Ben-Gurion University wine festival sparks row over West Bank wineries

A wine festival is set to take place today, Monday, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, but the event has turned into a political fight after four wineries operating in Judea and Samaria said their participation was abruptly canceled. The wineries said they were first invited about a month and a half ago, then told around a week and a half to two weeks ago that the university did not want wineries from Judea and Samaria taking part.

Nava Movshovitz, co-owner of the Drimia winery in Susya in the South Hebron Hills, said she was told there was a problem with their participation and later heard a range of explanations, including claims that there was no room and that the wineries had not confirmed attendance. Movshovitz said the decision was especially hurtful because her husband is serving in reserve duty. She also said that after student protests, the organizers sent renewed invitations on Monday morning, but she refused to return because, in her words, she had not received an apology, only a message saying, “Come.”

Some of the affected wineries decided to rejoin the festival, but Movshovitz said she would not attend. Meanwhile, students at the university organized protests and began promoting purchases specifically from the wineries that were allegedly excluded. One student called the incident “another nail in the university’s political coffin,” argued that boycotting West Bank wineries was unacceptable, and said students had opened a WhatsApp group to buy wine only from those wineries and to skip events that exclude them.

Ben-Gurion University rejected the accusations, saying the uproar was “a storm in a teacup.” The university said it does not believe in boycotts and that all wineries from across the country are welcome, provided the wine is kosher and of good quality. It added that last year’s festival included wineries from all over Israel and that this year would be no different.