LONDON, U.K. - The Co-Operative Group, a British supermarket chain, is extending a boycott of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and will now shun any supplier known to source from these areas, a statement has said."Following an audit of the Group's supply chain, it will no longer do business with four companies, accounting for £350,000 ($560,000) worth of sales, as there is evidence that they source from the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories," the statement said.
The UK's fifth-largest food retailer has not bought goods from the settlements since 2009, it said, but does trade with about 20 Israeli businesses that do not source from the settlements.- "The Group will also continue to actively work to increase trade links with Palestinian businesses in the occupied territories," it added.
The UN Human Rights Council in March passed a resolution ordering a first investigation into how Israeli settlements may be infringing on the rights of the Palestinians.Israel approved another three settlements in the occupied West Bank on Monday, a move that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said left him "deeply troubled".
The three outposts will now join some 120 settlements dotted across the territory that are home to more than 342,000 people.
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