NPR failure to even note BDS’ apparent responsibility for depriving hundreds of Palestinians of a reliable, solid livelihood - by Tamar Sternthal

...For Robin Young and Derek Thompson, SodaStream's former employment of Palestinians and its subsequent "punishment" of employees with layoffs counterbalance the company's "positive moral valance." There are no "moral questions," however, about the BDS activists who claim credit for depriving Palestinians of their livelihoods.

Tamar Sternthal..
CAMERA..
21 August '18..

In yesterday’s segment about Pepsi Co.’s $3.2 billion purchase of SodaStream, NPR “Here and Now” host Robin Young and her guest Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, set up the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) movement as a force for moral good in its fight against the bad-acting Israeli beverage company. The journalists do so without even identifying BDS, instead citing “Palestinians and their supporters” and “pro-Palestinian groups” as SodaStream’s critics. In the “Here and Now” segment, it is these moral heroes calling out the Israeli company for the “moral questions” (as Thompson puts it) surrounding the company’s former location in the West Bank, its “support for Israeli occupation of Palestine,” and the subsequent “punishment” of its employees for laying them off.

The agreeable duo — Young lobs only softballs at Thompson — give voice only to the anti-Israel and anti-Palestinian-employment viewpoint that SodaStream “represented support for Israeli occupation of Palestine,” a blight on the healthful, eco-friendly company’s “positive moral valance.” The pair fail to raise the “moral questions” about, or even note, BDS’ apparent responsibility for the factory’s move from the West Bank to southern Israel, depriving hundreds of Palestinians of a reliable, solid livelihood. A transcript of the relevant excerpt follows:

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