Warning in Arabic on mango found in Gilo
Warning in Arabic on mango found in GiloMichael Larianov

Michael Larianov lives in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem. A few days ago he stopped in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem to pick up fruit at the local Barkol supermarket on the way home.

When he got home, Larianov was surprised to find a small sticker on each of the mangoes he had purchased. The writing on the stickers was in Arabic. Larianov, who knows the language, realized it said “Made in Israel.”

“It set off warning bells,” he told Arutz Sheva. Between the mango grove and the supermarket shelf, somebody had decided to mark the fruit, almost certainly in order to encourage a boycott.

The stickers were not intended solely for residents of the Israeli neighborhood of Gilo, he suspects, but rather, for consumers abroad. “Not just in Arab countries, but even in Europe. There are Arabs there who will see the sticker and won’t buy the fruit,” he explained.

The Palestinian Authority enforces a boycott on goods made by Israelis in Judea and Samaria, and destroys the Israeli-made goods found in territory under its control.

Larianov is still trying to figure out the path the mango took to Barkol in order to find out who labeled the fruit. Arutz Sheva is asking readers who have seen similar stickers on produce to report it using the YouReport feature.