Cottage cheese boycott

The organizers called on the public via Facebook to stop buying cottage cheese, which is perceived as a basic food item in Israel.

Cottage cheese is a popular commodity in Israel which is widely perceived as a basic food item by the Israeli public.

[3] In August 2008, Israeli Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson declared that the government would stop regulating the price of cottage cheese, which stood at 4.82 NIS for a 250 ml (9-ounce) tub, in order to encourage competition in this market.

"[5][6] Following a series of articles by Ilanit Chaim in Globes which covered the surge in food prices and cost of living in Israel, in June 2011, Bnei Brak resident Itzik Alrov opened a protest group on Facebook calling the Israeli public to stop buying cottage cheese as a first step.

[11][12] In September 2011, a NIS 125 million class action lawsuit was filed against Tnuva, alleging that the company "abused its position to raise cottage cheese prices by more than 40% between 2006 and 2011".

[13] After the CEO (Zehavit Cohen) of the Israeli branch of Apax Partners announced that it would not lower the price of cottage cheese, other Facebook protest groups were established calling to boycott all of Tnuva's products.

[16] Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin attacked the Tnuva cooperative when he stated "You purchase a domestic product, but the money goes abroad.

[19] The Israeli dairy farmers, which considered themselves to sustain the most damage from the implementation of the new reduced customs bill, began protesting against it.

This decision had been preceded by an investigation of the market by an accountant hired by the government, which found that Tnuva's prices were "excessive and unreasonable".

[26] Due to the cottage cheese protests, two other Israeli companies, Soglowek and Osem, said they would suspend planned price increases for their products.