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Kristin Szremski
708.717.4180, sodastreamboycott@gmail.com
Super Bowl ad promotes products made in illegal Israeli settlement
(JAN 30, 2013) – Today, representatives from Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations, are calling for a boycott of SodaStream carbonated beverage makers, which are produced in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The Interfaith Boycott Coalition is kicking off its boycott campaign to coincide with SodaStream’s Super Bowl commercial, which will be featured during the national NFL event on Feb. 3.
International controversy surrounding SodaStream already has gained media attention, including on Up w/Chris Hayes of MSNBC.
Though SodaStream claims the products are made in Israel, they are actually made in the industrial sector of Ma’ale Adumin, one of Israel’s largest Jewish-only settlements, which is built on Palestinian land. The settlement’s size, location and its network of segregated roads, upon which only Israeli citizens may travel, deny Palestinians freedom of movement within their own territory.
The United States opposes the construction of settlements, which are against international law and are an obstacle to peace. By operating in a settlement, SodaStream directly sustains Israel’s illegal and discriminatory settlement policy. “We are asking consumers not to buy SodaStream products because doing so enriches those who violate international law, thereby damaging prospects for peace,” said the Rev. Don Wagner, coalition spokesperson. “Instead, we’re also urging people to ask store owners to remove SodaStream from their shelves. By opposing products made in settlements, we are working for justice and equal rights for everyone in the Middle East.”
In 2012, the policy-making bodies of the Global United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church USA each voted to boycott products made in Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine. The Interfaith Boycott Coalition, formed later that year, includes representatives of Jewish, Muslim, and additional Christian faith-based organizations sharing the common goal of ending Israel’s long-standing military occupation and realizing a just peace in Palestine and Israel.
The Interfaith Boycott Coalition operates as a network of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and includes the organizations Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, American Friends Service Committee, Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine Israel Network, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, Friends of Sabeel North America, United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network, Church of the Brethren, United Methodist Kairos Response and members of the Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Mennonite and Quaker traditions. It is a project of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a coalition of nearly 400 social justice organizations.
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SodaStream In the News
In SodaStream boycott push, Palestinians may be the victims
By Ben Sales, JTA
MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (JTA) – For proponents of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, SodaStream would appear to be a straightforward target. The Israeli company, which sells a popular kitchen gadget that turns tap water into carbonated drinks, has a large factory in a West Bank settlement. When SodaStream announced that it would run an ad during the Super Bowl, the pro-Palestinian boycott campaign against the company reached a fever pitch.
SodaStream Super Bowl slot adds fizz to controversy over Israel links
By Raya Jalabi, The Guardian
“If you love the bubbles, set them free,” urged the makers of SodaStream, in an ad that aired during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVII.
But the bubbles may be about to burst. SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activist groups, who have called for an official boycott of all the company’s products.
In a press release, the newly formed Interfaith Boycott Coalition announced that its “representatives from Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations are calling for a boycott” because SodaStream manufactures its products “in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank”.
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Israel steps up SodaStream marketing in attempt to greenwash Israeli settlement crimes
By Amena Saleem, Electronic Intifada
Anyone flying into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport these days is confronted with a huge poster on exiting immigration.
The photograph on the poster is of hundreds of empty dirty cans and plastic bottles heaped on top of each other in what might be a landfill site. Superimposed onto the picture are the words: “1 family, 3 years, 2,066 bottles and cans. SodaStream.”
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SodaStream criticized For West Bank plant
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SodaStream debuts at Super Bowl, in spite of Coke, Pepsi, and politics
A supermarket parking lot at night. Two deliverymen arrive — one from Coke (KO), the other Pepsi (PEP) — and unload their wares, eying each other competitively, while “Dueling Banjos” plays in the background. As the music accelerates, they race to fill their handtrucks and head for the store, struggling to speedwalk behind so much soda.
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Super Bowl advertiser SodaStream target of interfaith boycott
Earlier this week, a coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups launched a boycott campaign against SodaStream, maker of a home-carbonating device and other products that are manufactured at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
“These settlements are illegal under international law and are obstacles to peace,” reads a petition by the Interfaith Coalition Campaign to Boycott SodaStream. “We choose not to partake in supporting this unethical enterprise and ask consumers and stores to join us.”
