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Aljazeera.net correspondents
Ramallah- It is widely spread in major Palestinian stores in West Bank Signs indicating national products on their shelves, whether food or chemicals. It has become common to see shoppers flipping through the merchandise in search of the country of origin or the parent company, but what is striking is the children’s keenness to ask the seller before buying the product: “Uncle, does he support Israel?”
This comes as stores are trying by all means to attract customers, after the growing response to calls for… Boycott Israeli goods and products…and those produced in countries or companies that support the occupation, as this coincides with the decline in citizens’ purchasing power, with the continuation of the aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
boycott expansion
Palestinian official bodies have monitored a significant increase in the seizures of damaged goods, with Israeli products in particular having the lion’s share, following the widespread response of citizens to the boycott calls, which included products, restaurants, and companies that support the aggression or countries that support the aggression, which cast a shadow over stores, agents, and importers, some of whom resorted to local and Arab alternatives.
Citizen Nidal Ismail says, Hebron city In the southern West Bank, he told Al Jazeera Net that his sons were more keen on the boycott than he was, explaining, “When I bring my purchases home, the first thing they do is inspect the items to see if there is anything among them that should be boycotted.”
He adds that his children know the products to boycott better than he does, and when shopping they warn him to avoid them, or check the country of manufacture if the goods are new. He says, “Before the war, they insisted on eating dinner at least once a month in a Western fast food restaurant, but now they don’t pay attention to it and easily accept local alternatives.”
As for Issa (a pseudonym), he works as a sales representative for a company specializing in detergents imported from abroad and produced in Israel. He told Al Jazeera Net that after the war, they noticed a change in the attitudes of merchants and consumers towards Israeli goods and the goods of international companies classified as supporting the occupation.
He says, “At least 80% of merchants have stopped buying Israeli products and products of companies that support the occupation, because there is no demand for them, and some of them have expired on the shelves due to the boycott,” as the boycott included food products related to countries that support the occupation, including American fast food restaurants.
Caption:
McDonald's records a decline in its sales for the first time in the past three years. “McDonald's Israel” had provided free meals to the Israeli enemy forces during its genocidal war against 2.3 million Palestinians.
Let's escalate our campaigns against McDonald's #BoycottMcDonald's.#BoycottMacdonalds pic.twitter.com/YXbUrvjREk— Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement (@BDS_Arabic) July 30, 2024
The company Issa works for was forced to look for alternatives to manage its affairs, so it turned to Arab products, especially Jordanian ones, which have flooded the market, not only in the field of detergents, but also in food products. Issa points out that there are national, Arab and Turkish alternatives for all products, sometimes at competitive prices.
The sales representative also reveals that many Palestinian monopolistic companies have been affected by the boycott; “After the policy of raising prices they followed with regard to the products demanded in the market, they are now paying the price and reducing prices significantly, and there are no customers.”
He pointed out that sales representatives of companies distributing Israeli products have begun to enter stores with shyness and feel embarrassed, because they know the popular position on those products, while the largest Palestinian stores have resorted extensively to social media sites and advertisers on their platforms to promote their goods with marginal profits, according to the sales representative.
As a result of citizens’ boycott of Israeli products, consumer protection teams at the Ministry of Economy Directorate in Bethlehem Governorate destroyed about 11 tons of unfit and expired milk and milk products, which were reported by the distributing company. pic.twitter.com/LZj9Rcfe4q
— Ministry of National Economy (@MnePalestine) July 8, 2024
Numbers speak
In turn, the Director of the Consumer Protection Department at the Palestinian Ministry of Economy, Ibrahim Al-Qadi, told Al Jazeera Net that the boycott was clear for food products and cleaning products, explaining that citizens resort primarily to local products, and in the event that they are not available, the alternative is the Arab product, the increase of which has been observed significantly after the war.
In response to a question about the impact of the boycott on product prices, he said that no complaints had been received by the ministry in this regard, except for some types of vegetables and fruits.
According to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Economy published this week, Israeli products accounted for 72% of what was seized by consumer protection teams in the West Bank last July. That is, out of 141 tons of spoiled products in the West Bank market, about 102 of them were Israeli products, ranging from food products to cosmetics and chemicals.
As for the reason, the ministry attributed it to “the growing public awareness of boycotting Israeli occupation products and goods since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza, in addition to the decline in citizens’ purchasing power.”
The data indicates that the percentage of purchases of Israeli juice and beverage products has decreased to 82%, and the percentage of purchases of milk and dairy products has decreased to 60% in the Palestinian market. In contrast, it indicates successes in the beverage sector, cleaning companies and chemicals by increasing their production by 200 to 300% due to the demand for them after the boycott of other materials.
