SodaStream

SodaStream is an Israeli company that manufactures home carbonation devices and flavoring for making carbonated beverages at home. The company is a target of boycotts primarily due to its factory location in Ma'ale Adumim, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Illegal West Bank Factory

SodaStream's factory in the Mishor Adumim industrial park, part of the Ma'ale Adumim illegal settlement. The land where the factory was built was taken from several Palestinian towns including Abu Dis, al-'Izariyyeh, al-'Issawiyyeh, a-Tur, and Anata.

Displacing Bedouins

Similar to the original factory, this new plant is as well situated to profit from Israel's apartheid systems, and its discriminatory policies towards non-Jewish citizens.

In 2015, after international negative attention for its illegal factory in the West Bank, built on stolen Palestinian land, SodaStream decided to move its factory to the Naqab (Negev) desert beside Rahat, a planned Palestinian Bedouin township, as a pretend positive step in an area with high unemployment. However, the reality is that this industrialization of the area has been part of an Israeli strategy since at least 1963. As Israeli general Moshe Dayan outlined his plan for the Bedouins:

We should transform the Bedouin into an urban proletariat. This will be a radical move, which means that the Bedouin will not live on his land with his herds, but would become an urban person who comes home in the afternoon and puts his slippers on.

Rahat was established by the Israeli government in 1971 as a planned urban township for Bedouins as Israel expropriated more land in the Naqab and in recent years, Israel’s push to divorce its Bedouin citizens from their heritage has intensified, with an Israeli government initiative aiming to displace at least 40,000 Bedouin citizens of the Naqab.

Inhumane Employment Practices

Israeli and American media have tried to portray the illegal Mishor Adumim factory as a paradise of cooperation and tolerance between SodaStream’s Israeli and Palestinian employees, intentionally ignoring the fact that these factories in illegal settlements are built on stolen land and the only reason they are viable is that Israel systematically destroys infrastructure in the west bank and directly contributes to the destruction of any economic opportunities outside the settlements for the Palestinians.

According to multiple employee accounts, SodaStream's workplace conditions at its Mishor Adumim factory had a stark contrast to the company's public image. A Palestinian employee told The Electronic Intifada that workers were "treated like slaves," working grueling 60-hour weeks without overtime compensation. The factory maintained a rigid hierarchical structure, with white Jewish managers at the top, Russian supervisors in the middle, and Palestinians and black Jews relegated to manual labor positions. Despite Palestinians comprising 90% of floor workers, only two achieved foreman status, highlighting systematic barriers to advancement. Muslim employees reported religious discrimination, including denied prayer rights and hidden prayer carpets, with the advertised prayer room revealed to be merely a locker room. Workers faced constant job insecurity, including threats of immediate termination for taking sick leave, forced reduction in work days, and mandatory participation in promotional videos under threat of dismissal. While the wages were 3-4 times higher than those offered by the Palestinian Authority - an improvement only achieved through worker protests - employees felt trapped by limited alternative employment options in the region. A former employee speaking to Al Jazeera further exposed concerns about workplace safety, stating the plant was "a lot less safe than they claim," and described a culture of fear where workers avoided speaking to media due to concerns about arbitrary dismissal.

Another report from Reuters where a Palestinian worker revealed that "There's a lot of racism here," speaking on condition of anonymity. "Most of the managers are Israeli, and West Bank employees feel they can't ask for pay rises or more benefits because they can be fired and easily replaced."

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