Tesco has been forced to pull Israeli-grown dates from sale in one of its stores, after they were defaced with writing accusing Israel of genocide.
A box of the fruit from Israel at Andover’s Tesco Extra was found on 23 March carrying the statement, “no truck with genociders, stand with Palestinians”.
The dates were left on display for an unspecified time, however, a spokesperson for the retailer said it took “instances of this nature extremely seriously”, removing them “immediately” from sale once it had been brought to its attention by staff.
“We are committed to ensuring our stores are a welcoming place for everyone, regardless of religion, race or nationality,” a spokesperson said.
Tesco told The Grocer its suppliers were under clear guidance not to source any of its branded products from Occupied Palestinian Territories.
The supermarket added it took its role as a responsible retailer extremely seriously and always followed government sourcing guidance, including on countries it sources from.
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The incident comes as the Middle East conflict rages on, having erupted just under a month ago when Israel and the USA attacked Iran.
Whilst the Trump administration has insisted negotiations are under away with the Islamic Republic to end the conflict, it has caused chaos in food supply chains.
As previously reported by The Grocer, the IGD has said the war may send grocery price rises as high as 8% as escalating oil and gas prices filter through.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism told The Grocer the war had been used as a pretext by some groups to renew their campaigns to boycott Israeli products.
In a poll conducted by the organisation earlier this year, it found 84% of British Jews agreed boycotts of businesses selling Israeli products constituted intimidation.
“The polling shows that British Jews are impacted by these boycotts, and anecdotally we know this too,” a spokesperson said. “Fortunately, most supermarkets themselves don’t stand for these campaigns,” they added.
“They simply want to deliver the best products and service that they can to their customers, and some of those products are made by Israelis, just as they are by peoples from around the world. That is how it should be.”
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