Victory for BDS as SodaStream’s last Palestinian workers lose their jobs

The liberal-minded beverage firm used to employ hundreds of locals, until anti-Israel boycott pressure forced the closure of its West Bank factory.

Now the final 75 Palestinian staffers have been fired!

Viva Palestina!!

Two years ago, The Times of Israel reported on SodaStream’s plant at the West Bank industrial zone of Mishor Adumim, where the Israeli carbonated beverage company was employing 1,300 workers. 

Of that workforce, 350 were Israeli Jews, 450 were Israeli Arabs and 500 were West Bank Palestinians. 

Management and staff confirmed to our reporter that pay and benefits were identical for workers in comparable jobs, irrespective of their citizenship and ethnicity.

On Monday, SodaStream reluctantly announced that it was laying off its last 75 Palestinian workers, having failed to secure permits from the Israeli government for them to work at its new factory in the southern Israeli Bedouin town of Rahat. Under pressure from anti-Israel boycott groups, which launched a ferocious campaign against SodaStream and its spokeswoman Scarlett Johansson, the firm had closed its Mishor Adumim plant last October.

Hundreds of Palestinians who had been treated equitably by a fair-minded decent Israeli firm are now out of work.