On social media, calls have been increasing to stop buying goods and services from Israel. But are they based on facts?
ADVERTISEMENTMultiple social media posts claim to show how to identify products coming from Israel.
These posts explain that if the barcode starts with the number 729, 841, or 871, these products have been manufactured in Israel.
Many of these posts ask their followers to avoid buying any of these items to show support for Palestine.
Another campaign on the social media platforms TikTok and also X, claims the boycott of products starting with the number 729 has caused Israel to change its barcode prefix to 871 and 841.
A prefix number does not indicate where a product has been manufactured
But GS1, a nonprofit standards organisation that provides the numbers, says on its website the prefixes cannot be used to determine a product's country of origin.
“The GS1 Prefix does not indicate that the product was manufactured in a specific country or by a specific manufacturer; it may have been produced anywhere in the world.”
That means the code only indicates the country from which the barcode was allocated.
And while it’s true the prefix 729 shows that a company is registered in Israel, that doesn’t mean a specific item was produced there.
When it comes to claims that Israel has changed its barcode to 871 and 841, that’s simply not true.
Barcodes starting with 841 are allocated from Spain and 871 from the Netherlands, according to GS1.
In an interview with AFP, a GS1 spokesperson explained that "Companies around the world can choose any of the 116 GS1 Member Organisations they want to work with, regardless of where they are based or where they produce their products."
"This means that any company no matter where it’s based can work with GS1 Israel or any of the 116 GS1 Member Organisations," said the spokesperson.
Calls to boycott Israeli products with a barcode prefix 729 have been circulating online for several years.
They tend to resurface when there is an escalation between Israel and Palestine, according to Logically Facts, a UK-based company specialising in fighting disinformation.
The Israel-Hamas war has sparked numerous calls for boycotts on social media, many involving misinformation.
The Cube has previously debunked false claims related to brands such as Starbucks and Zara, that have faced boycotts for allegedly supporting Israel.