Since 1996, SodaStream’s main production facility has been located in an industrial park, Mishor Edomim, in the Israeli settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim in the occupied West Bank. Ma’aleh Adumim was once home to seven Palestinian towns and is part of a ring of settlements that sever East Jerusalem from the West Bank by jutting deeply into the West Bank, effectively cutting it in two, restricting Palestinian movement and development.

Israel’s Jewish-only settlements, including Ma’aleh Adumim, steal Palestinian land and water, and are built in violation of international law. Settlements are built in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids any occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into occupied territories, and the Hague Convention, which forbids occupying powers from making permanent changes to occupied territories unless it is a military necessity. International human rights organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have all condemned Israel’s settlement enterprise as illegal. Settlements are enforced through the violation of Palestinian human and civil rights. Settlements and related infrastructure (including Israeli-only roads, army bases, the separation wall, closed military zones, and checkpoints) cover approximately 42% of the West Bank.

SodaStream and other companies that operate in settlement industrial zones enjoy low rent, tax incentives, and other forms of government support, as well as lax enforcement of environmental laws. SodaStream mislabels its products as “Made in Israel,” to avoid controversy and boycotts of settlement products. The European Union Customs Union has ruled that the SodaStream factory is located in illegal Israeli settlements, not in Israel—and refuses to apply its favored trade terms for Israeli products to SodaStream.