Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s chief exec…..Jewish?
If so bit of an irony all considered….Perhaps he should boycott himself.
The BBC’s report on Oxfam getting dumped by its star face is pretty light on the important facts:
Scarlett Johansson quits Oxfam role over SodaStream row
This is how it wraps up:
The company’s chief executive, Daniel Birnbaum, said his factory was “a model for peace”.
“We’re very proud to be here and contribute to the co-existence and hopefully the peace in this region,” he told Reuters news agency.
However, away from the factory, Reuters quoted one unnamed Palestinian employee as saying “there’s a lot of racism” at work.
“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,” he added.
Really? A racist factory? Any facts to back that up? Any BBC reporter on the ground? Or is it just random anti-Israeli abuse?
Funny how one of the world’s biggest news gathering media corporations can miss this:
Arab SodaStream workers applaud their CEO
The Forward went to the SodaStream factory in Mishor Adumim and spoke to the CEO, Daniel Birnbaum.
He shows that he is far more pro-Palestinian than all of the “pro-Palestinian activists” combined.
[T]hough he wouldn’t have opened the factory at its current site, Birnbaum said that its presence here is now a reality, and he won’t bow to political pressure to close it — even though the company is about to open a huge new plant in the Negev, within Israel’s internationally-recognized boundaries, which will replicate all functions of the West Bank plant, and dwarf it.
The reason for staying is loyalty to approximately 500 Palestinians who are among the plant’s 1,300 employees, Birnbaum claimed. While other employees could relocate on the other side of the Green Line if the plant moved, the West Bank Palestinian workers could not, and would suffer financially, he argued.
“We will not throw our employees under the bus to promote anyone’s political agenda,” he said, adding that he “just can’t see how it would help the cause of the Palestinians if we fired them.”
“We are making history for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people,” he told them in Hebrew, followed by a translator who rendered his comments into Arabic. Birnbaum reassured the workers about their jobs and said he wanted to bring “more and more hands” into the factory as SodaStream grows.
The Palestinians applauded these comments. But then Birnbaum added with a flourish: “Scarlett Johannson would be proud of you!” And at the sound of Johannson’s name — even before the translation — applause among the assembly of mostly male, 30-something Palestinian workers burst out again, palpably louder.
During discussions between a Forward reporter and about a half-dozen of these Palestinian employees, conducted out of earshot of Israeli managers, none complained of labor abuses, or of receiving pay below the Israeli minimum wage. Asked about the calls by anti-occupation activists to boycott SodaStream, one spoke about the dearth of jobs in the Palestinian Authority economy.
So who cares more about Palestinian Arabs – SodaStream or the Israel haters?
Nothing like a bit of hypocrisy from Oxfam…guess money talks……
Sainsbury’s recycling centres across the country receive the highest volume of donations for Oxfam in the UK beyond its own shops.
Some more hypocrisy from the Guardian and an Indian Marxist:
Scarlett Johansson is right – the face of SodaStream doesn’t fit with Oxfam
Vijay Prashad…an Indian….a Marxist….what does he have to say about the Indian Caste system? What does he say about the way India occupies and terrorises Kashmir if you believe Pakistan?
What does he make of ‘Pakistan’….a piece of India stolen and occupied by Muslims having driven out the Hindus and Sikhs and in which no Christian or Amahdiya Muslim can feel safe?
How about the Pakistan that funds its proxy army in Afghanistan…the Taliban..the same Taliban that is killing Afghans and Allied troops? The Paskistan that essentially occupied Afghanistan and stripped it of its industry and wealth?
How about the Pakistan that has hundreds of terrorist training camps churning out terrorists who head off to India or Kashmir to do their worst with the blessing of Pakistani Intelligence?
Boycott Pakistan? Or India? Life is complicated eh?
Never mind the murderous Palestinian Hamas and Fatah organisations.
SodaStream: Yves Béhar’s fizzy drinks machine for the future
The 1980s DIY drinks machine has been given a revamp by green designer Yves Béhar. He tells us why eco is the only way.
Ironically, the situation is the opposite in Britain: London’s design scene is thriving, but there’s little manufacturing in the UK to benefit from all that talent. SodaStream, a British invention and for decades a British-owned brand, is only getting its eco-crusading revamp now it’s been acquired by an Israeli private equity group.
If more designers thought like Béhar, perhaps they’d be allowed to fix big problems, too.
Nothing to do with the BBC then, but I see ‘What about the Muslims?’ made it in there again.
Clarence, did you skip past the bit about how the BBC skipped important facts? Or were you just scanning for a reference to Muslims so you could get outraged?
