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Harrods agreed to reinstate Israeli-made products on its shelves.
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| By Ellis Shuman January 25, 2002 |
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London department store Harrods reinstated three Israeli products this week, just days after it caved in to pressure from a pro-Palestinian group to empty shelves of goods manufactured on the Golan Heights or in the West Bank. Selfridges, another leading London store, similarly reinstated the products at the beginning of January.
"We removed the three specific goods . . . from sale last week in order to give ourselves prudent opportunity to review the situation," wrote Peter Willasey, Corporate Communications Director of Harrods to representatives of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), the organization that had pushed for the boycott. "Having done so, we have decided to reinstate the products. However, at each of the locations where the products are sold, there is information explaining the exact region in which the items were produced."
The products being returned to Harrods' shelves are wines from the Golan Heights Winery, cosmetic products produced by Ahava and Beigel and Beigel pretzels. "By giving our customers this extra information (regarding the location of their production) we are allowing them to make a more considered purchase based on their own beliefs and philosophy and conversely allowing those who do not wish to purchase the products the opportunity to decline to do so," Willasey wrote.
The change in Harrods' policy came after furious reactions from the Israeli Embassy and the British Jewish community, which threatened to boycott the store in response to the original store decision, Ha'aretz reported. "Harrods' decision to boycott Israeli products due to Palestinian pressure could increase tensions between [the Jewish community and Muslims in Britain," said Eric Moonman, president of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain. Harrods made its decision after reading "one side's letter," he told Yediot Aharonot.
CAABU had turned to Harrods after it "discovered" that the store was stocking "illegal" settlement products, the organization announced in a statement. "Although produced on the illegal settlements in Occupied Territory, the goods were labeled 'Made in Israel'. . . The EU and international positions make it clear that settlements are not part of Israel, and therefore are not covered by any trade agreement."
The organization charged that by stocking the Israeli products, "Harrods was in effect assisting settlement expansion through subsidizing the settler economy as Israel continues to strangle the Palestinian economy."
"There is a legal-political argument here over the territories, and that is irrelevant," said Moshe Langerman, the trade attaché of the Israeli Embassy in London. "The products are legal; there is no dispute over this. We have an argument with the European Union, if these products should be taxed, because they claim they were not made inside Israel."
Though it wasn't stated openly, representatives of Britain's Jewish community believed that Harrods' owner, Egyptian businessman Mohammed al Fayed, was involved in the original decision to boycott the Israeli products, Yediot Aharonot reported. Though al Fayed has refrained from political statements, the decision of his store may have been part of an ongoing dispute with the British monarchy, the paper said.
Selfridges announced it was removing the same three Israeli products from its shelves, in addition to Ahva halva, during the Christmas shopping season. "There has been sustained pressure from Palestinian rights groups who held regular pickets asking the public to boycott the store until the goods were withdrawn," CAABU said of the store's decision. The Israeli products were reinstated in Selfridges on January 2.
Shalom Blair, Golan Heights Winery CEO, told Yediot Aharonot, "Selfridges has a large and successful kosher products department. Due to pressure from Jewish consumers, the products were returned to shelves after Christmas. From our point of view, there was not a great financial loss, because consumers of kosher wines don't wait until Christmas to celebrate with Golan Height wines."
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