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Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Showing posts with label SodaStream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SodaStream. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Your news from Israel - 8 February 2017 - The Jerusalem Journal Brian Schrauger
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Pro-Palestinian Rallies Await Israeli PM in London
Pro-Palestinian Rallies Await Israeli PM in London
Wednesday, September 09, 2015
JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, left for a two-day state visit to England Wednesday, where British Prime Minister David Cameron awaits them, along with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Demonstrations are less than what 107,000 signatories of a petition to arrest Netanyahu for alleged war crimes wanted, referring to theIDF's military incursion in the Gaza Strip last summer in response to Palestinian rocket fire and terror tunnels dug under Israel's border.
Earlier Wednesday, terrorists opened fire on an Israeli woman near the Tapuach Junction, not far from Nablus (biblical Shechem).
Miraculously, she was unhurt, though shaken up by the attack and the bullets that penetrated her car. The IDF dispatched soldiers to search for the shooter.
A few days ago, the European Union announced it was putting the finishing touches on its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) package, the same week the SodaStream factory in Samaria gets ready to close and move to its new location in the Negev.
SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum says BDS supporters just don't get it.
"It's propaganda. It's politics. It's hate. It's anti-Semitism," Birnbaum said. "It's all the bad stuff we don't want to be part of."
Meanwhile, skies remained hazy Wednesday, following Tuesday's massive sandstorm that blanketed Israel from north to south, as well as Syria, in a thick yellow, sand-filled haze. Israeli media reported it was the most massive sandstorm in 15 years.
Environmental Protection Ministry warned people with heart or lung problems to stay indoors. Domestic flights were cancelled and many people held scarves to their faces as they walked the streets.
Sweltering temperatures that accompanied the sandstorm are expected to last through the start of Rosh Hashanah, literally "head of the year," which begins Sunday at sunset.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem, light-rail construction to outlying neighborhoods, along with school and holiday traffic, snarled city streets.
But despite boycotts, sandstorms, terror attacks, traffic jams and anti-Israel protests, there's a pervasive and undeniable optimism as Israelis prepare to celebrate the New Year. Everywhere people wish one another Shana tova u'metuka, a good and sweet New Year.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Israeli-Arab Unity: SodaStream Helping Fulfill Isaiah?
Israeli-Arab Unity: SodaStream Helping Fulfill Isaiah?
Thursday, September 11, 2014
MISHOR ADUMIM, Israel -- The Israeli-Arab conflict has been going on for decades. But what many people don't realize is that Jews and Arabs in many cases actually do get along.
SodaStream is one company making a difference. It's the leading manufacturer of home beverage carbonation systems in the world. It also has a practical solution for building Israeli-Palestinian Arab relations.
"This factory here used to be a munitions factory," Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream, said. "Until about 15 years ago, the Israeli military made munitions for artillery. And then SodaStream came and transformed it to a soda factory -- a healthy, environmental, soda factory and that might remind you [of] something from the Bible."
Fulfillment of Prophecy?
Just outside the front door of the factory is a statue with a scripture on it from the prophet Isaiah (2:4).
"This statue commemorates that and reminds us every day as we come to work what we're doing here. We're turning bullets into bubbles," Birnbaum told CBN's Scott Ross.
"The statue reads here in Hebrew: 'And you shall beat your swords into ploughshares and your spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore.'"
SodaStream is more than 100 years old. Its largest plant is in Mishor Adumim. Located just outside Jerusalem, it's an area the Bible calls Judea and much of the world refers to as the "occupied West Bank." And that has caused some problems.
"We're selling our products in 45 countries around the world," Birnbaum said.
"Not all of them are getting products from this factory. Because some of the countries, the Nordic markets for example, they don't want anything from this factory because they think it's a discriminatory, apartheid situation. They don't want to touch it," Birnbaum said.
"And I tell them, 'Guys, you have a chance to employ Palestinians, to prove that we can have peace here.' And they don't want to touch it. They're afraid of the lobbying. What we do for them is we make this product in a different factory in China or some other location. What a shame," he added.
An Unexpected Ally
In another incident, actress Scarlett Johansson was forced to make a choice between her work with SodaStream and Oxfam, a group fighting global poverty. Johansson was shown in a commercial for SodaStream during the Super Bowl.
"Like most actors my real job is saving the world," she says in the commercial.
Then she demonstrates how to use the SodaStream machine.
"Start with plain water, add bubbles, mix in the perfect flavor," she explains. "Look, soda that's better for you and all of us -- less sugar and less bottles."
A male voice then says, "You doing it Scarlett. Yeah, you're doing it -- changing the world one sip at a time."
But Oxfam told Johansson her work with SodaStream was incompatible because it furthers the poverty of the Palestinians. Johansson stood up for SodaStream and quit Oxfam, a group she had worked with for years.
Birnbaum said he respected Johansson for her courage. He said it was his idea to employ Palestinians at the facility.
"When I came here about seven years ago I inherited this facility. It did not employ Palestinians. It only employed Israelis," Birnbaum said.
"And I decided that it's the right thing to do was to employ people who also lived in the area and it evolved into a very interesting demographic situation where we have more Palestinians than Jews," he said.
According to Birnbaum, SodaStream is the "largest employer of Palestinian people in the world outside of the Palestinian Authority."
"We employ 500 Palestinians here. Side by side, we have 350 Israeli Arabs and another 300 Israeli Jews. And we get along together. They're not killing each other! They go to lunch break. We break bread together and we get to know each other," he said.
SodaStream pays Israeli wages -- four times what workers would earn in the Palestinian Authority, where unemployment is 30 percent. And the workers say they're happy, too.
