Brussels Airlines Departs From BDSville
David Lange
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Remember Brussels Airlines decision to stop serving an Israeli snack on its flights, due to pressure from BDS-holes?
They’ve now backtracked, seemingly because of threats by passengers to boycott them, as well as pressure from the Israeli Foreign Ministry (and I’d like to think my message to Jean-Claude Van Damme)
Brussels Airlines is welcoming Achva halva back on board.
In a high-profile turnaround and a setback to efforts to boycott products made beyond the Green Line, Brussels Airlines announced Monday it will continue to serve the confection made in the Achva factory in the Barkan Industrial Area near Ariel.
In a letter sent to Simona Frenkel, Israel’s ambassador to Brussels, the airline wrote that “Achva remains one of our trustful suppliers, and without any distinction related to the origin of the product,” the airline will “continue to accept Achva’s products on board our flights, especially given its positive role in the community.”
Israel’s embassies in Brussels and Berlin have, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, worked “vigorously” on the issue since the airline announced last week that it was removing the confection from the menu because it wanted to serve products that were “amicable to all.”
One of the arguments Israeli officials used to get the airline to revoke the ban was to stress that the plant employs a large number of Palestinian workers.
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Embassy officials in Brussels and Berlin contacted major stockholders in both capitals regarding the issue, and stressed the inadmissibility of boycotts. The German national carrier, Lufthansa, is one of those stockholders.
One Israeli official said that the angry backlash from Israeli consumers to the ban, including calls for a counter-boycott of the airline, impacted Brussels Airlines’ decision to reinstate the product.
Hmm, Achva went from “Who the eff are you?” to “one of our trustful suppliers” at snack Mach 1 speed.
We have stopped serving that product on our flights, as it was not what we had ordered, it was a mistake by our supplier.
— Brussels Airlines (@FlyingBrussels) August 24, 2016
Be that as it may, this is a welcome development, and I will now resume eating Brussels sprouts.
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David Lange
