What’s the Deal With SodaStream, Anyway?

www.telegraph.co.uk

In recent weeks, SodaStream has been all over the media – and this time it’s not in the form of an infomercial. A Super Bowl commercial starring actress Scarlett Johannson sparked a series of articles and accusations dealing with the “real deal” behind SodaStream.

If you don’t know what SodaStream is, it’s a machine that turns plain water into carbonated water, and it offers flavors that make soda that is, in theory, better for you than traditional forms of soda. It’s sold by a bunch of United States retailers including Target, Walmart, and Best Buy, just to name a few.

The problem with SodaStream does not lie in the fact that it has one of YouTube viewer tonewill7’s “favorite hot chicks,” or even in the way that the product tastes. Instead, the real controversy lies in where the factory is located. The SodaStream factory is located in an Israeli-occupied part of Palestine’s West Bank called Ma’ale Adumim. Johansson was quoted as having said that SodaStream was successfully “building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other.” But in actuality, it has been proven that many Palestinian workers have been grossly exploited by this Israeli-run company.

The evidence has been so strong that in fact, Johannson was asked to step down as a goodwill ambassador for the British relief company Oxfam. According to a recent Al Jazeera article, “there is no end in sight for Palestinians working for SodaStream or other businesses operating in Israel’s settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.”

SodaStream has been under a lot of fire as well for embellishing the conditions that workers reside under. The environment has been described as  “a lot less safe than [SodaStream] claims,” and the wages are “not much different” than those of other Palestinian factories. Israel’s SodaStream factory, along with other industries in Israeli settlements, have been accused of taking away a lot of potential land and industry from the Palestinian people.

There has been a lot of talk about boycotting SodaStream, most of it stemming from Pro-Palestinian grassroots organizations. The big player is currently the European Union, which has been conducting talks regarding whether or not they will revise their “referential trade agreement with the country to reflect its opposition to the settlements.” This would be a really big deal, considering the EU is Israel’s single largest trading partner.

In a word? The future of SodaStream is extremely “uncertain.”