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UK supermarket pulls Ramadan calendar listing Al-Aqsa Mosque as ‘Israel’ 

March 2, 2022 at 2:31 pm

FOA launched its #AqsaIsInPalestine campaign on social media, encouraging individuals to write to David Potts, CEO of Morrisons [@FriendsofAlAqsa/Twitter]

A British supermarket chain has pulled a Ramadan calendar of the shelves after campaigners pointed out that Al-Aqsa Mosque is not in “Israel”, as listed on the calendar. Within 24 hours of Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) launching a campaign which urged Morrisons to remove the item from its website and stores, the supermarket giant did just that.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is in East Jerusalem, which has been under illegal occupation by Israel since 1967. The third holiest site in Islam is frequently subjected to violent raids by the Israeli occupation forces as well as illegal Israeli settlers.

FOA launched its #AqsaIsInPalestine campaign on social media, encouraging individuals to write to David Potts, CEO of Morrisons

On Monday, FOA launched its #AqsaIsInPalestine campaign on social media, encouraging individuals to write to David Potts, CEO of Morrisons. The campaign went viral very quickly.

“By allowing this item to be sold in your stores and online,” FOA told Potts, “Morrisons is complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, which Amnesty International has now described as apartheid. Your sale of this item is an attack on Palestinian rights.” The crime of apartheid is, of course, akin to a crime against humanity in international law.

“As soon as this was brought to our attention,” said a spokesperson for Morrisons, “we removed the calendar from sale.”

Shamiul Joarder, the Head of Public Affairs at FOA, said that, “Today’s victory shows that the British public is increasingly aware of Israeli apartheid and will increasingly hold companies to account for complicity in the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

READ: Palestinian envoy to UK calls out BBC’s double standards