Norway: Staples capitulates to Israel boycott campaign

Original Staples notice, as reported on the
site of Norwegian People's Aid

Norwegian site MIFF reports that Staples Norway has capitulated to an Israel boycott campaign.

Staples Norway announced via Twitter that they plan to stop selling SodaStream products in their stores.  SodaStream, an Israeli company, has been the target of a global boycott campaign.

In their announcement, Staples implied they were removing the product due to the boycott campaign. The notice (translated): "Staples has chosen for various reasons to phase out SodaStream from our selection.  We thank @fagforbundet and @norskfolkehjelp for a good dialogue."

Fagforbundet is the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees, which recently decided to boycott Israeli products.  Norskfolkehjelp is Norwegian People’s Aid, a humanitarian relief NGO.  Both organizations were heavily involved in the SodaStream boycott campaign.

After receiving queries on the issue, Staples claimed they were removing the product due to poor sales.  They also deleted the original Twitter notice.

Norwegian People’s Aid announced a victory:

–Norwegian People’s Aid and Fagforbundet have had a good dialogue with Staples about the production of SodaStream on occupied Palestinian territory. The decision to stop selling SodaStream products is one we applaud! Says Liv Tørres, Secretary General at Norwegian People’s Aid.