As usual a left wing retard ignores the facts and tries to play the Racist card. The BBC has ignored the real story to try and promote the racist organisation OXFAM. A little basic research would show that a lot of Palestinians at Sodastream have decent jobs earning real money to have a better life. Hamas and the PLO have done not one thing to help ordinary Palestinians in this regard but have usurped aid money to finance themselves. Clarence you are yet another Beeboid dickhead.
Don’t let the facts get in the way of your bigotry, Clarence.
“However, away from the factory, Reuters quoted one unnamed Palestinian employee as saying “there’s a lot of racism” at work.
“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,” he added.”
I see the BBC quotes Reuters quoting an unnamed Palestinian.
Whatever happened to proper journalism?
Perhaps the BBC are a bit light on the ground in the region, what with all the cutbacks they’re having to make.
Oh, hang on…
Scarlett seems to be upsetting the liberals. A beautiful woman who does not toe the line spewed out by the boycotters.
If I were her I would steer well clear of British universiites.
Not exactly known nowadays for tolerating views inconsistent with liberal orthodoxy.
She is not only beautiful, but smart, sassy…..an alpha woman….i want her to have my children.
And another thing…..give their chuggers a hard time…accuse them of supporting a racist, anti-semitic organization, boycott their ‘charity’ stores,….tell them they are really raising money for terrorists around the world. I have long been a critic of Oxfam, they deserve the hassle, with six-figure executives.
And weren’t Oxfam amongst ‘the world’s top climate scientists’ at the BBC’s notorious 28gate meeting?
And then there’s the flip side of all this: no matter how unhinged Oxfam has proven itself to be in this case, as sure as eggs is eggs, next time it issues a report critical of the government, it’ll be presented by the BBC as a non-partisan, touchy-feely group that just wants to help the helpless.
Along the lines of: “A leading charity has discovered…….”
Cue a 5 minute challenge free interview by Today/WATO/PM.
Advocacy masquerading as “news”
The author of the Reuters text..including the un-named Palestinian refering to racism is Noah Browning…he has form. Ofc the BBC lapped it up.
k.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/us-israel-palestinians-scarlett-idUKBREA0S1I020140129
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/29/us-israel-palestinians-scarlett-idUKBREA0S1I020140129
Sorry for link paste error!
Whether or not the head of Oxfam is circumcised and has the required mitochondrial DNA is irrelevant. Plenty of far-Left Jews believe Israel is evil. The dual loyalty and conspiracy of all Jews worldwide is a myth, regardless of how many here or at the BBC believe it.
Behind the publicized good intentions and feel-good campaigns, Oxfam is in reality an extremist, Progressive organization dedicated to destroying established Western society so they can end relative poverty. One has only to look at their manifesto to see calls for progressive taxation and the forced redistribution of resources, and to “arrest runaway climate change”, and a desire to organize people to fight against corporations and government. It’s all very similar to sentiments we’ve heard expressed by quite a few BBC journalists and producers as well (e.g. Richard Black, Paul Mason, Richard Leeming). What a shock.
Progressive and similar far-Left ideologies are a substitute for religious belief, and organizations like Oxfam are there to do the work that organized churches used to do for their believers. So it’s perfectly ordinary for someone of Jewish heritage to be in charge of an organization which seeks to destroy the Jewish State, because it’s all just black and white, David vs. Goliath to him.
The saddest part of all this is that Oxfam, and organization supposedly dedicated to human rights is in denial that they support the creation of a Palestinian State with a human rights violation written into its constitution. This unthinking desire for a Judenrein Palestinian State is shared by many at the BBC. If they’re aware of that, then one can only assume that they believe Jews don’t deserve the right to live where they choose.
“……………….. Oxfam is in reality an extremist, Progressive organization dedicated to destroying established Western society……………………. ”
That is some assertion. I assume you believe that everyone donating to Oxfam is deemed to be complicit in this aim including the thousands (if not millions) of “righties” who regularly contribute to Oxfam.
‘I assume you believe that everyone donating to Oxfam is deemed to be complicit in this aim including the thousands (if not millions) of “righties” who regularly contribute to Oxfam.’
a) David said nothing about donors. Yet another non-sequitur from you, Albaman.
b) How many of those donors are aware of Oxfam’s true agenda which goes well beyond allocating charitable donations (‘…. progressive taxation and the forced redistribution of resources, and to “arrest runaway climate change”, and a desire to organize people to fight against corporations and government’.) Their presence at the BBC’s secret 28gate ‘climate change’ gathering tells us all we need to know.