Palestinian officials claim Israeli ice cream will cause miscarriages

The Palestinian Ministry of the Economy issued a warning for Palestinians not to buy Israeli ice cream because it has listeria:

Ministry of National Economy

Israeli ice cream contains Listeria monocytogenes which might lead to suppressing the immune system and miscarriages for pregnant women.

Out teams made sure that our markets do not carry the Israeli product, and we invite you to use the national products that are of high quality and competitive.

There is a grain of truth in this announcement. The Israeli Buza ice cream shop chain announced that their own internal testing had identified a small amount of listeria. 

They have four shops, two in Tel Aviv and two in the north. They apparently provide ice cream for other shops but they do not sell their ice cream in commercial packaging. 

Buza ice cream would never have been carried in Palestinian stores. 

 In a normal consumer announcement, the government would specify the brand, the lot numbers, the expiration dates, and tell consumers to discard anything they already bought.  The ministry is doing none of that. 

The ministry is using a real story to try to get Palestinians to think that all Israeli ice cream brands are dangerous.

Incidentally, Buza is co-owned by an Israeli Jew and an Israeli Arab (h/t iTi)

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