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Fizzing with change: Jordanian soda sales surge amid anti-western boycott

Fizzing with change: Jordanian soda sales surge amid anti-western boycott
Jordanian beverages are labelled to help customers boycott Western products at Cozmo supermarket store in Amman. (AN Photo/Tamara Turki)
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Updated 26 January 2024
Tamara Turki
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Fizzing with change: Jordanian soda sales surge amid anti-western boycott

Fizzing with change: Jordanian soda sales surge amid anti-western boycott
  • Local manufacturer doubled production of its Jordanian soda Matrix Cola since the boycott gained momentum
  • 93 percent of Jordanians are boycotting companies that support the Israeli occupation, BDS reports
Updated 26 January 2024
Tamara Turki
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AMMAN: At supermarkets in Amman, a quiet revolution is bubbling up in the beverage aisles.   

A grassroots movement protesting the alleged support of Western companies for Israel amidst its brutal war in Gaza is reshaping the Jordanian market share of Pepsi and Coca-Cola.  

Shelves that once displayed rows of these staple American beverages are now making room for local alternatives, which have seen a surge in sales in recent months.  




Jordanian soda Matrix Cola displayed on shelves for the first time at local supermarkets in Amman amid a widespread anti-Western boycott. (AN Photo/Tamara Turki) 

At the forefront of this shift is Defaf Al-Nahrayn Company (DNC), the owner of the trademark Matrix Cola, a Jordanian soda and juice manufacturer established in 2008.  

For over a decade, the company primarily focused on exporting to neighboring countries as it grappled with the dominance of foreign giants in its home market. However, responding to the recent surge in local consumer demand, DNC has doubled its production capacity of Matrix Cola. 

Marketing Manager Abdalmo'een Ibrahim Abu Zaid told Arab News that since the boycott gained momentum in October, DNC has expanded its distribution across the entire Kingdom by increasing both its workforce and convoy fleet.  

He noted that this shift is particularly noticeable in the capital city, where the call to boycott Western products echoes the strongest.  

This sentiment is reflected across Jordan and other Arab countries, where many assert that Israel's occupation of Palestine would not be possible without the support of the US and some European countries and corporations. Pepsi and Coca-Cola are among the brands facing criticism.  

Palestinian rights activists have slammed Coca-Cola for operating a factory in the Israeli settlement of Atarot in the occupied West Bank. Pepsi, too, has come under scrutiny following its 2018 acquisition of the Israeli-based manufacturing company SodaStream.  




Sultan, a cashier at a Cozmo supermarket store in Amman, wears a Palestinian keffiyeh in a show of solidarity with Gaza. (AN Photo/Tamara Turki) 

Sultan, a cashier at Cozmo, a popular supermarket chain in West Amman, shares his observations: “Customers are committed to boycotting, with most looking for alternatives to brands that support Zionism.” At this particular store, all employees wear Palestinian keffiyehs in a show of solidarity with Gaza. 

Sultan estimates that about 90 percent of customers are actively participating in the boycott. The store has responded by labeling local products, aiding customers in their search for ethical alternatives.  

According to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, 93 percent of Jordanians are participating in boycotting Western companies that support the Israeli occupation.  

“BDS launched its campaign in Jordan during the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014. At that time, public support for boycotts was relatively weak. People were skeptical that it would make a difference," Randa Jamal, a member of BDS Jordan, explained to Arab News.  

Jamal added: “For years we’ve been campaigning, raising awareness, educating students at schools. Campaigning has led to successes and major companies selling up and leaving Israel altogether and a range of investors divesting from Israeli and international companies. 

“Now, we know that this has made a difference. People now know how powerful of a tool boycotting is.” 

