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The CEO of SodaStream has accused Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of being responsible for the
sacking of hundreds of Palestinian employees at his company, blaming him for dismantling the "island of peace" the firm had created for both Jews and Palestinians. Speaking during an exclusive interview with the
Times of Israel, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum accused
Netanyahu of being personally involved in a bureaucratic process which forced the company to fire its Palestinian employees.
According to Birnbaum, it all began when SodaStream decided it needed more space, and
opted to close its West Bank factory. The move did, however, follow a
boycott campaign against the company, in which critics accused it of making money on land "stolen" by Israel. Though Birnbaum insists the move was made voluntarily, he says the Israeli government is arguing that SodaStream was forced to move due to the pressure from the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) movement, as well as fire the 500 Palestinians working there.
But the company insists that despite claims from the Netanyahu government, it
wanted to retain 350 of its 500 Palestinian employees to work at its new plant in the Negev. However, according to Birnbaum keeping such a high number of employees was impossible because the company was initially
only granted permits for 120 of the Palestinian workers - a number which new conditions later reduced to 74.Since February, those
remaining 74 employees have been barred from Israel, their permits retroactively canceled. "Apparently our 74 Palestinians represent a threat to [Netanyahu's] agenda," Birnbaum said. The CEO says Netanyahu - who he refers to as the "prime minister of conflict" - is responsible for the outcome, adding that his office "intervened to stop the employment of our Palestinians so that Bibi [Netanyahu] can then
point a finger at the BDS."Birnbaum did not mince his words when speaking about the prime minister, accusing him of "systematically spreading hate within Israel between Jews and Arabs and between Orthodox and secular..." "It pains me to say that I believe this administration is nurturing the conflict in all its evil manifestations. They nurture the hate and the boycott and they nurture separatism," he said.
Unsurprisingly, the
story coming from Netanyahu's office is starkly different.
Comment: What a coincidence:
- ISIS threatens London with terrorist attack in recent online video
- SITE Intel Group says 'ISIS' warns London 'next to be attacked'
UpdateTrue to form, even though the attack was in all likelihood random, Londoners woke up to an increased police presence. (If it was random, does that automatically imply that the risk of another attack following immediately on the first rises? No, it doesn't.)
The attacker has been identified as a Norwegian man of Somali origin. The Metro Police add "No evidence of radicalisation or that the man was motivated by terrorism" and that "all the work that we have done so far increasingly points to having been triggered by mental health issues. At this time we believe this was a spontaneous attack and that the victims were selected at random." (Video of the moment police pinned down the assailant.)
But that hasn't stopped dubious "ISIS supporters" from attempting to claim responsibility. This bit from a recent RT piece is telling: