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Kosher Food Brings
Jews, Arabs Together
GERSHOM GORENBERG
Special to The Jewish News
I
n today's West Bank,
business is making far
stranger bedfellows than
politics: Arab industrialists
are working with Jewish set-
tlers to produce kosher food
for the Israeli market.
More than a dozen firms in
the Ramallah and Nablus
areas maintain kosher pro-
duction lines. Israeli Arab
firms also produce kosher
foods, under the supervision
of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.
In the politically charged at-
mosphere of the West Bank,
such relations are surprising
— particularly when the local
rabbinic supervisors are set-
tlers determined to maintain
Israeli control of the occupied
territories.
"A big part of the Israeli
market is religious and we
want to sell to them," says the
Israeli consumers
do not always
know when they
are buying West
Bank products.
marketing director at United
Trading of Ramallah, which
bottles Royal Crown soft
drinks. The accountant at the
Akram Bakir tehina (sesame
paste) factory in the town of
Al-Bira explains, "In Israel,
the population cannot use our
tehina unless it is marked
kosher."
So two or three times a
month, a yeshiva student
drives from the West Bank
settlement of Beit El Bet to
the United 'frading's soft
drink factory in Ramallah.
Arriving unannounced, he ex-
amines the storerooms and
production line, making sure
that only kosher ingredients
are being used. The student is
a representative of Rabbi
Zalman Melamed, head of the
Beit El yeshiva and spiritual
leader of a settlement known
for its ultra-Orthodoxy.
Melamed also supervises
the Akram Bakir factory, but
he is not the only source of
certification that West Bank
factories are kosher. A
Religious Affairs Ministry of-
ficial based in a settlement
north of Jerusalem oversees
production at Victor, a
Ramallah factory for juices,
soft drink concentrates, and
desert mixes. The official says
a rabbi from the settlement of
Karnei Shomron is responsi-
ble for supervising "10 to 12"
tehina factories in the Nablus
area.
Getting certified as kosher
eases access to the Israeli
market; it can also mean
greater dependence on Israeli
suppliers. Victor, for example,
must buy its cornstarch and
food coloring from companies
under rabbinical supervision.
United Trading buys test
tubes, beakers and preser-
vatives from Biolab, an
Israeli company.
Israeli consumers do not
always know when they are
buying West Bank products.
United Trading general
manager Hanna Gedeon says
the West Bank produces
much of Israel's tehina, a
staple of the Israeli diet. But
the manufacturers sell their
product to Israeli business-
men, who package it and
market it under their own
labels.
The most visible of the
West Bank firms producing
kosher foods is United
Trading, which has the Royal
Crown Cola franchise for
Israel, the territories and Jor-
dan. The company is owned
by Gedeon, Abed Khateeb,
and Mansour Shawwa, whose
father, Rashad Shawwa, is a
prominent Palestinian leader
and was mayor of Gaza until
deposed by the Israeli
authorities.
United Trading began pro-
ducing soft drinks in 1984
under its own "Spree" and
"Chek" labels, marketing
them in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. But Gedeon, 37
years old, wanted an
American brand name, and
began negotiating with Royal
Crown and Pepsi for a fran-
chise. RC got the nod because
it was willing to give United
Trading a franchise for Jor-
dan as well as for Israel and
the territories.
By 1985, an Arabic version
of the RC label appeared in
the West Bank and Gaza
Strip. United Trading then
contacted Israel's Chief Rab-
binate for certification that
its products were kosher, and
asked three Israeli firms for
marketing studies.
In the West Bank, settlers
often talk of good relations
with Arabs, while Arabs
speak bitterly of the settle-
ments. In the kosher food
business, the voices are
different.
Gedeon is also looking
eastward. He hopes to start
shipping RC to Jordan next
year. The Arabic labels on the
bottles will says nothing
about rabbinical supervision,
but Amman's soft drink
stands could soon be stocking
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
41