IPSC appeals to major supermarkets for an ethical purchase policy on 30th anniversary of Dunnes Anti-Apartheid Strike
The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign has written to the head offices of Dunnes Store, Marks & Spencer, Tesco Ireland, Aldi and Lidl asking to to remove Israeli products from their shelves, as they come from a country which continues a brutal military occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories. Revenues from these products help fund regular human rights abuses and violations of international law. The campaign cited two United Nations Special Rapporteurs; John Dugard and Richard Falk, Israeli Human Rights groups B’Tselem and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions as likening Israel’s occupation of Palestine to the Apartheid regime that existed in South Africa.
NOTE: The IPSC is asking our supporters to write similar letters – see here for details.
An international call for a boycott of the Israeli state, including Israeli products. was issued by over 200 by Palestinian civil society, trade union and church organisations in 2005. The IPSC says it will support this call with a three-pronged strategy over the coming weeks. Not only is It asking shops to refuse to stock Israeli goods, it is also working with trade unions to encourage shops not to stock goods from Israel and, at grassroots level, Palestine campaigners have been asking management in local supermarkets to remove Israeli stock shelves by filling up trolleys with Israeli produce and bringing it to the till to complain about its presence in the shop.
IPSC Spokesperson Freda Hughes said, “Boycotting Israeli goods offers non-violent tactic towards helping achieve an end to Israeli apartheid, as with South African apartheid before it. It is both a moral and effective means to help achieve a just and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
She continued, “This month marks the 30th anniversary of the anti-apartheid strike at Dunnes Stores, an action that resounded all the way to Nelson Mandela’s cell on Robben Island; we believe that thirty years on, it remains immoral to stock products that help to fund apartheid. Therefore, we ask retailers to please stand on the right side of history, to stand against apartheid, and to cease stocking Israeli goods until Israel ends it occupation of Palestinian lands, grants equal rights to all its citizens and complies fully with its obligations under international law.”