Israel Matzav

Israeli merchants boycotting Jewish areas of 'east' Jerusalem?

I received the following email from Michael P

Hello Carl,

I've read a post in one of Russian blogs I follow which may interest you. The author lives in Pisgat-Zeev in Jerusalem. She wrote today about an article she read in the local newspaper "Kol ha-Pisga". The article is about a guy who owns a small convenience store on Moshe Dayan str. in Pisgat-Zeev. Some time ago he tried to order some products from a Tel-Aviv company, ___________ Pralines Ba'am.

After the parties had agreed on the price and the quantity, the buyer told the seller where the goods were to be delivered, that is, to Pisgat Zeev. The clerk on the other side of the wire said that unfortunately they would not be able to deliver the order there, because they do not deliver to occupied territories. The guy didn't believe his own ears, because he had lived in the neighbourhood for 23 years and never imagined that it was not in Israel, so he asked to repeat the info and got the same answer. Then the buyer telephoned the owner of the company, who confirmed that yes, they have such a policy not to sell goods to those who live in the Arab territories, which he believes the largest district of Jerusalem - Pisgat Zeev really is.

My question is: Can the owner of _________ Pralines be sued for actually joining the Arab boycott?

Thanks,
Michael.

Sued by whom?

If the owner had actually taken the order, been paid and refused to deliver, yes. But no one can be forced to do business with anyone else.

The real response to this (assuming that it can be confirmed) is for all Israelis to boycott this company. To do that, we'd have to spread the word around.

I deleted the name of the company, because I wasn't able to confirm that this actually appeared in the local Pisgat Zev newspaper (which has a website here), let alone if it's actually true. If someone has the newspaper and scans and sends it to me, I will post the scan and then those of you who read Hebrew will know the name of the company and can call and confirm whether they in fact refuse to deliver to Jewish neighborhoods in 'east' Jerusalem.

And I live in 'east' Jerusalem. Heh.

By the way, the picture is a "For sale or rent to Arabs only" sign in Pisgat Zev (yes, in the Jewish neighborhood) a couple of years ago.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:31 PM