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Palestinian groups call for SodaStream boycott
By Joshua Keating, Foreign Policy magazine
SodaStream, the increasingly popular home carbonation system, may seem like a politically innocuous product — even a virtuous one, as it reduces the number soda bottles consumers have to buy. But an international controversy has erupted over where the SodaStream is manufactured — the Mishor Adunim instustrial park at the Ma’ale Adunim Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
With SodaStream, currently more popular in Europe than the United States, planning to launch its first SuperBowl commercial this Sunday in a bid to expand its share of the American market, a coalition of anti-occupation groups have called for a boycott:
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Super Bowl ad For West Bank manufacturer spurs boycott calls
By Stewart Ain, NY Jewish Week
SodaStream, an Israeli maker of devices that carbonate beverages with a manufacturing plant in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, plans to run a TV commercial during Sunday’s Super Bowl, prompting calls for a boycott of the product by the Interfaith Boycott Coalition.
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United Methodists urged to avoid SodaStream products
January 31, 2013 – In keeping with the denomination’s policy of boycotting goods from illegal Israeli settlements, United Methodists today were asked to avoid SodaStream products advertised during Sunday’s Super Bowl. Though the company claims its products are made in Israel, SodaStream’s main plant is in the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim deep inside the Palestinian West Bank.
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SodaStream takes the fight to social media
It costs an impressive $4 million to buy a 30 second Super Bowl ad spot. It’s understandable that brands want to make the most of their investment. The ad has to be memorable, to tap into the zeitgeist, or just be funny. It needs to be talked about in the office, at home and online.
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Height of irony: SodaStream ad attached to video showing Israelis arresting 18-month-old infant
By Kristin Szremski, zatarandspinach.wordpress.com
Google Ads for SodaStream, the carbonated beverage maker produced in Israeli settlements, seem to be hounding my every move on the Internet these days. That’s most likely because I’m in the midst of working on a nationwide interfaith collaborative boycott campaign against the newest kitchen-tech gadget to hit the American market.
One such appearance recently, however, reached the heights of perfect irony. Were it not so sickening, it could almost be funny: Google placed a SodaStream ad on the bottom of a video that captured Israeli soldiers arresting a young Palestinian woman and her 18-month-old baby.
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Are these Super Bowl ads racist?
Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, and Soda Stream strike a nerve ahead of Sunday’s game
Each year Super Bowl advertisements take centre stage at the US National Football Leaguechampionship. Upwards of 150 million spectators tune in not only to watch the game, but also the highly anticipated 30 second spots.
Already, people are reacting to a handful of 2013 ads unveiled ahead of Sunday’s game, but for different reasons. Commercials released by Volkswagen, Coca Cola, and Soda Stream are at the heart of controversy with claims of stereotypes, racism, and connections to Israeli occupation.
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Sodastream The Next Big Thing? I Don’t Think So
Disruptive companies tend to draw a lot of fanfare. These companies, which threaten established, mature industries with innovative products or services, have both strong advocates and detractors. One such company that’s been getting some attention lately is Sodastream International Ltd (NASDAQ:SODA). If the niche product which they offer can become mainstream, then the company could see fantastic growth ahead. But that’s a big IF.
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CBS Tells SodaStream to Revise Brand-Bashing Super Bowl Spot
By AdAge
All was surprisingly quiet this year on the “They Censored My Super Bowl Ad” front … until Friday, when Alex Bogusky tweeted that CBS had rejected the Super Bowl spot he was working on for SodaStream.
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The risky business of profiting from occupation
By Abe Greenhouse, BDSMovement.net
SodaStream began citing the location of its primary manufacturing facility inside a West Bank settlement, and the resulting boycott and divestment efforts, as a “risk factor” with its first public filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), required in order to be traded on a US stock exchange (NASDAQ). In form F-1, filed October 19, 2010, SodaStream declared:
The warning has been repeated in SodaStream’s subsequent annual filings (form 20-F) on June 30, 2011 and April 30, 2012.
SodaStream Boycott 
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