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July 18, 2012
The Geographically-Challenged Amira Hass
Amira Hass should enroll in a geography course. In her article yesterday ("Disney Family Member Renounces Her Investments in Israel's Ahava Cosmetics,") she writes that Shamrock Holdings, the Disney family firm,
also has a stake in the Teva Naot footwear company, which is located in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc south of Jerusalem. . .
But there is just one small problem. Teva Naot's factory is not located in Gush Etzion, but in Kibbutz Naot Mordechai, in the upper Galilee. Despite the fact that Israeli reporter Amira Hass lives in the West Bank city of Ramallah, she apparently relied on erroneous and misleading reports from foreign BDS advocates regarding Teva Naot. Last year, BDS activists promoted a boycott of the Montreal Naot store on the false allegation that "Naot's soles come from the industrial zone of Gush Etzion, which is an illegal settlement located in the heart of the West Bank on occupied territory." In fact, the shoes' soles are made in Germany and Spain.
After that lie was exposed, BDS activists latched onto another excuse to boycott Naot shoes, sold internationally: the presence of an outlet store in Gush Etzion. (Naot also has outlet stores in Tiberias and the visitor's center at Masada.)
Hass, apparently, has confounded the location of one of the chain's three outlet stores with the location of "the Teva Naot footwear company." That's like saying the Hershey Company, of Hershey, Pennsylvania, is located in New York City (where it has a popular store.)
This kind of sloppiness, and the lack of fact-checking of information supplied by partisan sources, will not come as a surprise to those familiar with Hass' writing. We suggest that next time, at the very least, she open a map.
For the Hebrew version of this article, visit Presspectiva.
Posted by TS at July 18, 2012 03:48 AM
Comments
Gush Etzion is not an illegal settlement. If a lie is repeated often enough people begin to believe it.
Posted by: Francine Lashinsky at July 19, 2012 05:24 PM
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