Despite claims, Ikea Israel refuses to deliver to Palestinians in West Bank while serving settlers
Ikea publicly claims its Israeli store delivers to anyone regardless of race, religion or nationality. But new evidence shows that Ikea’s claim is false. At my request, Iyad Misk, a Hebrew-speaking Palestinian living in the West Bank, called Ikea to ask about home delivery to the Palestinian village of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem.In a 3 December email I was told the phone call was transferred to the store’s delivery company Moviley Dror. The company’s representative “Sholy” said that while delivery to the checkpoint near Bethlehem would be possible, Moviley Dror would not enter the Palestinian Authority areas because they are dangerous, Sholy claimed.Sholy clarified that Moviley Dror would not pass the checkpoint, even if the area is classified as Area C under the Oslo accords (part of the village of Beit Sahour is in Area C). This covers over 60 percent of the West Bank, under full Israeli military control.Around 150,000 Palestinians live in Area C, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In total, over 650,000 Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, including 300,000 in East Jerusalem, reported British newspaper The Guardian in July. It is obvious that the settlers represent a substantial market for Ikea. After the Ikea store in Nethanya was destroyed in a fire in 2011, the store in Rishon Lezion, opened on 9th of March 2010, is the only IKEA store to serve the Israeli market. Apartheid practices by Ikea delivery The same day, I asked Who Profits (a research project from the Tel Aviv-based Coalition of Women for Peace) to also contact Ikea by phone and see what happened when they were asked to deliver to an Israeli settlement, also in the West Bank.Who Profits said an email to me that it had asked Ikea about home delivery to the settlement ofBeitar Ilit — in order to get to Beitar Ilit you also have to pass through checkpoints. Like the other settlements in the West Bank, Beitar Ilit is in Area C.The call was also transferred to Moviley Dror. Asked if Moviley Dror delivers Ikea products to Beitar Ilit, the response was “yes.” Moviley Dror’s answer shows that Ikea passes through checkpoints to deliver its products to Israeli settlers in the West Bank but not to indigenous Palestinians in the West Bank.

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