Brussels – Brussels Airlines has taken halva off the menu, after a passenger reportedly alerted its staff that the product was made in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. The disgruntled diner informed the airline staff that the Vanilla halva he had been served for dessert, came from an Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian territory.
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Belgian media cited the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign as saying that the airline “had not been aware of the nature of the product and the violent and illegal institutions behind it.”
The airline Tweeted Wednesday that the presence of the offending item in the in-flight meal was due to a mistake by the supplier. “We have stopped serving that product on our flights as it was not what we had ordered,” the airline Tweeted in response to outraged pro-Israel activists.
“We’re an airline, catering to a large international audience, it’s our responsibility to offer products that please all.” Activists have in turn called for a boycott of the airline. “Time to boycott the boycotters,” Israel advocacy group StandWithUs’s Israel Education Director Hen Mazzig, posted on social media.
The Ahva company, which is based in the West Bank’s Barkan Industrial Park, told The Jerusalem Post it hadn’t yet had time to look into the matter, and thus declined to comment.
Tourism Minister Yariv Levin called the airline’s decision “unacceptable,” and said it marks the airline with a “black flag of disgrace.” “Such a company has no place in the skies of the state of Israel, and its name should be deleted from the flight board at Ben Gurion Airport. Together with the wonderful industrialists operating Judea, Samaria, the Jordan Valley and the Golan Heights, we will overcome all attempts to prevent us from exercising our right to build and create in our country.”
Brussels Airline spokesperson Kim Daenen, however, stressed that the move was not an act of boycott. Daenen told the Post that the snack was part of the vegetarian option and is not served frequently, therefore they were only alerted to the mistaken order when a customer anonymously contacted the company to inform them where it come from. According to Daenen when they went to check which product the customer was referring, they discovered they hadn’t ordered it.
“We are a company so we are politically mutual. We are not boycotting any products, we have been flying to Tel Aviv for 30 years and we offer many Israeli products. This discussion was never an issue before, and taking the halva off the menu wasn’t intentional or unintentional – it simply wasn’t what we ordered. We only removed it because we did not order it,” she repeats, emphasizing that the airline values Tel Aviv as an important destination and its only destination in the Middle East.
People can spend their money as they like.
If they ever remove gefilte fish from their menu, I’m done with them!
Emes ?
If you don’t want it don’t eat it!!
Why is that the BDS does not boycott all the inventions and medical advances which come out of Israel, stop using cell phones, computers, If they choose to boycott then don’t pick & choose, go all the way! A bunch of rag head terrorists.