But one part was especially interesting:
The Shweiki glass factory, with its sleek outer façade and interior, stands out among the mostly shabby-looking low-tech plants, carpentries, workshops and garages that populate this industrial zone just outside the Jewish settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.Here's where it gets good.
But there’s something even more fundamental that sets it apart: Shweiki is an Arab-owned enterprise.
Its ultra-modern glass factory is just a few hundred meters down the road from SodaStream, the company that recently thrust this small industrial park into the international limelight when it hired American celebrity Scarlett Johansson to serve as the global ambassador for its soda machines – at a time when the movement to boycott goods made in the occupied territories is gathering momentum abroad.
But the managers at Shweiki, established in 1936 by an East Jerusalem family, insists that they get an even worse rap than their Jewish counterparts. On the one hand, the Israeli Ministry of Defense refuses to give its seal of approval to the company’s shatterproof glass, while on the other, the Palestinian Authority boycotts its products.
“The Palestinians in Ramallah say we’re no better than the settlers,” explains Amran Shaloud, production manager at the plant, which moved to Mishor Adumim seven years ago.
...“It’s hard for us to hire Jews here because we’re closed on Fridays, but open on Saturday, and that wouldn’t be comfortable for them,” explains Shaloud, whose factory is right next door to Jewish-run Emesh.
Shaloud is taking a late-afternoon break, talking to a friend, Samih Owweida, who runs an aluminum factory down the road.
“As Arabs, we get it from both ends,” gripes Owweida. “I want to sell my stuff in the West Bank, and nobody will buy from me there.”
And then, with a big sigh, he throws up his hands in despair and utters a small prayer: “Let there just be peace already, so we can finish with this whole mess.”
The bible for BDS is the website Who Profits, which has an extensive database of all companies in Judea and Samaria that they want people to boycott. (They also list an Israeli companies that sell to Jews in Judea and Samaria, and even one that has the audacity to sell bullet-proof glass to Jews who live in the Gilo neighborhood where there used to be lots of sniper fire.)
Who Profits has hundred of companies in their database.
But they don't list the Shweiki Glass Factory.
A quick look through a phone book finds another Arab-owned company in Mishor Adumim - Khaled Ali Metals Ltd. It is not listed by Who Profits.
Nor are the carpenters in Mishor Adumim named Mahmoud Naeel or Abu Asab.
Isn't it interesting that only Jewish-owned businesses are being targeted by the BDS crowd?
(UPDATE: Bob Knot points out that Owweida's whining about being boycotted by the PA is not quite true; on their webpage they show many projects in the West Bank that they completed.)