British Ramadan campaign #CheckTheLabel highlights Palestinian plight

British Ramadan campaign #CheckTheLabel highlights Palestinian plight
A UK organisation has launched a campaign calling for the boycott of Israeli dates grown in occupied Palestine, as Muslims prepare for the holy month of Ramadan.
3 min read
17 Jun, 2015
The campaign by Friends of al-Aqsa has generated a widespread interest
A UK organisation has launched a campaign calling for the boycott of Israeli dates grown in occupied Palestine, as Muslims around the world prepare to mark the holy month of Ramadan on Thursday.

British NGO, Friends of al-Aqsa, started their #CheckTheLabel campaign five years ago to bring awareness to the ongoing occupation and oppression of Palestinian people.

Every year, Israel exports millions of dollars worth of dates grown in illegal settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

And every year, many Muslims unknowingly eat them to break their fasts, the group said. 

"Dates produced in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley are highly likely to be from illegal Israeli settlements and should be boycotted," the NGO added.

The campaign has come at a perfect time.

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, is already feeling the pressure of the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign across the world.

BDS was launched as a new phase in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice, and self-determination, with more than 170 leading Palestinian political parties, trade union federations, women's unions, refugee rights groups, NGOs, and grassroots organisations involved.

With nearly 1.6 billion Muslims globally marking the month of Ramadan, the boycott of a trade that pulls in a total income of approximately $90 million a year will only but add to his woes.

"It’s about our right to exist here as a free people," Netanyahu claimed after holding urgent talks with several officials early June to combat the boycott movement.

But what about the right of Palestinian people to exist as free people, a question that seems to be continuously overlooked by the Israeli leader and his government.

Palestinians in occupied territories face an ongoing range of threats from forced displacement, to restrictions on freedom of movement to destruction of their homes.

UNRWA, the world body's aid agency for Palestinian refugees, has 5.49 million people registered on its books.

"Israelis will claim that Palestinians are allowed to work on the land of these settlers and therefore they are provided with jobs and a boycott will harm them," Friends of al-Aqsa said.

"In actual fact, these Palestinians are employed for paltry wages and are required to do the back-breaking work that the Israeli settlers will not do themselves."

Children are among those working in the settlements. 

A report in April by Human Rights Watch found that Israeli settlement farms were profiting from rights abuses against Palestinian children.

"Israeli settlers will reap the rewards for the harvests while doing very little of the work themselves," Friends of al-Aqsa said.  

The campaign has generated a widespread interest on Twitter: