It’s a (literally) bubbling oasis of peaceful coexistence in a region often characterized as a focal point for ethnic strife and geopolitical conflict. The SodaStream production facility in the Judean community of Ma’aleh Adumim was thrust into the limelight recently when celebrity spokeswoman Scarlett Johansson refused to bow to pressure from anti-Israel activists and quit her position as Oxfam’s global ambassador. The SodaStream factory is also where evangelical minister, former governor and TV and radio personality Mike Huckabee took a tour under the auspices of Ateret Cohanim.
Huckabee began his latest Israel tour by paying a solidarity visit to the Israeli-American Frenkel family, whose son Naftali was one of three teenaged boys kidnapped by terrorists and murdered on their way home from school. He then visited sites acquired in recent years by Ateret Cohanim in the portion of Jerusalem’s Old City commonly referred to as the Muslim Quarter. One of these, Beit Zion, is being used as an IDF preparatory academy. The other, Beit Wittenberg, was once the site of the Mediterranean Hotel, where famed American author Mark Twain stayed during his storied sojourn in the Holy Land as immortalized in the book The Innocents Abroad. Also of note, a special Knesset caucus was convened in the afternoon, where, along with Huckabee and his party, dozens of MKs, government ministers, community and business leaders came together to discuss the threat of delegitimization campaigns aimed at the Jewish state.
Taking pride in his company as a model for peace and cooperation and speaking highly of his entire staff, SodaStream COO Yossi Azarzar briefed the Huckabee delegation, giving him a breakdown of the numbers. Of the factory’s 1,100 employees, says Azarzar, 600 are Palestinian, and another 250 are Arabs with Israeli citizenship; all of them working side-by-side with their Jewish Israeli counterparts, both on the factory floor and in white collar positions. When the exec pointed out that SodaStream is not only one of the few employers of Palestinians that offers benefits (such as health coverage) to all its employees, but that the starting pay for entry-level workers is more than four times as much as that offered by local Palestinian-run businesses, Gov. Huckabee quipped: “Do you have any openings?”
When asked by a member of Huckabee’s entourage why SodaStream would maintain production in Ma’aleh Adumim when labor in China—where SodaStream conducts some 20% of its production—is so much cheaper, Mr. Azarzar noted simply and without hesitation: “We do so just because we are Zionists.”
Privately, we spoke with Muhammad Barhun, one of the company’s top managers, and an Arab citizen of Israel. When asked what his response is to those members of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement who would rather see SodaStream close up shop than operate in “Palestinian Territory,” Mr. Barhun told us: “You know, it’s very simple to shut down, and you can [then] find all the employees here [sitting] in their houses with no work. … But I suggest to the BDS [activists] to come here, to see how we treat the Palestinian employees over here. Here we don’t have any discrimination.”
Barhun then noted with satisfaction that his company provides economic opportunity and a decent standard of living not just for 600 Palestinian employees, but for some 600 families.
Company President Yonah Lloyd (who was also a featured speaker at Monday’s Knesset caucus), seemed to only grudgingly accept SodaStream’s newfound political significance. “The company is growing very strong despite all the negative noise in the media,” said Lloyd, adding: “We’re not a political entity, we’re a business.”
When asked what message he might like to convey to those sympathetic to companies like SodaStream that are targeted by anti-Israel activists, he said: “If you don’t want to boycott, then you should buycott.” Mr. Lloyd went on to extoll the virtues of his household soda maker, calling it “healthier” than pre-made soft drinks, as well as fun and family-friendly.
For his part, Gov. Huckabee seemed quite impressed by what he saw at the facility in Ma’aleh Adumim, praising SodaStream as a place where Israelis and Palestinians “work side by side … in peace.”
The company’s employees, he opined, “do more in a day than all the diplomats from the United States, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority have done in the past ten years. They should take a lesson from SodaStream.”
After visiting the high-profile Judea-based company, Huckabee and his delegation were received by Mayor Benny Kasriel, who lamented the fact that over the course of two presidential administrations, no U.S. diplomat has agreed to meet with himself or any representative of Ma’aleh Adumim, the largest Jewish community in the Judea-Samaria region. Kasriel also expressed his concern over a construction freeze imposed by the Israeli government under international (read: American) pressure. Mr. Huckabee, known for his plain talk and pithy observations, noted that “If America would put as much pressure on Iran to stop building bombs as it did on Israel to stop building bedrooms, the world would be a safer place on both ends.”
Gov. Huckabee’s mission to Israel concluded, for all practical intents and purposes, in the northern coastal town of Caesarea, with Birthright Israel’s annual Summer Mega-Event. Greeted as a VIP guest by thousands of screaming Jewish teens and 20-somethings from around the world, Huckabee also met briefly with business magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife Dr. Miriam Adelson and sat with PM Netanyahu, who referred to the Arkansas governor as a personal friend and a “strong friend of Israel.”
Daniel Perez is a freelance writer and media consultant based in New York City. He can be reached at Daniel@ PerezConsulting.org, and you can follow him on Twitter: @PerezFreelance.
