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Who Exports Israeli Goods

Carmel-Agrexco

One of the largest exporters of Israeli goods is Carmel-Agrexco (who also operate under the Jaffa and Coral brandnames)

War on Want, in their recent report, Profiting From the Occupation, wrote:

Agrexco is Israel’s largest exporter of fresh agricultural produce. Established in 1956, the company is 50% owned by the Israeli state, with the remaining 50% split equally between the country’s agricultural production board and the Tnuva cooperative, Israel’s largest food company. However, the government announced in June 2006 that it is to privatise Agrexco by selling off its half of the companyto producers, although the sale could take years to complete.

Agrexco is riding the wave of success which Israeli exports of fresh produce have enjoyed over the past few years. In the 12 months to end October 2005, such exports totalled $860 million, a rise of 72% in just three years. Agrexco accounts for around 70% of Israeli fresh produce sold abroad, and the company’s annual sales are expected to reach $750 million in 2006.


In the UK Agrexco is best known under the brand name Carmel, with products sold in all the main supermarkets.The UK is far and
away the most important foreign market for Israeli vegetables, accounting for 60% of all exports (the next most important market, the
USA, accounts for just 20% of Israeli vegetable sales).Agrexco exports a wide range of fresh produce to the UK, including peppers,tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, spices, flowers and avocados, and has registered a dramatic increase in British sales over the past few years.

In addition to being the single largest exporter of Israeli fruit and vegetables, Agrexco is also the largest exporter of settlement produce
for sale overseas. During the January 2006 trial of seven activists charged with blockading the Agrexco UK distribution centre in protestat its operations in occupied Palestine,Amos Orr, general manager of Agrexco UK, affirmed that Agrexco handles 60-70% of all produceexported from Israeli settlements. Orr was also required to provide the court with a disclosure of Agrexco UK’s imports fromIsrael and the Occupied Territories, which listed transactions with the West Bank settlements of Tomer, Mehola, Hamra, Ro’i, Massua, Patzael, Mekhora, Netiv Ha-Gdud and Bet Ha-Arava.The protestors were cleared of all charges.

full report

Israeli fruit and veg exporter, Agrexco, embroiled in government corruption scandal more

In July 2006 the Palestine Solidarity Campaign sent the following letter to Agrexco UK:

This is to inform you that your business is not lawful

The business carried out at Agrexco, Swallowfield Way, Middlesex cannot be defined as lawful business as your supply of produce from illegally occupied territories makes you ancillary to Apartheid and other Crimes Against Humanity under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 (Hereafter the Act).

Crimes under the International Criminal Court Act are criminal offences under English law.

Your company has disclosed that you export fresh produce from several illegal Israeli-Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, Palestine. For example, your company deals with Mehola settlement in the central Jordan Valley.

The Jordan Valley is part of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory, that was illegally invaded by force and occupied during 1967. From 1968 Israel began colonising the valley and transferring its civilian population into illegal settlements there.

The transfer of a civilian population into occupied territory is a War Crime under the Act and is a crime under English Law. It is a crime under English Law to be ancillary to (or complicit in/accessory to) a War Crime.

Agrexco has had a packing house at Mehola settlement for a considerable period of time and has, by providing financial support through trade, to the illegal settlers living there, facilitated the subsistence and growth of Mehola settlement.

Settlement growth in the Jordan Valley has lead to the forceful expropriation of at least 95% of the land in the valley. This is land that was previously owned by the indigenous Palestinian population. The theft and cultivation, achieved through state violence and the threat of violence, of this land is a War Crime under the Act and it is a crime under English Law to be ancillary to it.

The building of settlements and settlement infrastructure in the valley has lead to damage being caused to Palestinian Civilian objects and territory. This damage has included the building, on occupied territory, of a wall along the length of the Jordan River and the building of a series of checkpoints, such as those at Al-Hamra and Al-Tayasir. It is a War Crime under the act for an occupier to damage civilian property.

In establishing the threat of violence in the Jordan Valley, to allow the construction of settlements like Mehola, the Israeli army has been guilty of Murder, a War Crime under the Act.

The situation established in the Jordan Valley can be correctly characterised as Apartheid. The minority settler population controls 98% of the land and a majority of the water in the Valley. The majority Palestinian population are marginalized on the land and are subject to a system of Israeli military law whereas the civilian settler population are subject to Israeli Criminal Law.

Settlement expansion is facilitated by a state policy of Ethnic Cleansing against the Palestinian Civilian Population. Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley must apply for permits to live in the valley from the Israeli military. The military has engineered a situation where residents increasingly lose their permits and have to leave the valley. This is coupled with a ban on new building in the valley, resulting in the majority of the Palestinian population, in some areas, living in tents. This restriction on building is enforced by house demolitions by the military of any new Palestinian structures. Ethnic Cleansing is a War Crime under the Act.

The above situation has been engineered by the state to allow the cultivation of land in the Jordan Valley, the most fertile area in the West Bank. Agrexco, a partly state owned company, has directly benefited from, and facilitated this situation:

Agrexco, of Swallowfield Way, Middlesex are ancillary to

Murder
Theft and Damage of Occupied Land
Collective Punishment
Apartheid
Ethnic Cleansing

Which is a Criminal, Arrestable offence under English Law

Therefore Agrexco's business cannot be considered legal

Palestine Solidarity Campaign www.palestinecampaign.org


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