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Soda Stream to Open In Gaza
After Soda Stream gave into threats of BDS for being in the West Bank and having bought advertisements in the Super Bowl as well as having made great gains in the Stock Market there have been a wide range of gains for this company leading to the buy out by Pepsi.
Yet, for reasons of humanitarian concerns for Gaza with incredibly low amount of employment in Gaza with a large factory in Gaza many people will be a lot more busy working than having time to go riot at the border.
Hamas is an Islamic extremist government with a large amount of taxes they receive from their citizens go towards making rockets and taking out any kind of opposition.
According to the Jerusalem Post article by Sara Rubenstein, “Sodastream CEO Daniel Birnbaum said that the company is planning on opening a manufacturing facility in Gaza at the Globes Conference in Jerusalem on Thursday.” We want the people in Gaza to have jobs, real jobs, because where there is posterity there can be peace,” Birnbaum said (Rubenstein 2018).”
As much as well intentioned Daniel Birnbaum is in his wanting to be able to help the people of Gaza be able to make a living, there are several problems in opening a factory in Gaza.
Hamas controls Gaza and everything that is produced and sent into Gaza is used to make tunnels.
Without any supervision what is to stop Hamas from taking all the materials that will be needed to build the factory from being diverted to help Hamas create a greater terror state.
There are legal problems as well with a factory in Gaza that would have to pay taxes to Hamas.
What would stop the Israeli government from punishing Soda Stream and charging them with enormous fines of helping the Hamas government by paying them taxes.
Mr. Birnbaum is a serious target for a wealthy Israeli going into Gaza, if he would set foot in Gaza to monitor the factory he could be held by Hamas and used a way to get Israel to give into whatever Hamas wants.
Instead of opening up a factory in Gaza Birnbaum should consider opening up another factory in Israel to provide more jobs for both Arabs and Jews inside Israel like near Afula where a lot of people would greatly benefit from such a large factory providing jobs to hundreds of people instead of taking a large financial and legal risk of dealing with Hamas in Gaza.
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Works Cited.
Rubenstien, Sara. “Sodastream Will Open Factory in Gaza, Says CEO at Globes Conference.” The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com, 20 Dec. 2018, www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sodastream-will-open-factory-in-Gaza-says-CEO-at-Globes-Conference-574925.
