Leeds PSC campaigners were out today leafleting grocery shops in the Harehills area of Leeds. The aim was to make sure the shops are not selling Israeli dates and to make them aware of the dates boycott.

Dates are Israel’s leading fruit export and boycotting them will hit them where it hurts, their pockets. Whoever buys these blood dates has Palestinian blood on their hands. The difficulty for the consumers lies with the labelling. They’re also cheaper and widely available compared with genuine Palestinian dates.

In general the smaller shops seems to heed the message and are more supportive of the boycott, many did not stock any Israeli dates. We visited the shop that promised to remove the Israeli dates last week. We were glad to see them keeping their promise.

The same cannot be said of the larger stores. One shop had several large red boxes with small white stickers on them saying “Produce of Israel, Agrexco”. When we pointed this out to the shop keeper, his mood changed sour and said the manager is not in. But he did let us take a photo of the offending boxes.

In another large store, a young Muslim brother was at the counter. We pointed out some smaller boxes labelled “River Jordan – Kalahari dates, Produce of South Africa”. He smiled and said they’re already boycotting Israeli dates and shoppers have made them aware that these dates may also be of Israeli origin, and sent to South Africa for packaging so that they bypass EU labelling regulations.

In another shop, boxes of Israeli dates had been removed and sent back to the wholesaler. We did spot some unbranded Israeli dates and raised it with them.

Last week a popular shop promised us they do not sell Israeli dates. This week we had a look inside, going past the usual dates section. We were shocked to discover several red boxes of Israeli dates in between the aisles. But the intriguing thing is that the small sticker stating they are from Israel has been ripped off the boxes! When we approached a manager, two assistants came and swiftly removed them from our sight! We felt like the “Halal” dates inspectors! The staff must be aware of what they were selling. This shop is deceiving its customers by concealing the fact that these dates are from Israel. This is not lawful (Halal)! We asked if they knew why the label was removed (the expression on their faces gave away the answer)? How can they behave like this, especially during Ramadan, when their customers are fasting? What happened to thinking about people less well off than ourselves during this holy month?

WHAT CONSUMERS SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR:

Avoid large red boxes of “Natural Dates Medjoul” (see photo), these do not state where the dates are produced, but some have “Produce of Israel” stickers on them. I guess they’re fulfilling some labelling law with the stickers.

Avoid “Jordan River” Kalahari dates, even if it says “Karsten Farms – Produce of South Africa”. It is still the same Israeli Jordan River company. Who knows where the dates were grown? Read the article: Killer-Hari Blood Dates.

Avoid unbranded dates labelled simply as Jordan River dates.

If in doubt, leave it out! Buy clearly labelled dates instead. You can buy genuine Palestinian Medjoul dates from Zaytoun.

Visit Check The Label website form more information.

The price is another problem. The Israeli dates have been grown on government subsidy on stolen Palestinian land and mass exported via established routes into the UK. The Palestinian date growers cannot compete with this hence the higher prices. This price difference is what brings the Israeli dates to our local shops.

TAKE ACTION NOW!

We will continue to do spot checks on these shops to see if they have removed the Israeli blood soaked dates and kept their promise.

We urge shoppers to visit their local shops and demand that these dates are removed from their shelves asap.

 http://www.leedspsc.org.uk/?p=5766