Musical protests  at Sheffield Sainsbury’s

Sat June 7th

The campaign to expose Sainsbury’s bogus claims to be Britain’s leading ethical High Street trader was stepped up a notch in Sheffield  recently. Protesters, including the Sheffield socialist choir, marched through Sainsburys City centre store singing popular songs, but with new words exposing the retail group’s policy of buying from companies who trade in produce grown on land stolen from the Palestinian owners. The land illegally settled by Israelis is in Palestine’s West Bank and Jordan Valley, it has deprived the Palestinians of their land and their livelihood and is part of Israels attempt to drive Palestinians out of their ancestral homeland. All governments other than the government of Israel have denounced the settments as Illegal.

Sainsburys claim they do not buy from the settlements despite the fact that they have been shown proof that companies they trade with sell settlement goods which have been re-labelled “Israeli Produce” . Sainsbury’s intransigence is in contrast to the policy of the Cooperative movement, who, when shown the same proof, not only refuse to trade with the illegal settlements but also with the companies who are based in the settlement or who benefit directly from settlements. Government advice to retail companies is that they should avoid all trade with Israeli settlements. Israeli companies have been repeatedly shown to be re-labelling settlement goods as “produce of Israel.”  Sainsburys purport to be Britains leading ethical retailer, but  continued support for Israeli companies complicit in ethnic cleansing is helping to perpetuate a humanitarian disaster for the Palestinian people.

After the protest inside the store the 50 protesters, many of whom had come from other towns to support the campaign, gathered outside in the busy shopping area to protest songs and hand leaflets to shoppers for over an hour.

On Wednesday July 9th at 10.45am. Sainsburys will hold its Annual General Meeting at the Queen Elizabeth ll Hall opposite Westminster Cathedral. Once again protesters will gather to tell the Sainsburys management that the protest will end the day they change their policy of supporting Companies who benefit from the occupation of Palestine, and not a minute before.