Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity is calling for a citywide boycott of SodaStream!
As you may or may not know, 11 stores throughout Baltimore City (including, ACE Hardware, Target, Staples, Kmart, JC Penny, Shoprite, and Su Casa) are carriers of SodaStream products. We have reached out to the management and employees at each of these stores but would also like to make a special appeal to the residents and consumers living in Baltimore to inform you of the international boycott against SodaStream.
SodaStream home beverage carbonating devices are fraudulently labeled as “Made in Israel”, but are in fact produced in illegal Israeli settlements—on Palestinian land, outside the internationally-recognized borders of Israel—under the conditions of a military occupation and apartheid in the West Bank.
Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity is responding to the Palestinian call for an international boycott of SodaStream and all other products of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The international movement is known as the BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement. BDS has made significant strides in recent years. BDS calls for governments to divest from and impose sanctions on Israel, an academic boycott, and a cultural boycott of Israel. In addition, BDS calls for a consumer Boycott of Israeli-made goods—including SodaStream—and an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.
Boycott movements and cultural pressure isolate oppressive nations and companies from the global community and have historically been effective ways to bring about change.
Boycotts have been an integral part of fighting racism; from the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s, to the struggle against South African Apartheid in the 1980’s, to last year when several U.S. companies dropped Paula Deen’s kitchenware because of her racist comments.
SodaStream as a company that profits from the Israeli occupation of Palestine, operates on a set of racist values. We, therefore, ask that all carriers of SodaStream in Baltimore city stop selling SodaStream and all products of Israeli apartheid. SodaStream is looking for an easy buck on the backs of Palestinian displacement; as suppliers, consumers, and workers, we are all in a position to refute this kind of corporate exploitation.
Settlement production relies on, and supports, an illegal activity according to international law.
Currently, SodaStream devices are made in an illegal industrial zone called Mishor Edomim. The SodaStream factory receives Israeli government subsidies to dispossess Palestinian resources: farmland, water, and pastures.
SodaStream has promised to close the Mishor Edomim factory but has yet to do so. In addition, SodaStream has announced plans to open a factory in the Negev/al-Naqab where they would receive more Israeli government subsidies to contribute to the ongoing displacement of Palestinian Bedouins.
Now is the most important time to join the Boycott.
As we exit the holiday season and enter 2015—with workers here having struggled to get time off to spend with their families and friends to celebrate their respective holidays—it is worth noting that this past summer, SodaStream fired 60 Palestinian workers in response to worker demands for sufficient resources to allow them to observe Ramadaan during their work-shifts. Actions like these, demonstrate how SodaStream is not only racist and illegal, but also doesn’t care about their workers.
Please find more information at www.codepink.org/boycottsodastream, http://www.bdsmovement.net/2014/sodastream-closes-illegal-settlement-factory-in-response-growing-boycott-campaign-12782.
Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity, along with a number of community partners, is engaged in a citywide campaign to make Baltimore apartheid-product free. Please join us in building a more just commerce in Baltimore by telling your local SodaStream carrier to take the product off the shelves. Please join the international movement in bringing peace and justice to Israel-Palestine.
If you would like to continue this conversation, please contact us at baltimorepalestinesolidarity@gmail.com.
In Struggle,
Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity and our community partners:
Jonathan Rochkind, Jewish Voices for Peace
Mark Gunnery, Jewish Voices for Peace
Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III, Pleasant Hope Baptist Church
Dr. Kim Jensen, Community College of Baltimore County
Julie Lewis, Associate Professor and Theatre Coordinator, CCBC
Ingrid Sabio-McLaughlin, Associate Professor, CCBC
Rachele Lawton, Professor, CCBC
Nicholas Powell, Ujima People’s Progress Party
Shira Robinson, Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, The George Washington University
Jason Wright, SJP Goucher College
Sam DiDonato, Anne Arundel Community College
Gracie Greenberg, Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity
Owen Silverman Andrews, Baltimore-Palestine Solidarity
Chelsea Gleason, Red Emmas Collective and Café
Zahi Khamis, Professor of Arabic
Moira Fratantuono, Community Artist
Laila Elhaddad, Palestinian author
Dave Frey, Baltimore Photographer
Michael J. Redding
Dr. Mark McColloch
Jonathan Rochkind
Lynne Parks
Michael Hanes
Susan Wallendorf
Ken Hartman
Baltimore Palestine Solidarity 