A call by one of Haaretz's columnists to boycott Israel's iconic Hashachar Ha'ole chocolate spread has backfired, and sales have soared, the company said Monday. In 2015, Haaretz newspaper reported that the company manufacturing Hashachar Ha'ole donated 50,000 shekels (about $13,000) to a subsidiary of the Amana settlement movement in 2013. At the time, Hashachar Ha'ole CEO Moshe Weidberg said he would rather go bankrupt than support leftist organizations such as B'Tselem. Ahead of the Passover holiday, a new commercial for the spread that asks, "What could be more Israeli than matzah with Hashachar Ha'ole-" reminded Haaretz's controversial TV critic Rogel Alpher of the report, which he made the focus of his weekly column last Thursday. In his column, Alpher called Weidberg the "enemy of democracy" and accused him of "funding the occupation, apartheid in the territories and gross violations of human rights. ... Anyone who opposes the occupation must boycott Hashachar Ha'ole, or their ideology is worthless," Alpher wrote. "It seems no other chocolate spread in the world is more racist or fascist," he declared. But the calls seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as sales of the chocolate spread have spiked in recent days. Even Education Minister Naftali Bennett, whose Habayit Hayehudi party supports the settlement enterprise, chimed in on the controversy: In a post to his official Facebook page, Bennett posted a screenshot of Alpher's column, which he captioned, "I am buying Hashachar [Ha'ole] chocolate [spread]!" In an interview with Israel National News Monday, Weidberg said that following Thursday's column, many people had taken to social media to say that, because of the call for a boycott, they would insist on buying Hashachar Ha'ole chocolate spread this year. Weidberg said it was still too soon to say whether the increase in sales was the result of a backlash to the call to boycott the company or merely the usual bump in sales ahead of the Passover holiday. Nevertheless, "we are flabbergasted and speechless by the love and support we have received across the board following the call to boycott our products," he said.
Attempt to smear iconic chocolate spread's reputation backfires
Sales of Israeli brand Hashachar Ha'ole soar after controversial columnist calls to boycott "racist, fascist," spread over company's support of settlement enterprise • Company's CEO says he is "flabbergasted and speechless by public's love and support."
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