Introduction :
• It is very difficult to find any goods from Israeli settlements on the shelves of British supermarkets. I want to tell the story how this happened.
• I will cover :
o Why did the UK introduce labelling guidance for settlement goods ?
o What has the impact of that guidance been ?
o And why we need European-wide efforts to push for practical measures to stop the expansion of illegal settlements.
2009
• Continual grassroots pressure on supermarkets, and the government particularly after the attack on Gaza under operation Cast Lead.
• Supermarkets were pressing the government to issue guidance, because they did not want to be seen to be moving in response to political pressure.
• But government was “a rabbit in the headlights” : it sat on its own draft labelling guidance for months and months fearful of a backlash, both from pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian sides.
• Campaigners commissioned strong legal advice that labelling would be lawful.
• Continued high-level pressure from a range of organisations, including from the TUC and union movement. Our policy is for a ban on such goods, but we recognised that labelling would be a positive step forward, putting the decision to boycott directly in the hands of consumers, many of which are trade union members.
• But similarly, this was ultimately framed as an issue of consumer choice – a campaign argument that nearly everyone can settle on.
• Finally, a parliamentary debate which embarrassed the government into action. It released the labelling guidance the very next week in December 2009.
What was the impact ?
• Positive and high profile media coverage of the release of the labelling guidance.
• Genuine pressure on Israel
• No backlash from the Jewish community – mostly a “I can live with this” attitude.
• This seems to be the recent Danish experience with labelling –private pressure not to release labelling rules, and then very little negative public response.
Since labelling was introduced the TUC has :
• Produced joint materials – handed across the country, working through union and PSC branches in all corners of the country.
• Directly lobbied supermarket management including through using our own union coverage.
By early 2010
• All supermarkets were applying the guidance. Half of them had stopped sourcing altogether.
By early 2011
• All supermarkets were applying the labelling guidance. All but one of them had stopped sourcing from the settlements altogether. The only supermarket that still does so is Tesco and it is only sourcing dates.
• I spoke to Sainbury’s last week, the second largest supermarket in the country who said that : We get more complaints about this than any other issues – it would just be easier if the UK Government banned settlement goods.
And last year,
• the Cooperative Food group announced that they would not source from any company involved in the settlements.
How successful is this ?
Very but :
• There are settlement goods where consumer pressure just cannot reach – processed foods, catering outlets etc. We just don’t know because the government doesn’t collect customs data on this...
• Settlement goods could just be sent to other parts of Europe.
• The accuracy of labelling is a growing problem (Hadiklaim and Morrisons and Sainsburys). Many supermarkets conceded this, especially after the scandals with horse meat.
So we need a ban, but first we need to the rest of Europe to catch up.
• TUC issued legal advice supporting a ban
• More campaigning on the accuracy off labelling issue.
• Trading Away peace report.
France taking this step would be highly significant – it would create a critical mass for others to follow.
Lessons
1. Without grass roots pressure none of this would have happened.
2. Commonality of purpose : don’t get distracted with debates about the extent of boycotts
3. Address the technical and legal objections to governments and supermarkets acting
4. Supermarkets have told us for years, that they get more complaints about settlement goods than any other issue,