Thousands of Israelis and Palestinians united for a Ramadan fast-ending meal hosted by the Israeli company SodaStream.
By AP and UWI Staff
SodaStream is hosting nearly 3,000 Israelis and Palestinians for a Ramadan fast-ending meal at its factory in the southern Israel town of Rahat.
Bedouins and Jewish Israelis and some Palestinians attended the feast on Monday along with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Friedman writes on Twitter that he had “the pure joy” to attend, and touts SodaStream as a paragon of peace.
“Muslims, Druze, Christians and Jews working together, each making the other better, happier and more prosperous,” says Friedman.
SodaStream, manufacturer of fizzy drink-machines and other bubbly products, shut its Dead Sea factory in 2015 amid boycott calls and opened a new facility in the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat.
SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum, who sealed a $3.2 billion agreement with beverage giant PepsiCo last summer, hailed the deal as a victory over the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which advocates for the destruction of the Jewish State.
“I think they have learned not to meddle with us. Look at what happened to SodaStream that they targeted, and what has happened to them,” Birnbaum said of BDS.
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