Tokyo: A major Japanese department store has removed a vendor specialising in wine from Israel’s occupied Golan Heights after protests from citizens’ groups.
Daimaru store says it has withdrawn its offer for Naturael, a Tokyo-based importer specialising in wine from the Golan – highly valued among connoisseurs – to participate at a fair in May.
It says the decision was just for the event and does not reflect the company’s political stance. But its spokesman acknowledged that geopolitical issues could not be ignored.
Israel captured and occupied the plateau from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community.
