Fraudulent Aldi are selling Israeli grapefruit labeled: "Produce of Cyprus"

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Monday March 16, 2009 14:16

by DunloT - Free Palestine Campaign

Cypriot Embassy orders Aldi to remove all references to Cyprus on the produce they misleadingly sell

For the past number of weeks, disreputable Aldi have been fraudently selling Israeli ruby red grapefruit labeled; Produce of Cyprus and this offence is being currently investigated by Environmental Health Officers from the Health Service Executive who are under contract to Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Further, it is reliably reported that the Cypriot ambassador to Ireland, Sotos A. Liassides has referred this matter back to his government for vigorous action and in the meantime has asked Aldi to remove all reference to Cyprus on the grapefruit labels, commenting that Aldi are "trying desperately to get rid of their (Israeli grapefruit) stock by presenting it as Cypriot."

Aldi have no wriggle room to weasel out of their fraudulency by claiming that the mislabeling was a genuine mistake by their packagers; PO Box 26, Atherstone, Warwickshire CV9 2SH as the Carmel (Agrexco) stickers on each individual grapefruit have been replaced with "Jaffa Red Grapefruit Sunrise" stickers with both sharing the same number (#4285), product number: 95-105MM, supplier code: 1430 x 05 and description: ruby red, only differing in the lot code: 1003 in the case of the grapefruit with the Carmel sticker and 1007 in the case of the fruit with the Jaffa sticker - Dunnes Stores sell ruby red grapefruit clearly marked as “Produce of Israel” with a Carmel Agrexco sticker on each individual fruit with the same number (#4285) as on the grapefruit that Aldi sell as Cypriot (see photos). The manager of the Aldi branch in the Galway retail Park, Headford Road was tackled on this last Saturday but choose to skulk away (see video).

Besides Aldi, The Body Shop in Shop Street was picketed last Saturday : Beyond the mockery of its boast that "We've never been afraid to champion the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, and we continue to campaign for social justice and human rights, L'Oreal Israel, subsidiary of Body Shop owner, the French cosmetics company, L'Oreal, closely colludes with the state of Israel in the expropriation and exploitation of Palestinian resources in the Occupied Territories, "L'Oreal Israel manufacturers a line of products using Dead Sea minerals under the name "Natural Sea Beauty" that is exported to 22 countries. It should be noted that one-third of the western shore of the Dead Sea lies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. While the entire shore and its resources are systematically closed to Palestinians by Israeli military occupation and apartheid practices, Israel exploits the Dead Sea for international tourism, mining and improving its image. Besides that, L'Oreal Israel has operated a factory in the Israeli town of Migdal Haemek on lands belonging to the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian village of al-Mujaydil whose original inhabitants are still denied the right to return to their homes. Like almost all other Jewish settlements built in the midst of Palestinian villages in the Galilee, inside Israel, Migdal Haemek discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel, denying them the right to buy, rent or live on any part of the town, simply because they are "non-Jews ... and L'Oreal awarded a $100,000 "lifetime achievement" award to a scientist at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science in July 2008. The Weizmann Institute, since its establishment, has been a major center for clandestine research and development of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons on behalf of Israel's military establishment with which it has close ties" http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10049.shtml

Whilst Woodie's DIY, Aldi, Marks & Spencer, Debenham's and The Body Shop were being picketed, a stall was manned in Shop Street for its duration (and further beyond to 7.30 PM), dispensing Boycott Israeli Goods information leaflets and gathering signatures for the IAWM petition calling on Eircom not to award a major contract to Israeli company Amdocs (see Related Link).

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