At the end of April, the Carrefour group informed the organizations that signed the report "Carrefour’s dangerous links with colonization" that it had decided to suspend its partnership with retailers in the occupied Palestinian territory, without giving any further details. Subsequently, the Carrefour group did not respond to requests for confirmation from the signatory organizations. They continue to call on Carrefour to end its franchise agreement with Electra Consumer Products and Yenot Bitan.
Indeed, if the decision to suspend the partnership with brands located in the illegal settlements were confirmed and followed up, it would be a first step in the disengagement of Carrefour, and a first result of the campaign led for six months by the organizations that signed the report and other partners. However, the suspension of this partnership would not be enough to put an end to Carrefour’s complicity with the colonization because a partnership with Israeli companies that are direct actors of the colonization constitutes a very strong link with this illegal colonization under international law.
Recall that on March 6, 2022, the Carrefour group announced the conclusion of a franchise agreement with two Israeli companies, Electra Consumer Products and Yenot Bitan. Thanks to this partnership, the 150 Yenot Bitan stores, at least three of which are located in illegal Israeli settlements, have had access to Carrefour brand products since the summer. In addition, this agreement provides that all these stores will be transformed into Carrefour stores. Carrefour’s Israeli partner, Electra Consumer Products, and its sister company, Electra, are directly and heavily involved in the settlements, as Electra is listed in the UN database of companies involved in the settlements.
In November 2022, a report documenting the legal violations committed by Carrefour through this partnership was published by seven organizations, the AFPS, the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, the League of Human Rights, Al Haq, the CGT, the CGT Federation of Commerce and the Union Syndicale Solidaires.
Following the publication of this report, citizen action campaigns were launched in France (information for customers, who were invited to ask the Carrefour group’s management to end the partnership), and in other countries where Carrefour is present.
Since the beginning of 2023, the situation has worsened in Palestine with the arrival in power in Israel of an openly racist and supremacist government which has set itself the objective of extending the colonization by driving out the Palestinian population, by all means. While more than 150 Palestinian men and women have been killed since the beginning of the year, Carrefour’s complicity with the colonization appears even more indecent and unbearable to anyone concerned with justice and respect for human rights.
A recent article in La Tribune confirms that Carrefour will become the first foreign retailer in Israel with the opening of 50 Carrefour stores on May 9, 2023. At the opening of a hypermarket in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, Alexandre Bompard, CEO of the Carrefour group said: "This is a very big day for Carrefour (...) we know that expectations of Carrefour Israel are high, and we want to live up to those expectations. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu hailed the group’s arrival as "excellent news for the citizens of Israel".
Another press article dated May 9, 2023 indicates that Carrefour has established a new partnership with an Israeli company, a direct actor in the settlement, Bank Hapoalim, which is also listed in the UN database of companies involved in the settlement: "The Competition Authority has approved a cooperation agreement between Carrefour, Cal and Bank Hapoalim”.
Far from withdrawing its complicity with the Israeli colonization, the Carrefour group reinforces it with a lot of communication. This can only increase our determination to act to stop this revolting complicity.
Contacts presse :
– Plateforme des ONG françaises pour la Palestine : Pierre Motin, responsable plaidoyer, p.motin@plateforme-palestine.org, 06 12 12 63 94 / 01 40 36 41 46
– Association France Palestine Solidarité : presse@france-palestine.org, 01 43 72 15 79
