone is going to get their fingers burnt in this settlement enterprise, i hope some Palestinian lodges a class action, which frankly i have no idea what that is, but feel that its probably the right move. just posting to say hello to annie really, from wet Jamaica. one love

“pure business motives”. Well, duh. Getting out before losing a lot because of possible boycott and even sanctions, that’s sound business policy. Good way of formulating it.

Annie, better late than never; Unilever had promised to divest from Beigel and Beigel in 2006 but it didn’t. It had also announced Beigel and Beigel’s relocation to within Israel proper 4 years ago and it didn’t until last summer.

More good news from the settlers’ Israel National News of Aug 2012:

… Unilever decided to move the factory after European groups organized a boycott of Unilever products over the fact that the company owned a factory in the “Occupied West Bank.”

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Nachman (Mayor of Ariel) decried what he said was a trend of factory closures in Barkan. “Many Israeli companies that have been acquired by multinationals and had facilities in Barkan were moved elsewhere, to within the 1948 armistice lines.”

Other companies that have moved from the industrial zone in recent months include Multiech, makers of Rav Bariach doors and locks, which for years was headquartered in Barkan, but was moved after it was acquired by a Swedish company, along with the Barkan Winery, which was moved to Kibbutz Hulda after a reorganization (the company has retained the name Barkan for its wines). “I authorized the establishment of the Beigel and Beigel factory over 20 years ago, and it was a wonderful business, and all of the sudden Unilever buys it up and because of politics moves it to Tzfat.”

The worst part, said Nachman, was that the company had been rewarded for moving north – receiving building and tax credits due to companies opening up in peripheral areas. In that sense, Nachman said, the government was encouraging the international boycott of Judea and Samaria.

“There are groups that want to destroy the businesses of Judea and Samaria, but no government ministers take an interest in this problem. First the Palestinians boycotted us and then the South Africans did, and now Israelis themselves are taking away our factories. Where is the government of Israel in all this?”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/159444