Both the Aldi and Hoogvliet retail giants said that they would no longer sell Israeli products, the Dutch daily Trouw newspaper reported on Monday.
A spokesman for the Aldi chain explained that the company was not interested in its products “being part of public discourse in any way.”
The announcement came after theEuropean Union last week issued new directives prohibiting funding or grants to any Israeli entities located in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Golan Heights.
A third chain, Jumbo, already claims that it does not stock products from settlements. The company has asked its suppliers to confirm that products from Israel do not come from what it termed “occupied territory.” According to Trouw, Jumbo made the move in response to the renewed public debate about the settlements.
A Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman decried the boycott against settlements as hypocritical and discriminatory, noting that there was no similar ban on entities operating from other disputed areas in Europe.
“It does more harm than good,” the spokesman said.
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