Orange CEO Stephane Richard received death threats over his controversial remarks about his French telecomm doing business in Israel.
Following a series of seemingly conflicting statements about Israel, the CEO of the French telecommunications giant Orange publicly assured Israel’s prime minister his firm would never boycott the Jewish state.
To Israel’s supporters, the decision by the French telecommunications giant Orange to dump its Israeli affiliate is not only a politically motivated divestment by a major multinational corporation, but a sign that European policymakers are being impacted by efforts to boycott the Jewish state.
France\’s foreign minister sought to calm a row with Israel on Friday, saying Paris opposed any boycott of the Jewish state, but stressed telecom firm Orange, which plans to end its license deal there, was free to define its own policy.
Israel protested to France on Thursday after the head of partly state-owned French telecom giant Orange said it intended to end a brand licensing deal with an Israeli firm, drawing accusations it was bending to a pro-Palestinian boycott movement.
Tapuz, the word for the orange fruit, is an acronym of tapuah zahav “apple of gold.”
Last year at the Israel Independence Day Festival in Woodley Park, anti-disengagement activist Shifra Hastings of Los Angeles was clad all over in orange, the color of protest, right down to her painted fingernails.
For visitors to Israel this summer, the disengagement from the Gaza Strip proved hard to ignore.
\”Everybody\’s orange,\” said Rebecca Kaminski, from Berlin, with a laugh, referring to the color adopted by the anti-disengagement activists. \”I\’m on the blue side, I guess.\”
Sitting on the beach in Netanya, the 22-year-old was working on her already impressive tan with a group of girlfriends, all students at a six-week summer ulpan, or Hebrew-language immersion course, in Kibbutz Mishmar Hasharon.
They have not been deterred from visiting Israel during its exit from the Gaza settlements and parts of the West Bank.
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