District Judea and Samaria Area Region West Bank Founded 1998 | Council Ma'ale Adumim Population 300 businesses | |
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Founded by Ma'aleh Adumim
Economic Development Co. Ltd. Area 1,550 dunams (1.55 km or 380 acres) Weather 11°C, Wind W at 6 km/h, 87% Humidity | ||
Mishor adumim
Mishor Adumim (Hebrew: מישור אדומים) is an industrial park located in the industrial zone of the Israeli settlement of Ma'ale Adumim, about 10 minutes' drive from Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
Contents
The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.
History
Since 1998, the park has been managed by the Ma'aleh Adumim Economic Development Company Ltd. Stretching over 1,550 dunams (1.55 km2; 0.60 sq mi), it includes businesses and factories, as well as a busy commercial center. In 2014, the park housed 300 factories and small businesses, a bowling alley, two large supermarkets, an art museum and several kosher wineries. These businesses, a few owned by Arabs, among them the Shweiki glass factory, are entitled to special tax breaks under Israeli law. One of the big draws is a Rami Levy supermarket. Adumim Food Ingredients is a food additives company that manufactures nutraceuticals in collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The SodaStream factory in Mishor Adumim provided employment for 1,300 workers: 950 Arabs (450 Israeli and 500 Palestinian) and 350 Israeli Jews. The SodaStream plant was established in Mishor Adumim by the company founder Peter Weissburgh in the 1990s, before SodaStream was taken over by the Fortismo Capital Fund in 2007. In 2014, Daniel Birnbaum, the current CEO said that he would not have opened the factory at this site, but its presence there was a reality and he would not bow to political pressure to close it, even after the inauguration of a new plant under construction in Lehavim in the northern Negev. According to Birnbaum, he would not consider closing the plant out of loyalty to its hundreds of Palestinian workers, noting that he could not see how it would help the Palestinian cause if they were fired. Nevertheless, the closure of the Mishor Adumim factory was announced in October 2015.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Many Palestinians are employed at Mishor Adumim where they can make between double to triple the common wages in the Palestinian territories. One Palestinian worker said "I can bring a million people who want to work here".
The Rami Levy supermarket in Mishor Adumim is widely patronized by Palestinians, although Palestinian Authority Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh warned them in 2010 not to buy there. Many of the employees are also Palestinian. On December 3, 2014, a Palestinian teenager entered the supermarket and stabbed two Israeli shoppers.