Swiss-Jewish organizations sharply criticized last week a full-page advertisement in the Swiss paper Neue Zürcher Zeitung promoting the Migros supermarket’s decision to boycott products from Israeli settlements.
A Swiss Protestant aid organization sponsored the ad and urged readers to support the boycott.
In a letter to Claude Ruey, the president of the Zurich-based aid organization of the Protestant Churches of Switzerland (HEKS), Swiss-Jewish leaders wrote, “We protest this discrimination against the State of Israel and are disappointed that the HEKS as a recognized aid organization fosters anti-Israel sentiments, which have a direct effect on us Jews in Switzerland.”
The letter to Ruey was signed by Dr. Herbert Winter, Nicole Poëll and Gabrielle Rosenstein.
The Jewish leaders added that the decision is “purely political,” singling out Israel and not boycotting goods sold in Migros from other countries where human rights violations are taking place.
The Berlin-based office of the American Jewish Committee said in a statement last week, that the “AJC has raised concern about the European relationship to Israel, given the growing number of boycott and BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions] campaigns targeting Israel in Europe. In recent days, the large Swiss supermarket co-op Migros began labeling products originating in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, while the German branch of the church-based peace organisation Pax Christi launched its ‘Occupation Tastes Bitter’ boycott campaign against Israeli products.”
Since the boycott only affects Jewish-sourced products (Arab Israelis can manufacture anything they want over the Green Line and no one would boycott them) I figured this story needs an illustration:
