Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Profiting From the Occupation: An Open Letter to Fyffes

Corporate Watch | 06.01.2010 09:54 | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Workers' Movements | South Coast | World

The Christmas period is one of the busiest times of the year for date importers. Tonnes of dates are imported into the UK from illegal Israeli agricultural settlements on Palestinian land. Campaigners have been focusing on Israeli companies, such as Carmel Agrexco, importing these dates into the UK but little is known about Fyffes, a transnational company that has also sourced dates from Israeli settlements.

Fyffes is one of the world's largest importers of fruits into Europe. It has an annual turnover of 500 million euros and its brand name is ubiquitous in supermarkets, wholesalers and local markets across the UK.

In October 2007, a group of British activists from the Brighton-Tubas Friendship and Solidarity Group entered the illegal settlement of Tomer. They took photos (see  http://s154.photobucket.com/albums/s261/brightontubas/Jordan%20Valley/?action=view&current=DSC02469.jpg) of boxes inside a packing house where Palestinians were working. Inside the packing house were dates being packed into boxes bearing the Fyffes logo.

The Tomer settlement: A captive workforce

The Tomer settlement is located in the Jordan valley, an area of the West Bank that Israel is seeking to annex illegally (see this www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=3403”>Corporate Watch article for more details). Palestinian workers in Tomer come from nearby villages, such as Fasayil and Al-Jiftlik. Palestinians are prohibited by Israeli military restrictions from building on or cultivating the majority of land in these villages and the local population is starved of essential services and deprived of the means to make a living. The workforce inside Tomer consists of Palestinians employed, through Palestinian middlemen, by Israeli state-owned agricultural export company Carmel-Agrexco and other companies.

Dear Corporation: An open letter to Fyffes

Corporate Watch has been made aware that Fyffes Daglet Nour dates have been sourced from illegal Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. We enclose a photo, taken by campaigners, which shows boxes of dates displaying the Fyffes logo inside the packing house of Tomer settlement in the Israeli-occupied Jordan Valley.

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law and their construction is a breach of the English International Criminal Court Act ( http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2001/ukpga_20010017_en_1). The British government's policy clearly states that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) deems Israeli settlements unlawful (see FCO website - ( http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/global-issues/conflict-prevention/mena/middle-east-peace-process/mepp-faqs - question 3).

Israeli settlements in the Jordan valley, where Tomer is situated, are built on land stolen from the Palestinians. Between 95 and 98% of the land in the valley is controlled either by Israeli settlers or the military. There are 30 Israeli settlements and 9 settler outposts in the valley, housing 9,000 Israeli settlers. The settlements' main purpose is agriculture. 56,000 Palestinians live in the area.

Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley are deprived of essential services by Israeli building restrictions and have no option but to work as agricultural labourers in Israeli settlements.

Workers in Israeli settlements are paid, on average, 30-55 NIS a day. This has been well documented by the Israeli labour organisation Kavlaoved (for example, see here -  http://www.kavlaoved.org.il/media-view_eng.asp?id=2327). The Israeli minimum wage, which also applies to Palestinian workers on settlements, is 154 NIS.

There is extensive evidence that children, as young as twelve years old, work at the Tomer settlement. In 2008, campaigners interviewed several children working at Tomer. These interviews were captured on video and show that children were employed in the fields, alongside adult workers, and paid as little as 30 NIS a day. Kavalaoved has several more recent reports (see above).

There is also widespread concern over the safety of Palestinian date pickers. Workers engaged in picking and thinning are hoisted into date palms, up to 55 feet above the ground, and are left to work there for hours. No ropes or adequate safety equipment are used. This is in breach of Israeli work safety regulations (see Kavlaoved's short film Bitter Dates -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwTZ2xeSAkM).

Given above, Corporate Watch would like to ask you whether you will cease sourcing dates from the Tomer settlement and other Israeli settlements. We will be happy to expand on the points we have raised and show you evidence that these practices occur.
Corporate Watch

Corporate Watch
- e-mail: contact @ corporatewatch.org
- Homepage: http://www.corporatewatch.org

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech