A major department store has quietly removed a vendor specializing in wine from Israel’s occupied Golan Heights after protests from citizens‘ groups boycot
A major department store has quietly removed a vendor specializing in wine from Israel’s occupied Golan Heights after protests from citizens’ groups boycotting products from the region amid escalating violence there.
Daimaru said it withdrew its offer to let Naturael, a Tokyo-based importer specializing in wine from the Golan — highly valued by connoisseurs — to participate in a fair in May.
Naturael said the wine is produced and imported legally and that Daimaru’s decision could lead to anti-Israel sentiment.
Daimaru said the decision did not reflect any political stance and was only for the May 9 to 15 “Mediterranean gourmet and wine fair” at its Tokyo store. It said wine from elsewhere in Israel was sold at the fair and that Daimaru has no policy against Israeli products in general.
But a spokesman acknowledged that Daimaru took into consideration activists’ concerns about the wine’s origin.
“Today we cannot ignore geopolitical issues,” said Satoshi Nishio, a spokesman for Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. “We have to start paying more attention to where products are coming from.
