Josh Mitnick
1SEXPAND
Scarlett Johansson, Oxfam, SodaStream, and Israel/Palestine Explained
Bombshell
actress and Obama campaigner Scarlett Johansson surprised plenty of
people today by parting with the social justice charity Oxfam over her… Read…
MA'ALEH
ADUMIM, WEST BANK – Scarlett Johansson's decision to part ways with
international anti-poverty outfit Oxfam so she can keep her endorsement
deal with Israeli fizz-maker SodaStream hasintensified the global controversy over
businesses that operate in the occupied Palestinian territories. But
the Palestinian employees here basically have no idea who she is.
"Maybe
if they saw her, they would know who she is,'' shrugged Wassim Siam, a
26-year-old quality-control employee approached by a reporter outside
the plant just as he was arriving for his Friday shift.
He
might be more clued in if someone bothered to come here and screen the
commercial that was produced for millions to see on Super Bowl Sunday
about the at-home carbonated drink machines that he and 1,300 others—500
Palestinian Arabs from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, 450
Arab Israelis, and 350 Jewish Israelis—assemble and package in the West
Bank.
Siam
says SodaStream's management has yet to brief employees about the
Hollywood starlet, who signed on as the company's brand ambassador
earlier this month, or tell them about the sultry commercial that Fox
nixed from the Super Bowl over digs at Pepsi and Coke (an edited version
was approved for broadcast). Not to mention her decision to end her
seven-year tenure as an Oxfam ambassador after Oxfam objected to
SodaStream's ownership of a plant in Palestinian territory that it, and
the United Nations, regard as illegally occupied by the Israeli
military.
"Nobody here knows she made a commercial for SodaStream," he said. "Nobody knows who she is, what, why, or when.''
Sporting
black Ray-Bans and a matching black jacket, Siam was standing just
outside of the plant's iron gate after getting off a bus that had
ferried him from a checkpoint in East Jerusalem to the Mishor Adumim
industrial zone, located in the bald hills of the Judean Desert that
lead down to the Dead Sea.
U.S.,
Israeli, German, Australian, and Swedish (but not Palestinian) flags
flap silently at the SodaStream gate. From the street outside the
factory (management declined to open up to a reporter), the last row of
mid-rise apartment buildings are visible just up the hill in the Israeli
settlement of Maaleh Adumim. Popping up over the west horizon is the
water tower of Hebrew University atop Mount Scopus in Jerusalem—the edge
of Israel proper—a 15-minute drive away.
SEXPAND
The
flags of Israel, Germany, Australia, the United States, and Sweden—but
not the Palestinian Authority—fly outside SodaStream's West Bank plant.
Just before 7 a.m., the silence outside the plant is disturbed by the
roar of engines as the SodaStream fleet of buses and vans begin to queue
up, and the Palestinian employees from nearby West Bank villages make
their way to work.
In a Huffington Post blog post last week defending
her association with SodaStream, Johansson said she's "proud of
the...quality of their product and work environment," and said the
factory places Israelis and Palestinians together side-by-side in
cooperation. That frankly sounds too kumbaya to be true, but a similar
sentiment was actually volunteered without prompting by the Palestinian
workers here.
"Hell
yeah, I'm happy. We're like family. We have fun,'' said Mohammed
Yousef, 22, from the Palestinian village of Jaba. "We are Jews and
Muslims here. We are here peacefully. We have no problems. Everyone is
complaining about settlements here and everywhere, but SodaStream is
different.''
The
workers here say they take home about $1,200 monthly–anywhere from
double to triple common wages in the territories. The company also
provides pensions and some medical insurance.
Yousef
said that many here are also for the most part unfamiliar with Oxfam,
the anti-poverty human rights non-profit that has operated in the West
Bank for years on behalf of the Palestinians.
Palestinians
are, of course, familiar with their own government, which is
encouraging international efforts to boycott the settlements that they —
and most of the international community — say have been illegally
constructed on their land and are slowly eating away at a future state
on the West Bank.
"Mrs.
Johnson [sic] decided to continue endorsing SodaStream, which operates
illegally in the occupied State of Palestine,'' wrote Ahsraf Khatib, an
official with the Negotiations Affairs Department, a Palestine
Liberation Organization outfit that advises the Palestinian Authority in
peace talks, in an email. "We believe that she should have dropped her
endorsement in exchange of supporting human rights and freedom of people
under occupation.''
Several
years ago, the Palestinian Authority embarked on a major PR campaign to
get Palestinians to boycott Israeli products from the settlements in
their stores, drawing up long lists of goods to be banned from the
shelves. The campaign largely failed.
Truth
be told, the SodaStream workers and local Palestinians were downright
peeved when asked about the efforts of solidarity activists and their
own government to boycott SodaStream. That could cost the hundreds of
Palestinians wage earners salaries that are significantly higher than
what they would make at home.
"Prostitutes
are better than politics. Politics doesn't bring me bread,'' said one
34-year-old packaging worker who declined to give his name. "Leave me
alone with the Palestinian state. If they close the plant, where will I
go?''
Just
a two-minute drive away from the industrial zone is a small strip of
Israeli retailers featuring a discount Rami Levy supermarket chain
(which also employees Palestinians from the West Bank) that is a big
draw for Israeli locals.
A
random sampling of shoppers in the parking lot revealed that, like
their Palestinian neighbors, most Israelis were vaguely familiar, at
best, with Johansson. Still, her stand against Oxfam and against the
boycott movement has won her decent media coverage here, and several had
caught wind of the controversy on the TV news.
Even
though the movie star insisted her endorsement of SodaStream is not
political, some see it as an expression of solidarity with Israel.
"We're
very proud of her. She's Jewish. She's standing firm. Good for her.''
said Einat Sabag, a 40-year-old lawyer at Israel's Courts Authority, as
she loaded her trunk up with groceries. "Ma'aleh Adumim isn't a
settlement on a hill. Its a city that's just a few minutes from
Jerusalem.''
If
anything is causing unease at the SodaStream factory, it's anxiety that
the firm might shut down the West Bank plant and move all of its
operations inside of Israel, where a new factory is set to open in May.
Several weeks ago, about 100 got layoff notices.
Siam,
who eventually checked out the Johansson commercial on YouTube, told me
he liked it, especially the dig at Coke and Pepsi. "That was so cool.''
That said, Siam said he understood the objections of the
pro-Palesitnian activists who denounced his company's ambassador.
"I
talk a lot to friends abroad. They say, 'You are an Arab. How can you
work there?'" he said. "Nobody knows there are 1,000 people and their
lives will be turned upside down by the [boycott]. You are killing them,
so stop it.''
Josh Mitnick is a reporter in Tel Aviv who writes for the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and other publications.
[Photos by Josh Mitnick]
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