Germany’s famous KaDeWe department store in Berlin has apologized for acting “too rashly” by removing wines made in the Golan Heights from its shelves and says it will return them immediately.
In a letter to Green Party legislator Volker Beck, the company said it had acted “rashly and insensitively” in carrying out a recent European Union labelling regulation.
“We regret that this improper reaction of the KaDeWe group triggered a misunderstanding, and ask for your pardon,” the brief note from the management read, in part. Beck posted the apology on his Facebook page. The department store also posted the apology on its Facebook page.
Die 8 israelischen Weine werden ab sofort wieder im Sortiment sein. In diesem Fall – es ging um eine Empfehlung der…
Posted by KaDeWe on Sunday, November 22, 2015
Beck noted on Facebook that “protest pays off.”
Protest had broke out over the weekend, when news spread that the store had decided to comply with a new European Union regulation, requiring special labelling of fruit and vegetables, cosmetics and other products from the West Bank and Golan Heights. These products are no longer permitted to bear the label “Made in Israel.”
Noa Laron, founder of Berlin-based “Milk and Honey Tours,” and Manuela Bleiberg, owner of one of Berlin’s few kosher restaurants, were among those who publicly protested and said they would urge clients not to shop at KaDeWe until the policy was revoked.
A spokesperson for KaDeWe, Petra Fladenhofer, told German media on Friday that the store was removing eight wines from stock, due to the recent decision by the European Union Commission.
Fladenhofer said the importer of the eight wines was planning to have new labels printed, and that “of course the products will then be back on our shelves again.”
According to the Berlin Morgenpost newspaper, the Galeria Kaufhof department store – another major department store in the German capital – has not reacted to the new EU regulation. Kaufhof sells products from Israel, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. A company spokesperson told Spiegel Online magazine that Kaufhof does not make political or religious statements through the products on its shelves. Suppliers, and not the store itself, are responsible for labeling.
KaDeWe was opened in 1907 by a Jewish merchant. In 1933, with Germany under National Socialism, a banking group forced KaDeWe’s Jewish owners to sell the store and others in the Hertie chain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed what he called a “boycott” on Sunday at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
“This department store had been owned by Jews; the Nazis took it. Absurdly, the store is now labelling products from communities in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights. It started with labelling products and now we are told that the products have been removed from the shelves – a boycott in every respect. We strongly protest this step, which is unacceptable morally, historically and on its merits. We expect the German government, which came out against product labelling, to act on this grave matter,” he said.