Brussels Air agrees to serve settlement snack after Jerusalem outcry

After being treated to some Israeli government lobbying, Brussels Airline says it will continue to stock supplies of a halva snack made in the West Bank on flights, days after an uproar took off over it pulling the sweet, saying it had been put in an inflight meal by accident.

In a letter to Israel’s Belgium ambassador, Brussels Airline calls Israeli company Achva, based in the Barkan industrial zone in the West Bank “one of our trustful suppliers,” an about face from last week, when it said the Achva halva had been placed on a plane by accident.

“It is clear that Achva remains one of our trustful suppliers and without any distinction related to the origin of the product and therefore we will continue to accept Achva’s products on board our flights, especially given its positive role in the community,” the statement reads, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Barkan Industrial Park. (Flash90)

The move, which will be likely to draw protests from Palestinians and others, comes after the ministry embarked on a campaign to have Brussels Airlines rethink the decision not to stock Achva, accusing the airline of joining a boycott of Israel.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry credits “the quick work of the Foreign Ministry, at the direction of director Dore Gold, the deputy head of public advocacy and the advocacy unit and our embassies in Brussels and Berlin.”

The uproar began when a passenger was served a meal with an Achva halva snack and complained to the company, which said it removed it because it had only been supplied as a mistake.

A spokesperson for the carrier told The Times of Israel that it had no interest in any boycotts or in being involved in politics and emphasized the Tel Aviv market was incredibly important to the company.

In the wake of the incident, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin had called for the airline to be banned from Israel.