SodaStream hosts thousands, US envoy for Ramadan feast
At Rahat event, David Friedman hails the company, with its diverse employees, as a paragon of peace
RAHAT — SodaStream on Monday hosted nearly 3,000 Israelis and Palestinians for a Ramadan fast-ending meal at its factory in the southern town of Rahat.
Bedouins and Jewish Israelis and some Palestinians attended the feast on Monday along with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
Friedman wrote on Twitter that he had “the pure joy” to attend, and touted SodaStream as a paragon of peace: “Muslims, Druze, Christians and Jews working together, each making the other better, happier and more prosperous.”
SodaStream, manufacturer of fizzy drink-machines and other bubbly products, shut its West Bank factory in 2015 amid boycott calls and opened a new facility in the predominantly Bedouin town of Rahat. PepsiCo bought SodaStream last year for $3.2 billion.