# From a Palestinian perspective, **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 29, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-palestinian-perspective/680010 "2014-01-29T02:12:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-palestinian-perspective/680010/1 "2014-01-29T02:12:52Z")
Is sodastream good guys or bad guys? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zl85AL1l0H0/hqdefault.jpg "SodaStream - Building Bridges, Not Walls") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl85AL1l0H0) Is sodastream a bridgebuilder or an occupier? Is even benign (at least it seems benign) presence by non-Palestinians in the West Bank met with so much criticism? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-palestinian-perspective/680010/2 "2014-01-29T02:51:38Z")
It’s complicated. The PA doesn’t like it because it has a plant in Ma’ale Adumim, which is in a West Bank settlement. Sodastream’s counter is that the plant employs 500 Palestinians who wouldn’t have a job otherwise. By all accounts, the Sodastream CEO sort of regrets the plant being there, or at least the controversy that it’s caused (it was built by the company’s old owners), but doesn’t want to cave in by moving. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-palestinian-perspective/680010/3 "2014-01-29T02:56:09Z")
Palestinian leadership [expresses,](http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2011-09-13/palestinian-israeli-jews-future-state-israel-PLO/50394882/1) [quite](http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170404#.UuhtjrQo7bY) [unabashedly](http://zoa.org/2007/12/10664-palestinian-moderate-sari-nusseibeh-no-jew-may-live-in-a-future-palestinian-state-jaffa-should-be-part-of-it/), their goal of “Judenrein” Palestine. So any Jewish presence, no matter how beneficial to Palestinians, is bad from “Palestinian perspective”. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2014, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-a-palestinian-perspective/680010/4 "2014-01-29T15:20:19Z")
One might make the distinction, **Terr** , between Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian people as a whole. I would think that the people working at the plant, at least, don’t mind it being there. I think “It’s complicated” is probably the best answer.