The West Bank settlement SodaStream factory in Ma'aleh Adumim employed hundreds of Palestinians, providing a lifeline to the workers in an economy where unemployment is high and wages low. But the factory was also a product and symbol of Israel's nearly 50-year-old occupation. This is the conundrum: while Palestinians support the international outcry against the occupation of the West Bank, businesses attached to Israel's far richer economy offer much-needed jobs. Consequently, Palestinians are asked to choose: take the money or reject the occupation. For years, the SodaStream factory was a prime target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israeli occupation. BDS activists had lobbied stores around the world to remove the company's fizzy drink makers from their shelves until it shuttered the West Bank factory. In 2014, the company said it would shut the plant and move its operations inside Israel. Palestinians require permits to work inside Israel, and most of the 500 factory workers, unable to get them, were let go last year. The 100 or so permits SodaStream managed to secure expired last week and were not renewed, sending the remaining Palestinian workers packing. If Israeli leaders were truly interested in promoting peace, they would have found a way to grant permits to all the Palestinian employees. Instead, the Israeli government said the problem had something to do with quotas, even though out of the more than 100,000 Palestinians from the West Bank who work in Israel every day, half have permits and half come in and work without one. Israeli businesses are exploiting a captive labor market by paying low wages and are granted preferential access to land and resources. Despite SodaStream's location in the West Bank, goods produced there do not serve the local population; instead, 65 percent of goods are shipped elsewhere and taxes and profits go to support the Israeli economy - not Palestinians. Because Palestinians who work in the area are treated as occupied subjects rather than citizens, they depend on their employers for work permits. These permits can be denied for "security reasons" after any kind of labor disagreement with an employer; therefore, Palestinian workers are unable to demand their legal labor rights. SodaStream factory workers suffer from harsh working conditions including pay well below the minimum wage despite their entitlement under Israeli law to the same rights as Israeli workers. A situation in which Palestinian laborers are often paid below Israeli minimum wage and one in which settlement companies receive favorable treatment has led a recent report by Human Rights Watch to conclude that businesses operating in settlements contribute to and benefit from "an inherently unlawful and abusive system that violates the rights of Palestinians," and urged businesses to cease their settlement operations. Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 in a move never recognized by the international community. The BDS movement is aimed at breaking the chains of the occupation while furthering Palestinian aspirations for independence. The charge that BDS singles out Israel for boycott while ignoring other countries with poor human rights records is dishonest. BDS was not founded to be the world's watchdog in protection of rights. It is an enterprise wholly dedicated to the Palestinians, a global movement modeled on the earlier campaign against the ugliness of apartheid South Africa. It is attempting to increase economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with its stated goals: the end of Israel's occupation and colonization of Palestinian land. To this end, sacrifices must be made. It is not easy to turn down a good-paying job in a place where there are few jobs with poor salaries. The loss of Palestinian jobs at SodaStream is part of the price that sometimes is paid if the Palestinians want to reach the loftiest goal: ending the occupation.
