Moroccan Jew leads boycott campaign against Israeli dates

Rabat, 22 Ramadan 1437/27 June 2016 (MINA) – Moroccan Jew Sion Asidon is leading a campaign to boycott Israeli dates, especially during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan; when the fruit is mostly consumed.

Asidon and his colleagues in the Moroccan BDS movement travel to cities around the country, visit their local markets and speak to the merchants and buyers while holding a banner that reads “Boycott the Zionist dates. Don’t finance the bullets lodged in the Palestinians’ chests.” Memo reported.

According to the movement, these dates “penetrate the world markets and the Moroccan markets all year long and especially during Ramadan in exchange for cheap prices that compete with local products.”

“These dates, like every other product the occupiers of Palestine export, finance their military machine,” the Moroccan activists said.

According to Asidon, 70, some of the dates which enter the kingdom both legally and illegally are marketed with fake labels such as: “origin: South Africa,” and in other cases, there are no details specifying where the dates were produced besides a barcode that indicates the items are from Israel.

Asidon told the Anadolu Agency that the movement has already contacted the Moroccan government to stop importing these dates, either legally or illegally claiming the authorities know very well where such products are stored.

The Moroccan Communications Minister and official spokesman for the Moroccan government, Mustapha Khalfi said earlier this month that middlemen in the intermediate states smuggle Israeli dates into Morocco despite the absence of direct official relations between Morocco and Israel.

He added that boycott committees have  already sent a letter to Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane regarding this issue. (T/P008/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)