As the war in Gaza extends into its third month, a growing number of Jordanians are choosing to express their condemnation using their purchasing power, reflecting a heightened awareness of the ethical implications that everyday consumption carries.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel boycott

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UK doubles aid to war-torn Sudan

UK doubles aid to war-torn Sudan
Updated 17 November 2024
AFP
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UK doubles aid to war-torn Sudan

UK doubles aid to war-torn Sudan
  • Fighting broke out in April 2023 between the army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo
Updated 17 November 2024
AFP

LONDON: The UK on Sunday announced a £113 million ($143 million) aid boost to support more than one million people affected by the war in Sudan, doubling its current package.
The new funding will be targeted at the 600,000 people in Sudan and 700,000 people in neighboring countries who have fled the conflict.
“The brutal conflict in Sudan has caused unimaginable suffering. The people of Sudan need more aid, which is why the UK is helping to provide much-needed food, shelter and education for the most vulnerable,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a government press release.
“The UK will never forget Sudan,” he vowed.
Fighting broke out in April 2023 between the army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring sides of using “starvation tactics” against 25 million civilians, and three major aid organizations warned of a “historic” hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.
Lammy is due to visit the UN Security Council on Monday, where his ministry said he will call on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to keep the vital Adre border crossing open indefinitely to allow aid deliveries.
“We cannot deliver aid without access. Starvation must not be used as a weapon of war,” he said.
The new funding package will support UN and NGO partners in providing food, money, shelter, medical assistance, water and sanitation, said the Foreign Office.
Deaths in the conflict are likely to be “substantially underreported,” according to a study published this week, which found more casualties in Khartoum State alone than current empirical estimates for the whole country.
 

 

Topics: Sudan conflict

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Sudan women sexually exploited in Chad camps

Sudan women sexually exploited in Chad camps
Updated 17 November 2024
SAM MEDNICK | AP
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Sudan women sexually exploited in Chad camps

Sudan women sexually exploited in Chad camps
  • Some victims said among those who exploited them were humanitarian workers and local security forces
  • Nidhi Kapur, who works on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse, said exploitation represents a deep failure by the aid community
  • Many of the women interviewed were unaware of the free hotline and feedback boxes put up by UN agencies to report abuse anonymously 
Updated 17 November 2024
SAM MEDNICK | AP

ADRE, Chad: Crossing into Chad, the 27-year-old thought she’d left the horrors of Sudan’s war behind: the bodies she ran over while fleeing, the screams of girls being raped, the disappearance of her husband when gunmen attacked. But now she says she has faced more suffering — being forced as a refugee to have sex to get by.
She cradled her 7-week-old son, who she asserted was the child of an aid worker who promised her money in exchange for sex.
“The children were crying. We ran out of food,” she said of her four other children. “He abused my situation.” She and other women who spoke to The Associated Press requested anonymity because they feared retribution.
Some Sudanese women and girls assert that men, including those meant to protect them such as humanitarian workers and local security forces, have sexually exploited them in Chad’s displacement sites, offering money, easier access to assistance and jobs. Such sexual exploitation in Chad is a crime.
Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them women, have streamed into Chad to escape Sudan’s civil war, which has killed over 20,000 people. Aid groups struggle to support them in growing displacement sites.
Three women spoke with the AP in the town of Adre near the Sudanese border. A Sudanese psychologist shared the accounts of seven other women and girls who either refused to speak directly with a reporter or were no longer in touch with her. The AP could not confirm their accounts.
Daral-Salam Omar, the psychologist, said all the seven told her they went along with the offers of benefits in exchange for sex out of necessity. Some sought her help because they became pregnant and couldn’t seek an abortion at a clinic for fear of being shunned by their community, she said.
“They were psychologically destroyed. Imagine a woman getting pregnant without a husband amid this situation,” Omar said.

