Ikea attempts to dodge responsibility for Israel store’s discriminatory delivery practices

Adri Nieuwhof är baserad i Schweiz och bidragsgivare till de elektroniska intifadan som förespråkare av mänskliga rättigheter:

Ikea "övertygar inte", säger experten Dr Jeff Handmaker, lektor i juridik, mänskliga rättigheter och utveckling, på det internationella institutet för sociala studier av Erasmus University Rotterdam, när jag bad honom om en kommentar på Ikeas svar. Han skrev till mig den 20 December:

Inter IKEA Systems BV tar bara ansvar för halva problemet, i sitt svar om företaget och mänskliga rättigheter, nämligen deras särbehandling av bosättare som bor i de illegala bosättningarna och palestinierna som lever under ockupation.

Men även detta är inte övertygande. Även om IKEA franchisetagaren skulle lösa frågan om leverans till palestinierna, har de flesta inte möjlighet att besöka sina butiker p.g.a Israels kontroll av palestiniernas förflyttningar till och från de ockuperade områdena. De är utestängda från båda hållen.

Men IKEA Systems BV tar inte itu med huvudproblemet, nämligen att de stöder uppgörelsen med bosättarnas företag  och att deras franchisetagares öppna och offentliga delaktighet är en allvarlig kränkning av mänskliga rättigheter.

Om inte IKEAs franchisetagare vägrar att sälja, än mindre leverera produkter till bosättare i de ockuperade palestinska områdena, är IKEA Systems BV fortfarande helt delaktiga i brott mot internationell rätt.

...Ikea “not convincing,” says expert

I asked Dr. Jeff Handmaker, senior lecturer in law, human rights and development at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam, for a comment on Ikea’s response. He wrote me in a 20 December email:

Inter IKEA Systems B.V., in their response to Business and Human Rights, only address half of the problem, namely their differential treatment of settlers living in illegal settlements and Palestinians living under occupation.

But even this is not convincing. Even if the IKEA franchisee were to resolve the issue of delivery to Palestinians, most are not be able to visit their stores to Israel’s control of movement into and out of the occupied territories and so they are excluded either way.

However, IKEA Systems B.V. are not addressing the main problem, namely their franchisee’s overt complicity in a serious human rights violation, lending support to the settlement enterprise.

Unless IKEA’s franchisee refuses to sell, let alone deliver products to settlers living in the occupied Palestinian territories, IKEA Systems B.V. is still fully complicit in violations of international law.

 

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder!

Submitted by The Renegate (not verified) on Sat, 12/29/2012 - 14:48

There is no surprise, wasn't the young founder of, what later became IKEA of Sweden, close collaborator of the Nazi?
Read this, in the german weekly magazine DER SPIEGEL:

http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/ikea-gruender-neue-nazi-vorw...

It is proven that nazi-affiliated people in Europe often have become close friends of zionism and Israeli Apartheid.

Ikea founder

Submitted by Adri Nieuwhof on Sat, 12/29/2012 - 16:17

In July 2010, I wrote about how Ikea was threatened with boycott by the Wiesenthal Center because the company’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, was a member of the fascist New Swedish Movement in the 1940s.
Read: http://electronicintifada.net/content/ikea-furnishing-occupation/8900

I have no information about a relation between Kamprad and Israel. In my articles, I focus on Ikea's role in Israel's illegal settlements..

The reluctance of Europeans to criticize Israel for its violations of international law is mainly related to feelings of guilt for what happened during the Holocaust when European governments and citizens failed to protect Jewish fellow citizens. Feelings of guilt are justified, but are no excuse for condoning of or lending support to Israel's violations of rights of the Palestinian people.

Nazi officials and Israel

Submitted by The Renegate (not verified) on Sat, 12/29/2012 - 17:09

Adri, I didn't relate the IKEA-Founder directly to Israel, but just let me recall that Nahum Goldmann, the president of the Jewish Claims Conference, when asked in an interview if it hadn't been difficult for him to deal in the "reparations case" with people who had played a role during the Nazi-rule in Germany, he answered that "in his experiance those people had been rather easy to treat with" (in an interview-book, rororo-aktuell, paperback)