Mehadrin's business in Beqa'ot settlement – and Tesco's Complicity

Settler greenhouses in Beqa'ot


Beqa’ot is an illegal settlement located in the Jordan Valley. Established in 1972, it is agriculturally focused and controls around 1800 dunums of land which were stolen from surrounding Palestinian areas, such as the Bedouin community of Al Hadidya. Beqa’ot is a grower for the Israeli company Mehadrin Tnuport Export (MTEX), a part of the huge Mehadrin Group which also owns 50% of STM Agricultural Exports Ltd -another Israeli company dealing in vegetables. MTEX export around 70% of all their produce to outside Israel and are one of the largest suppliers for the Jaffa brand world wide. According to Palestinian workers in the settlement, Mehadrin has had a monopoly on exports from there for around two years. Before that they also used to work with Carmel Agrexco. Some Arava boxes were also spotted inside the settlement packing area. (more…)

Grapefruit supplied by Israeli company Mehadrin on sale in Lidl. Photo by Corporate Occupation May 2019

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update), Endnotes

Here are the references for our 2020 update to Apartheid in the Fields P3. Introduction https://mondoweiss.net/2019/11/un-publishes-database-ofcompanies-profiting-off-human-rights-abuses-not-on-israel-but-myanmar/ P4. The ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Jordan Valley https://btselem.org/jordan_valley See, for example, https://corporateoccupation.org/2010/08/11/the-jordan-valley-meeting-point-the-jewish-national-funds-racist-alternative-reality/ https://m.btselem.org/jordan_valley http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/reports/al-jazeera-how-israel-engages-in-water-apartheid/ http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/reports/al-jazeera-how-israel-engages-in-water-apartheid/ http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/news/tractors-and-water-tanks-confiscated-in-al-maleh/ http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/jv%20map%20tony.jpg https://www.btselem.org/jordan_valley https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jordan-palestine-refugee-camps-photography-a8341826.html https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Nahal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalya Corporate Occupation has interviewed multiple Jordan Valley residents who were forced […]

Sainsburys logo

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update), Part 7.7: Sainsburys

Like its competitor Tesco, Sainsbury’s has previously sold produce that the supermarket knew was from illegal West Bank settlements. It continues tostock produce from Mehadrin. In 2008 activists took photographs of Sainsbury’s ‘SO Organic’ and ‘Taste the Difference’ Medjoul dates clearly labelled ‘Grown in West Bank’ inside the Jordan Valley […]