Why This Campaign?
Dates are considered the “black gold” of Palestine. They are an important natural product of Palestine’s pure and blessed land. With the holy month of Ramadan knocking on our doors, this “black gold” is especially sacred due to the Muslim ritual of breaking fasts by eating one or more dates. However, the Israeli colonial enterprise has produced its date industry in a much more sinister manner.
Israeli date farms profit off of theft and abuse. Israeli dates are predominantly grown in illegal settlements and are grown using stolen water and other natural resources. Palestinian laborers, who are often forced by economic necessity to work in these illegal settlements, are forced to work in grueling physical conditions. Israeli labor laws are scarcely enforced when it pertains to Palestinian workers, leaving these Palestinians underpaid and un-compensated for their back-breaking work.
Palestine’s Dates
Since 2021, not a single pound of dates was exported to the U.S. from Gaza according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. This is due to the suffocating Israeli siege on Gaza which has prevented Palestinians from exporting their homegrown dates, the famous dates of Deir Al Balah.
Palestinian date farmers in the West Bank city of Jericho suffer from a variety of restrictions the Israelis pose on them. Rather than being able to tap into the water on their land by pumping water from the natural aquifer underground, the Israelis force the Palestinian farmers to buy water from an Israeli water company. Furthermore, Israelis have put limits on the exports of Palestinian agricultural products. These restrictions raise the cost of cultivating Palestinian dates and hinder the growth of the Palestinian date industry.
Israel’s Date Exports to the U.S.
Israel continues to be one of the top exporters of dates to the United States. In the 2022/23 market year, Israel exported at least 12 million dollars worth of dates to the U.S. However, their market share of date imports to the U.S. is dropping. In 2015, Israeli dates made up 25% of all fresh dates imported to the U.S. Today, Israeli dates only account for 12.9%, a significant drop largely due to the date boycott campaign. Your boycott of Israeli dates is critical to pushing back on this exploitative industry.
What Else Can You Do?
- Share this page with your family and friends, and ask them to sign our pledge and join in solidarity with this boycott of Israeli dates to support justice for the Palestinian people.
- Download the campaign poster here. Print and share with your local stores.
- Follow us on social media (Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok) and share our campaign posts using the hashtag #BoycottIsraeliDates.
- Find alternative date companies that you can buy from! Palestinian dates are often labeled “Grown in Palestine,” and there are a plethora of Algerian, Tunisian, Emirati, and Californian varieties to choose from.
- Learn more about other boycotts here: BoycottGuide.org