Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, has instructed the ministry to purchase only Israeli-made holiday gifts for employees. At the ministry's toast for the new year, Ben Eliezer called upon all Israeli businesses to follow his example.
"We must make every effort to shore up our social, diplomatic and personal strength, and shed light upon that which unites us as a strong society, which can withstand anything that stands in its way. As for making our country, society and economy stronger and more powerful – as employees of one of the most important social-economic ministries in Israel, we can do this in practice, and I know that we make an effort to do so together, every hour of every day,” he added.
Purchasing “blue-and-white” (Israeli-made) products is important, Ben Eliezer said, and “it is sevenfold more important to make the employees a part of this project, the purpose of which is to explain, and to assimilate into our thoughts, the direct link between the purchasing of 'blue-and-white' products and the preservation of places of employment and the creation of new ones.”
"I call on you to purchase 'blue and white!' - especially on this coming holiday,” the veteran Labor minister said. He also thanked the ministry's employee unions and the Deputy Manager for Administration who accepted his directive and bought only Israeli-made products for the employees this year.