BICOM

SodaStream will shut its West Bank factory in two weeks as production lines have been relocated to a plant in the Idan HaNegev Industrial Park in Israel’s Negev Desert.

Citing only a “marginal” effect of the BDS movement on its business, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum said of the efforts by campaigners had only harmed its Palestinian employees. “It’s propaganda. It’s politics. It’s hate … It’s all the bad stuff we don’t want to be a part of,” he told AP. Contrary to assertions made by the company’s detractors. SodaStream claims that the wages of its Palestinian workers corresponded to those of its Israeli employees.

The Guardian reports today that as a result of the plant’s relocation, only 130 of the 600 Palestinians working for SodaStream will continue to do so as a result of security considerations. Even those who are fortunate enough to keep their jobs will now have to travel two-hours to the new facility and pass through Israeli checkpoints where they will be screened every day. “All the people who wanted to close [SodaStream’s West Bank factory] are mistaken. … They didn’t take into consideration the families,” said Ali Jafar, a West Bank resident who worked for two years as a shift manager.