Boycott Israel Effort Leads to Increased Sales for An Israeli Shoemaker

A months’ long effort by pro-Palestinian activists to convince Canadian shoppers to boycott a successful Israeli shoe company unleashed a sort of boomerang effect and ended up causing a surge in sales.

For more than half a year, the protesters have been picketing the Israeli comfort shoe store Naot in Montreal. According to the CEO of the Israeli company, between half a dozen and twenty protesters arrive every weekend and stand outside the shop for about two hours telling potential customers not to patronize the Israeli company and hold signs that call for a boycott of “Israeli apartheid.”

In a telephone interview with The Blaze, Teva Naot (as the company is known in Israel) CEO Michael Illouz says though the protest isn’t big, it is bothersome. Surprisingly, he’s seen a:

“7% increase in sales since the protests started. The protesters announced that there’s a new Naot store in Montreal and it got the word out about our store.”

“Jews and other Canadians are against the protest and buy even more. On the one hand, it’s not pleasant that a group arrives to our stores and protests the product, but on the other hand there are many other people who are against the protest and are for Israel.”

“When the protesters stand outside the store, people don’t like to go in or to even walk on that street. It bothers both Naot and other neighboring businesses.”

Protesters from PAJU Montreal say their “boycott vigil” aims to create an “Apartheid free zone” on St. Denis Street in Montreal where Naot is located. Ynet reports:

According to the protestors, "Naot's soles come from the industrial zone of Gush Etzion, which is an illegal settlement located in the heart of the West Bank on occupied territory."

If the protesters had checked the facts before raising their placards, they’d know that claim is false. The CEO Illouz says Teva Naot shoe soles are made in Germany and Spain. What’s more, for 20 years, the company has employed hundreds of Palestinian workers – whom the activists purportedly support -- in Hebron and Jerusalem who do sewing work via Palestinian subcontractors. The rest of the shoes are constructed on the Israeli kibbutz Neot Mordechai which is not located in the West Bank. Therefore, if the boycotters were successful, a sales decline could potentially place in jeopardy the jobs of hundreds of Palestinians.

This isn’t the first time pro-Palestinian protesters have either by design or mistake presented false facts in the name of promoting their cause. Earlier this month, activists trying to prove “Israeli apartheid” sent multiple propaganda messages via Twitter falsely reporting their treatment by Israeli police as brutality when their own video showed a respectful approach by the cops to what was clearly an organized provocation.

In September, The Blaze reported on the Israeli Dead Sea skin care company, Ahava, which was forced to shut its flagship London store at Covent Garden after a two-year harassment campaign by activists from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign (BDS) spearheaded by Code Pink and pro-Palestinian activists who demonstrated on weekends outside the shop.

After Glenn Beck devoted a segment of his radio show to the story, Ahava recorded a 750% spike in sales and a surge of social media messages from Beck fans wanting to show their support for the company.

The outpouring from listeners was so overwhelming, Ahava’s American website crashed twice “due to the unexpected amount of traffic flooding the site,” its U.S. assistant manager of marketing Leslie Derderian told The Blaze.

The anti-Israel boycott activists say they aim to “cleanse” Britain, Canada and the U.S. of Israeli businesses.

It appears that opposite them stands a no less determined public. To counter Palestinian boycott calls, Jewish newspapers and organizations including Conference of Presidents and Stand With Us announced a marketing campaign “Buy Israel Week” from November 28th to December 4th to encourage Israel supporters to counter the boycott campaign and buy Israeli products.

H/T: Ynet/Yediot Ahronoth