Negotiations that took place last month between Ethiopian workers who were excluded from production lines at the Barkan wineries and the management have reached a dead end, according to Israeli public television.
According to Jewish tradition, the involvement of non-Jews in the production of wine makes it non-kosher, but the kashrut supervisor of the winery, who works for the Badatz of the Eda Haredit, reportedly chose to include Ethiopian Jews in this category. When the report was first published, condemnation was issued from all corners of the political spectrum as well as Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, and there were calls for a boycott of the company's products.