On its website in the section on “Corporate Responsibility,” the Strauss Group emphasizes its support for the Israeli army, noting in a section entitled “In the Field with Soldiers”, “Our connection with soldiers goes as far back as the country, and even further. We see a mission and need to continue to provide our soldiers with support, to enhance their quality of life and service conditions, and sweeten their special moments. We have adopted the Golani reconnaissance platoon for over 30 years and provide them with an ongoing variety of food products for their training or missions, and provide personal care packages for each soldier that completes the path. We have also adopted the Southern Shualei Shimshon troops from the Givati platoon with the goal of improving their service conditions and being there at the front to spoil them with our best products."

Historically, the Israeli army has been a flagrant violator of human rights and international law. Even by the abysmal standards of the Israeli army, Israel’s “elite” Golani Brigade has a history of severe human rights abuses. According to a January 2009 article in Ha’aretz Daily, the Golani Brigade, “is known as a brigade that struggles with no small number of disciplinary problems and scandals, caused by bad behavior ranging from revolts against commanders to abuse of Palestinians.” During Israel’s January, 2009 assault on the Gaza Strip, The same Ha’aretz article reported that, “Golani is currently operating in the sector in which the IDF has seen the toughest battles with Hamas, the eastern part of Gaza City,” and “since 2003, Golani has also been involved in combating Palestinian terror groups in Gaza” (more from Ha’aretz on 2004 Golani Brigade destruction in Rafah). “In virtually every conflagration, Golani is rushed to the conflict point. In April 2002, during the intifada, the brigade played a central role in Operation Defensive Shield and the missions preceding it, and Golani’s actions in the Jenin and Tul Karm refugee camps led to the elimination of a number of wanted militants… Golani participated in the siege on Yasser Arafat’s Muqata compound in Ramallah, the capture of the casbah in Nablus (along with the Paratroops), and in the difficult fighting in Jenin refugee camp… In the… Second Lebanon War, it saw fierce battle with Hezbollah in the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbail and suffered 14 casualties between two battalions.”

“Breaking the Silence”, a group composed of ex-Israeli soldiers, has documented numerous cases of Golani Brigade involvement in human rights abuses. As just a few other recent examples, in November, 2008, in a widely disseminated video, members of the Golani Brigade filmed themselves forcing a captive, blindfolded Palestinian to sing humiliating songs, some of a sexual nature, and some about the Golani Brigade. In December, 2005 a Golani Brigade officer was convicted for beating a Palestinian detainee and threatening to cut off his penis.

Yigal Amir, the assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was a member of the Golani Brigade. A 1995 New York Times article on Amir and the Golani Brigade reported, “One day reporters came upon some of them [Golani Brigades] in a Palestinian village near Bethlehem, dragging youths into a bus packed with soldiers beating their clubs on the steel seat frames in unison and chanting wildly: ‘We are Golani! We are insane!’… ‘In Golani, everybody hits,’ Mr. Amir's comrade, Mr. Nagar remembered…. During searches in Jabalaya, a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, Mr. Nagar said, ‘The officer says, before breaking into a house, give them a 10,000 mile tune-up.’ The Times article noted that, in addition to Amir, “Three men who had served in Golani have committed widely publicized murders of Arabs and an Israeli peace campaigner.”

The Strauss Group partners in honey production with Kibbutz Yad Mordechai which is located just outside of the Gaza Strip. According to the historian Walid Khalidi’s book “All that Remains,” Yad Mordechai, established in its current location in 1943, has expanded onto the land of the Palestinian village of Hirbiya, which probably fell to Israel in November, 1948.

Sabra’s headquarters is on 49th St and Astoria Boulevard in Astoria, Queens.

Unfortunately, in September, 2008, the Massachusetts-based Tribe Hummus, a competitor of Sabra, was “acquired by the Israel-based Osem Group for $57 million."

Note: for more information on corporations and products that enable the Israeli Apartheid, go to  http://adalahny.org/index.php/boycott-divestment-a-sanction/consumer-boycotts-against-israel.