Palestine
I have complained to Sainsbury about them buying and selling products from the occupied Palestine. This was their response and below my comments. Join me and others in putting pressure on this supermarket. They must stop making business with settlement products.
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:34:06 +0100
From: customerservice@sainsburys.co.uk
Subject: RE: FW: Don’t buy into the Israeli Occupation [SR 1-248210041]
To: lar…….ail.com
Dear Lars
Thank you for your email to Justin King. Justin likes to reply to customers personally but he’s away from the office and has asked me to respond to you on his behalf. He’s read your email and will see a copy of this response when he returns.
I appreciate your concerns about the sourcing of our products. Our customers expect to buy high quality products all year round and this means we do source some of our products from Israel and the West Bank, especially at times when we’re unable to get a plentiful supply closer to the UK. In the past we’ve received requests to boycott the products of many different countries and suppliers. We do understand that the situation in the Middle East is very sensitive for many different people. However, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that we’d prefer to give our customers the opportunity to make their own decision. This is why we work hard to make sure we label our products clearly.
We take our guidance from DEFRA on how to label the country of origin. We’re pleased that in December 2009, they issued guidance which gives retailers greater clarity on how to label produce. We rarely source products from the West Bank but if we do we source from both Palestinian and Israeli farms. Depending on where they are coming from, we label products as ‘West Bank (Israeli settlement produce)’ or ‘West Bank (Palestinian produce)’.
We are founding members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and require all our suppliers to meet the ETI Base Code for ethical sourcing. The Code covers nine key principles, including safe and hygienic working conditions and payment of a fair wage. We continue our commitment to ethical, responsible sourcing and hope you feel reassured of our intentions to provide our customers with honest and open information about the food they buy.
We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and for giving us the chance to respond.
Kind Regards
X
Head of Customer Service
_________________________________________
Dear Rob,
I am absolutely appaled by your response to this very serious issue!!!
We do understand that the situation in the Middle East is very sensitive for many different people.
Yes, it is sensitive because the settlements are farms on land occupied through action of war - stolen from the people living there.
However, I’m sure you’ll appreciate that we’d prefer to give our customers the opportunity to make their own decision.
No, I do not appreciate that. That is equivalent to a fence labeling stolen products ‘have fallen off the back of a lorry’ in order to let the ‘customers’ decide themselves if they want to buy them. In order to please both indifferent customers and Sainsbury’s profit interests, while stating that you are founding members of ‘ethical trading initiative’, you are engaging in precicely the opposite – unethical trading. In fact, you are not only sitting on a fence but have become one.
We rarely source products from the West Bank but if we do we source from both Palestinian and Israeli farms.
May I underline that there are no ‘Israeli farms’ on Palestinian land just as little as there are French farms in England. What we must talk about is illegal occupied land occupied by settlers engaging in criminal activity condemned by the UN and the international community.
We continue our commitment to ethical, responsible sourcing and hope you feel reassured of our intentions to provide our customers with honest and open information about the food they buy.
I find that comment offensive. No, I am not ‘reassured’. You cannot expect every customer to read all information about the source of a product. And, most people have no problem with these kind of products as long as they can fulfill their own selfish needs. It is after all not their own homes which are bulldosed; it is not their own olive trees which are burnt down, and it is not their own children whoes lives and futures are ruined by illigal occupation supported by irresponsible foreign bussiness partners.
We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and for giving us the chance to respond.
I will appreciate that you and Justin start to take this issue seriously and respond to my comments above (and stop your unethical import). By supporting settlements on Palestinian land your company assists in illegal occupation of other people’s land. By doing so you support the ongoing ethical cleansing of the West Bank. My question to you is as follows: will it be all right for me to occupy a part of a Sainsbury store as a green house? You have large windows which would make your stores suitable for that purpose. I promise to sell the products to your company.
Would appreciate a prompt answer. This is a very serious issue.
Kind regards
Lars