Israel's SodaStream to Close Controversial West Bank Plant

Israeli drinks firm SodaStream, hit by international boycott calls, said Wednesday it was shutting a controversial factory in a West Bank settlement as it announced a nine percent fall in sales.

The firm, which manufactures a device for making fizzy drinks at home and which was embroiled in a row earlier this year involving Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, said it would relocate the factory by the end of 2015.

SodaStream said the plant closure would "improve the operational efficiency" of a group that has been listed on the New York stock exchange since 2010. Another factory in northern Israel will also close, the group said on its website.

The manufacturer claims its factory in the Jewish settlement of Mishor Adumim in the occupied West Bank, is a "model of integration" employing 500 Palestinians, 450 Arab Israelis and 350 Israeli Jews on the same salaries and with the same social security benefits.

Palestinian employees "receive salaries four or five times that of the average wage in the territories controlled by Palestinian authorities", it has said.

But the factory has been the focus of calls by Palestinian activists for a worldwide boycott of the firm.

The row hit the headlines in January when Johansson quit as an ambassador for charity Oxfam following a dispute over her ad campaign for SodaStream.