Women who fled war in Sudan rest in a refugee camp in Adre, Chad, on Oct. 5, 2024. (AP)

Sexual exploitation during large humanitarian crises is not uncommon, especially in displacement sites. Aid groups have long struggled to combat the issue. They cite a lack of reporting by women, not enough funds to respond and a focus on first providing basic necessities.
The UN refugee agency said it doesn’t publish data on cases, citing the confidentiality and safety of victims.
People seeking protection should never have to make choices driven by survival, experts said. Nidhi Kapur, who works on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse in emergency contexts, said exploitation represents a deep failure by the aid community.
Yewande Odia, the United Nations Population’s Fund representative in Chad, said sexual exploitation is a serious violation. UN agencies said displacement camps have “safe spaces” where women can gather, along with awareness sessions, a free hotline and feedback boxes to report abuse anonymously.
Yet many of the Sudanese women said they weren’t aware of the hotline, and some said using the boxes would draw unwanted attention.
The Sudanese woman with the newborn said she was afraid to report the aid worker for fear he’d turn her in to police.
She said she approached the aid worker, a Sudanese man, after searching for jobs to buy basic necessities like soap. She asked him for money. He said he’d give her cash but only in exchange for sex.
They slept together for months, she said, and he paid the equivalent of about $12 each time. After she had the baby, he gave her a one-time payment of approximately $65 but denied it was his, she said.
The man was a Sudanese laborer for Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, she said.
Two other Sudanese women said Chadian men working at MSF sites— one wearing MSF clothing — solicited them after they applied for work with the organization. The men took their phone numbers and repeatedly called, saying they’d give them jobs for sex. Both women said they refused.
Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary general, said the organization was not aware of the allegations and wanted to investigate. “Asking for money or sex in exchange for access to care or a job is a clear violation of our behavioral commitments,” he said.
MSF would not say how many such cases had been reported among Sudanese refugees in Chad. Last year, out of 714 complaints made about MSF staff behavior where it works globally, 264 were confirmed to be cases of abuse or inappropriate behavior including sexual exploitation, abuse of power and bullying, Lockyear said.
Lockyear said MSF is creating a pool of investigators at the global level to enhance its ability to pursue allegations.
One woman told the AP that a man with another aid group also exploited her, but she was unable to identify the organization. Omar, the psychologist, said several of the women told her they were exploited by aid workers, local and international. She gave no evidence to back up the claims.
Another woman, one of the two who alleged they were approached after seeking work with MSF, said she also refused a local policeman who approached her and promised an extra food ration card if she went to his house.
Ali Mahamat Sebey, the head official for Adre, said police are not allowed inside the camps and asserted that allegations against them of exploitation were false. With the growing influx of people, however, it’s hard to protect everyone, he said.
The women said they just want to feel safe, adding that access to jobs would lessen their vulnerability.
After most of her family was killed or abducted in Sudan’s Darfur region last year, one 19-year-old sought refuge in Chad. She didn’t have enough money to support the nieces and nephews in her care. She got a job at a restaurant in the camp but when she asked her Sudanese boss for a raise, he agreed on the condition of sex.
The money he paid was more than six times her salary. But when she got pregnant with his child, the man fled, she asserted. She rubbed her growing belly.
“If we had enough, we wouldn’t have to go out and lose our dignity,” she said.
 

Topics: Sudan conflict

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The family of Israeli-American hostage pleads with Biden and Trump to bring hostages home

The family of Israeli-American hostage pleads with Biden and Trump to bring hostages home
Updated 17 November 2024
AP
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The family of Israeli-American hostage pleads with Biden and Trump to bring hostages home

The family of Israeli-American hostage pleads with Biden and Trump to bring hostages home
  • “I think maybe there is new hope,” says Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, 20
Updated 17 November 2024
AP