Yousef Besharat is a Palestinian Arab who works at the factory. He told CBN News his salary helped him to build a home in just a year. He said there's no discrimination between Jewish and Arab workers at the plant.
The plant produces about 15,000 soda-makers a day. There are dozens of regular, diet and naturally sweetened flavors boasting far less calories than bottled soft drinks.
The factory also manufactures its own specially designed bottles, which can be used over and over again for up to 10,000 liters (about 10,000 quarts) of soda.
The 'United Nations'
Birnbaum gave CBN's Ross a tour of the factory. He said he calls the room where they assemble the valves "the United Nations."
"We have people from all over here. You'll see Palestinians and Israelis. You'll see Russian immigrants and Ethiopians, Bedouins, women and men. I love this hall," Birnbaum said.
He introduced CBN News to the shift manager, whom he called "a wonderful Palestinian fellow who started as an entry level and built himself up here at SodaStream in the last few years to shift manager."
Nabil Besharat is a father of six who has worked at the plant for four years. As shift manager, Besharat is in charge of about 25 people, including Jews and Arabs.
Nabil says he came to the company "for good opportunities, for a good job, for good money," and he found those things here.
"We work here with Jews, with Christians, with Muslims -- all -- with Druze," Nabil told CBN News. They don't even mention the word conflict, he added.
Sadly, disturbances by some Palestinian employees did erupt during the fighting between Israel and Hamas earlier this summer, which led to the firing of dozens of Palestinians.
Management says things are now back on track. Still, they are considering closing the plant, not because of pressure but for financial considerations.
Nevertheless, Birnbaum says the company is doing its part to build bridges and make peace and that's a miracle.
"So every single soda-maker that we make here, every single soda-maker that you would buy at Wal-Mart, or Bed Bath, or Target, or wherever, was made by a Jew and a Palestinian together, living in harmony. And that gives me goose bumps," he said.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Scarlett Johansson Again Defends SodaStream and Israel - ISRAEL TODAY
Scarlett Johansson Again Defends SodaStream and Israel
Monday, March 17, 2014 | Israel Today Staff
Hollywood superstar Scarlett Johansson on Sunday again defended her decision to represent Israeli soda-maker SodaStream and shot down biased criticism of and efforts to boycott the Jewish state.
In an interview with the UK’s Observer that was supposed to focus on her role in an upcoming film, Johansson was aggressively confronted over her spokesperson position with SodaStream, which operates a large factory near the “Jewish settlement” of Ma’aleh Adumim.
The factory employs hundreds of Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews, and, according to Johansson, “is a model for some sort of movement forward in a seemingly impossible situation.”
That wasn’t good enough for the interviewer, who wrote that Johansson must have been given some bad advice or made a wrong decision, but was now unable to extract herself from the situation without upsetting one side or another.
Not so, Johansson retorted, insisting that she “stands behind that decision. I was aware of that particular factory before I signed [on]…and…it still doesn’t seem like a problem.”
Clearly becoming frustrated with the starlet, the interviewer pointed out that the biggest names in the international community all regard Israeli settlements as illegal and a detriment to the dignity and livelihood of Palestinian Arabs.
Determined not to be cowed, Johansson replied, “I think that’s something that’s very easily debatable.” She went on to note that while a firm majority in the UK might back the interviewer’s position, that is certainly not true everywhere.
Johansson also took a shot at the UK-based charity Oxfam, from which she stepped down as a global ambassador when Oxfam too harshly criticized her relationship with SodaStream.
“There’s plenty of evidence that Oxfam does support and has funded a BDS [anti-Israel boycott, divest, sanctions] movement in the past. It’s something that can’t really be denied,” Johansson said. “For a non-governmental organization to be supporting something that’s supporting a political cause… there’s something that feels not right about that to me.”
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Sunday, February 2, 2014
Scarlett Johansson Scandal Likely Boosting SodaStream Sales - Israel Today
Scarlett Johansson Scandal Likely Boosting SodaStream Sales
Sunday, February 02, 2014 | Israel Today Staff
If the reaction of Canadian Employment Minister Jason Kenney is anything to go by, the negative reaction of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to Scarlett Johansson's signing to represent Israeli soda-maker SodaStream is likely to actually boost sales for the company.
A major mover in the BDS movement is international aid organization Oxfam, for which Johansson was an active ambassador. However, the actress terminated her relationship with Oxfam over its own criticism of the her deal with SodaStream, prompting Kenney to posted to Twitter that he is keen to start buying SodaStream's products.
In an interview on Canada's Sun News, Kenney acknowledged that he used to be a supporter of Oxfam, but no more.
"I've given money to Oxfam in the past because I thought they were there to help poor people, not to marginalize Israelis and make Palestinians unemployed," the minister told his host, adding that he is now "dropping Oxfam and becoming a customer of SodaStream, thanks to all the nutters at Oxfam who are marginalizing Palestinians."
It has been widely pointed out that Israeli companies like SodaStream provide thousands of Palestinians with good paying jobs that they would be unable to find otherwise, thanks to the Palestinian Authority's gross mismanagement of billions of dollars in financial aid over the past decade.
Johansson herself even pointed out that fact when she suggested Oxfam's misguided criticism would only serve to put hundreds of Palestinian employees of SodaStream out of work.
In his post to Twitter, Kenney, who visited Israel last month with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, tagged his remark with the term "buycott," which is used by those working to reverse the anti-Israel boycotts by convincing people to buy Israeli-made products.
Israel Today is pleased to host a "buycott" page of our own, featuring a video interview with several Palestinian employees of SodaStream, and plenty of Israeli-made products for your consideration. CHECK IT OUT NOW >>
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