Seasonal gifts from the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC come with a loaded political message this Christmas, after the country’s ambassador Ron Dermer said that the presents have been deliberately sourced from settlements located in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights.
“This holiday season, I decided to send a gift that would also help combat the latest effort by Israel’s enemies to destroy the one and only Jewish state”, Mr Dermer wrote in a letter attached to each present - bottles of wine, olive oil, halva and body lotion - and distributed to senior US officials, members of Congress and diplomats.
Mr Dermer referred to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which calls on investors to pull money from companies it believes are complicit in violating Palestinian rights. While some BDS campaigns target companies working in or linked to Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law, others support a blanket boycott of Israel.
Mr Dermer also criticised the European Union (EU) over its recent labelling guidelines which state that the goods produced on lands captured in the 1967 war must explicitly state their origins.
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