TEL AVIV, Israel: Over the past two weeks, the political landscape around the negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza have undergone a dramatic transformation.
The American elections, the firing of Israel’s popular defense minister, Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation, and the ongoing war in Lebanon all seem to have pushed the possibility for a ceasefire in Gaza further away than it has been in more than a year of conflict.
Still, some families of the dozens of hostages who remain captive in Gaza are desperately hoping the changes will reignite momentum to bring their loved ones home — though the impact of Donald Trump returning to the White House and a hard-line new defense minister in Israel remains unknown.
“I think maybe there is new hope,” said Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, 20, a soldier kidnapped from his base on the Gaza border during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Alexander’s parents, Adi and Yael Alexander, who live in New Jersey, met this week with Trump and President Joe Biden in Washington and pleaded with them to work together to bring all the hostages home in a single deal.
“As a grandmother, I say, cooperate — Trump wants peace in this region, Biden has always said he wants to release the hostages, so work together and do something important for the lives of human beings,” Ben Baruch said.
She said neither leader offered specific details or plans for releasing the hostages or restarting negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire.
Talks have hit a wall in recent months, largely over Hamas’ demands for guarantees that a full hostage release will bring an end to Israel’s campaign in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vows to continue fighting until Hamas is crushed and unable to rearm.
“We’re not involved in politics, not American and not Israeli, the families are above politics, we just want our loved ones home,” she said. “Edan was kidnapped because he was Jewish, not because he voted for a certain party.”
More than 250 people were kidnapped and 1,200 killed when Hamas militants burst across the border and carried out a bloody attack on southern Israeli communities. Israel’s campaign of retaliation since has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and some 90 percent of its 2.3 million people have been displaced.
As militants attacked on the morning of Oct. 7, Edan Alexander, then 19, was able to send a quick message to his mother amid the intense fighting around his base. He told her that despite having shrapnel embedded in his helmet from the explosions, he had managed to get to a protected area. After 7 a.m., his family lost contact.
Alexander was considered missing as the family desperately searched hospitals for him. After five days, friends recognized him in a video of Hamas militants capturing soldiers.
The family was happy: He was alive, Ben Baruch said. “But we didn’t understand what we were entering into, what is still happening now.”
When a week-long ceasefire last November brought the release of 105 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, some of the freed hostages said they had seen Alexander in captivity. Ben Baruch said they told her Alexander kept his cool, encouraging them that everyone would be released soon.
Ben Baruch said she was disheartened when Netanyahu last week fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who she said had consistently reassured the families that the hostages were at the top of his agenda.
“I felt he was a partner,” she said. Gallant was replaced by a Netanyahu loyalist who has urged a tough line against Hamas.
A mass protest movement urging the government to reach a hostage deal has shown signs of weariness, and hostage families have struggled to keep their campaign in the headlines. A delegation of former hostages and their relatives met with the pope on Thursday and expressed hope the incoming and outgoing American administrations would bring their loved ones home.
In Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, the headquarters of the protest movement, opinions were mixed on the effect of Trump’s election on hostages.
“I don’t think this is good for Israel or the hostages, I’m really scared of him,” said David Danino, a 45-year-old hi-tech worker from Tel Aviv. He was at Hostages Square with his family, visiting from France, who wanted to pay their respects.
Danino noted that Israel had already achieved many of its war goals, including killing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. “They are building us a photo of what is ‘victory,’ but how is there victory without the hostages?” he asked.
Others thought Trump’s reputation might help the situation.
“When he decides to do something, he does it, without blinking, and he can create ultimatums,” said Orly Vitman, a 54-year-old former special education teacher from the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon.
She comes every few months to the square with her daughter to light candles in honor of the hostages. While she was opposed to the firing of Gallant in the middle of the war, she was heartened by Trump’s election.
“We will have the legitimacy and ability to use the full force of what we know how to do,” she said.
Ben Baruch, a philanthropist and accomplished artist whose modernizt sculptures dot the Tel Aviv home where she has lived for 52 years, said she has pushed everything aside in her life to focus on the struggle to bring her grandson home. Her days are filled with meetings, interviews, rallies, protests and communal prayer sessions uniting different groups of Israelis from across the religious spectrum.
“It’s like people’s lives went back to their routine, but ours did not,” she said. “There’s nothing left to say. All the words have been said. We have heard everything. We have met with everyone. But they are still there.”

