British chef: Don’t buy West Bank produce

August 25, 2009 [JTA] -- A prominent British chef has called for a boycott of Israeli products from West Bank settlements.

Joanna Blythman, also a popular food journalist, recently called on retailers and importers not to buy goods from Jewish communities in the West Bank, the London Jewish Chronicle reported.

'[Produce] grown on Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory… the fruit and vegetables grown there amount to stolen goods," Blythman wrote in an article published in a food magazine. “The only clear and honest wording appropriate is ‘from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.’”

Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom, responded by saying the proposed boycott on goods made in Israeli settlements in the West Bank was part of a campaign aimed to turn into a wider ban on Israeli goods.

"Progress in the Middle East will not be determined by how food industry publications choose to label Israeli produce," Prosor said.