A team of self-styled “goods inspectors” in a German town tried to label all the Israeli-produced West Bank and Golan Heights goods they could find as being “from illegal Israeli settlements.”
On Nov. 28, the proponents of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement visited businesses in downtown Bremen, in northwest Germany, checking to see that products from Israeli settlements were not marked “Made in Israel.”
Dressed in white overalls, the self-styled inspectors visited locations from fruit stands to department stores ostensibly to enforce a European Commission rule that will soon go into effect requiring the labeling of foods and cosmetics that are made in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. But a spokesman for the group told the TAZ newspaper that the activists were making an educated guess on which products originated from those places.
One “inspector” reportedly laughed in the face of a passer-by who accused the activists of anti-Semitism.
In one pharmacy, the activists were shown the door and barred from reentering after trying to record their actions putting little paper flags on the shelves that read “Warning: This product could come from an illegal Israeli settlement.”
The manager told TAZ that she did not approve of people entering her shop and disturbing business. — jta