Topics: War on Gaza Hostages

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Two flares land near Netanyahu’s home in ‘serious incident’: police

Two flares land near Netanyahu’s home in ‘serious incident’: police
Updated 17 November 2024
AFP
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Two flares land near Netanyahu’s home in ‘serious incident’: police

Two flares land near Netanyahu’s home in ‘serious incident’: police
  • Israel's President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident in a post on X and said an investigation was underway
  • Caesarea is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Haifa city area, which Hezbollah has regularly targeted
Updated 17 November 2024
AFP

JERUSALEM: Two flares landed near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Saturday in the central town of Caesarea, security services said, describing the incident as “serious.”
“Two flares landed in the courtyard outside the prime minister’s residence,” police and the Shin Bet internal security agency said in a joint statement.
“The prime minister and his family were not in the house at the time of the incident,” they added.
“An investigation has been opened. This is a serious incident and a dangerous escalation.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident and warned “against an increase in violence in the public sphere.
“I have now spoken with the head of the Shin Bet and expressed the urgent need to investigate and deal with those responsible for the incident as soon as possible,” Herzog said in a post on X.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the flares.
The incident comes after a drone attack targeting the same residence on October 19, which was later claimed by Hezbollah.
Netanyahu at the time accused Hezbollah of attempting to assassinate him and his wife.
Since September 23, Israel has escalated its bombing of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops after almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Hezbollah militants over the war in Gaza.
Caesarea is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Haifa city area, which Hezbollah has regularly targeted.
Two people were injured when a synagogue was hit in Haifa by a “heavy rocket barrage” from Hezbollah earlier Saturday, the Israeli military said.
Separately, the army said it had intercepted some of the “approximately 10 projectiles” that crossed from Lebanon into Israel.
Hezbollah claimed several rocket attacks on northern Israel, saying it targeted military sites including a naval base in the Haifa area.

 

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Israel Lebanon Hezbollah Benjamin Netanyahu

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Tunisia migrant advocate held in first ‘terrorism’ probe: rights group

Tunisia migrant advocate held in first ‘terrorism’ probe: rights group
Updated 16 November 2024
AFP
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Tunisia migrant advocate held in first ‘terrorism’ probe: rights group

Tunisia migrant advocate held in first ‘terrorism’ probe: rights group
  • Tunisia is one of the main launching points for boats carrying migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to seek better lives in Europe
Updated 16 November 2024
AFP

TUNIS: A prominent Tunisian advocate for migrants is in custody and his case being handled by anti-terrorist investigators, a disturbing first for the country, the head of a rights group said Saturday.
Tunisia is one of the main launching points for boats carrying migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to seek better lives in Europe.
Abdallah Said, a Tunisian of Chadian origin, was questioned along with the secretary general and treasurer of his association, Children of the Medenine Moon, said Romdhane Ben Amor, spokesman for the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights (FTDES).
Two officers of a bank handling the association’s accounts were also detained, he said.
Ben Amor described as “a dangerous signal” the transfer of the case to anti-terrorist investigators “because it’s the first time authorities have used this against associations specializing in migration issues.”
La Presse newspaper, which is close to the government, reported that “five activists operating on behalf of an association in Medenine were in custody in order to be referred to anti-terrorism investigators.”
The newspaper said the association is suspected of receiving foreign funds “to assist sub-Saharan migrants to enter illegally onto Tunisian soil.”
Ben Amor called Said’s detention part of “a new wave of even tougher repression” against migration activists after an earlier crackdown in May.
“It’s a message to all those working in solidarity with the migrants,” he said.
In May, President Kais Saied lashed out at organizations that defend the rights of migrants, calling their leaders “traitors and mercenaries.”
The president reiterated that Tunisia must not become “a country of transit” for migrants and asylum seekers.
Saied, re-elected in October in a vote with turnout of 28.8 percent, made a sweeping power grab in 2021 and critics accuse him of ushering in a new authoritarian regime.
Under a 2023 agreement, the European Union has provided funds to Tunisia in exchange for help with curbing small-boat crossings to Europe.
EU funding rules state all money should be spent in a way that respects fundamental rights, but reports have since emerged of migrants being beaten, raped and mistreated in Tunisian custody.

Topics: Tunisia migrants Europe

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