BD DS FR RANCE E CAM MPAIG GN AG GAINST T MEH HADR RIN

AP PPEAL: "MEHA ADRIN OUT O OF EUROP PE"

Th he victorious s struggle against a Agre exco, fough ht shoulder to t shoulder r with the Pa alestinian BNC, B taught t us tha at we shoul ld concentr rate upon a single targ get, stick do oggedly to it and form m a broad coalition c bas sed up pon the valu ues driving the Boycot tt Campaign n. After Agr rexco, the Israeli I comp pany Mehadrin has be een ch hosen, by th he BNC, the e BDS Euro ope coordina ating group p and BDS France, F as the target for fo Europe. On 26 6 November r 2011, mor re than 60 Boycott B act tivities took place again nst Mehadr rin, the main n distributor r of cit trus (Jaffa) and avoca ados (TOP), in 13 Eur ropean cou untries with h the theme e "Take Ap partheid of the Me enu!" "Meha adrin out of f Europe!" You were part p of the struggle against Agr rexco, that against Me ehadrin is n now under r way; don' 't s stand on th he sidelines s; lend you ur energies to it: join i it!

MEH HADRIN, A RELEV VANT TA ARGET TO T BOYC COTT

MEH HADRIN: IT TS HISTOR RY AS A CO OLONIAL ENT TERPRISE Founde ed in 1951 by b the Israe eli Ministry of Agri iculture, jus st as Agrex xco would be b five yea ars of later, Mehadrin n was one e of that generation g Stat historica te-owned companie es that ally spea arheaded the t colonisation of Pa alestine. Th he thef ft of land and a water, vicious ex xploitation of Pale estinian farm mers on the eir own land d and backin ng the economic developmen d nt of agricultural colonies thro ough organis sation of pr roduction, marketing m an nd expo ort of produce were Mehadrin's fundament tal activ vities. The fact f that, since 1963, it i has chose en the path of privatisatio on and ultra-liberalis sm clea arly changes s nothing with w regard to t its missio on; on the t contrary y, its manag gement and activities are a only y the more vicious. As with h all Israeli ente erprises, Mehadrin dra aws its pro ofits from th he direct and/or in ndirect explo oitation of colonies, c fro om milit tary occup pation and d from th he aparthe eid syst tem, witho out which the Israe eli econom mic syst tem would crumble. c HADRIN, AN A ENTERP PRISE THA AT DENIES MEH PAL LESTINIAN N HISTORY Mehadr rin has, sin nce its foun ndation, bee en the distributor of o the, state e-owned, Ja affa brand. As A Eya al Sivan de escribes so o well in his excelle ent documentary "Jaffa, the e Orange's s Clockwor rk" (ww ww.momento o-films.com), Jaffa was initially a flourishing Palestinian po ort, which exported th he cele ebrated Pa alestinian oranges, which we ere grow wn on the eastern co oastal plain of Palestin ne and to which it t gave its name: n "Jaffa a". "The Jaf ffa oran nge is one of the sym mbols that were w used to cons struct the Zionist Z argument about t Palestine: :a 'des sert' that 'w we have made flower'. (...) that was w when w the so ocialist watc chword of 'Jewish lab bour', which w exclud ded Arabs, was devel loped. In 1948, 1 Ja affa was de estroyed by y bombing and emptie ed of ne early all its s population. The Jaf ffa orange now be ecame the symbol of a an Israel wi ithout Arabs s. An in nternational publicity ca ampaign imposed 'Jaffa fa' as a registered d trademark k, blotting out o the tow wn of Ja affa, its mo ore than c century-old orange gro roves an nd the hi istory of J Jewish Ara ab coopera ation ar round this le egendary fr ruit" (Eyal Sivan). S The height of o irony is th hat after hav ving confisc cated an nd hijacked d the Jaffa brand and d built Tel Aviv, A re educing the port of Jaff fa to a perip pheral distri ict of its s southern suburbs, s Israel uproote ed nearly al ll the or range grove es in order r to plant grapefruit, which w in Europe ar re now distributed d ean shops s by Mehadrin M under the Jaff fa trademar rk. MEHADRIN, M , AN ENTERPRISE PA ARTICIPAT TING IN N APARTHE EID The appropriatio a on and dis stribution of f the emark prov ves the involvement of 'Jaffa' trade Mehadrin M in n the Zionist offens sive of et thnic cl leansing pu ursued till t the elimination of the last trace of Palestine. This offensive e, which be egan be efore 1948, , was streng gthened by y the creatio on of th he state of Israel and the Nakba a and has been b waged w cease elessly eve er since. Us sing the pre etext n" is th hat this is ta aking place e in Israel, "colonisatio " no ot mentioned, but this is to fo orget that, with re egard to the e Israeli Pa alestinians, Israel pract tices a policy of land expr ropriation, theft of water, w ap partheid an nd persecu ution, just as a it does with re egard to the e Palestinia ans of the West W Bank and Gaza. G The goal is ide entical: to appropriate a e the la and and houses owned by Pales stinians in order o to o force them m to leave th heir homes.

This has recently been confirmed by the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP), in Cape Town, on 5 - 6 November 2011. The verdict is unanswerable: "Israel commits inhuman acts defined as crimes of apartheid and its regime over the Palestinians amounts to apartheid, considered a crime against humanity." and the RToP stressed that all Palestinians were its victims: This discriminatory regime manifests in varying intensity and forms against different categories of Palestinians depending on their location. (...) The Palestinians living under colonial military rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are subject to a particularly aggravated form of apartheid. Palestinian citizens of Israel, while entitled to vote, are not part of the Jewish nation as defined by Israeli law and are therefore excluded from the benefits of Jewish nationality and subject to systematic discrimination across the broad spectrum of recognised human rights and finally: "... systematic human rights violations that preclude their development and prevent the Palestinians as a group from participating in political, economic, social and cultural life. Palestinian refugees who remain displaced are also victims of apartheid. " This means that the apartheid regime and persecution instituted by the state of Israel is conducted against all Palestinians, wherever they may be, whether in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank and against both internal and external refugees. This means that all Israeli institutions, whether state-owned or private, all enterprises, universities etc., whether located in the occupied territories, colonies or simply within Israel are an integral part of the apartheid system instituted by the Zionist state and are, therefore, targets for the international BDS campaign.

MEHADRIN TRIES TO HIDE ITS INVOLVEMENT IN ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES Since the start of the European campaign against Mehadrin, the company's management has removed from its site all information about the origin of its products. Thus, for the past month, one could read that Medjoul dates are "grown in Israel, in the Jordan Valley" and could see, on the packaging of Mehadrin dates, the words "Red Sea" printed over a background of Jordan Valley palm groves. This image has now been replaced by pictures of dates on a white background. This is an initial victory for the BDS campaign! Now, not only does the main enterprise for the production and export of Israeli fruit and vegetables no longer publicly claim the colonies as part of Israel, but it hides its activity in the colonies. It goes as far as publishing lies: a map showing its areas of activity strangely doesn't show a single one on the other side of the green line that traces the border of the West Bank. However, Mehadrin will find it very difficult to hide its activities in the colonies of the Jordan Valley and the occupied Golan. - Beqaot is a colony located in the north-east of the Jordan Valley. Founded in 1972, it specialises in agriculture, controlling approximately 1,800 dunams of land stolen from Palestinians, in particular from the Bedouin community of Al Hadidya. It produces grapes and Medjoul dates for Mehadrin, labelled "produce of Israel". - Founded in 1999 and 50% owned by Mehadrin, STM Agricultural Exports Ltd produces and exports Jordan Valley herbs, dates and figs. - Mehadrin also has a 50% holding in Miriam Shoham, which owns a mango-packing centre in the occupied Golan. 28/01/2012 APPEAL

JOIN THE BDS FRANCE CAMPAIGN AGAINST MEHADRIN "MEHADRIN OUT OF EUROPE" The Campaign against Mehadrin is open to any individual or organisation, whether or not a member of BDS France. The above Appeal is a membership facility.
Sign and join the Campaign: mehadrindegage@gmail.com View the website: www.mehadrindegage.net http://www.bdsfrance.org