About
What Is the Palestinian Dates Monitoring Authority?
The Problem
The United Kingdom is Israel’s second-largest market for dates. Shockingly, one in every three dates sold in the UK originates from Israel, often from companies operating in illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
These dates are routinely mislabelled or sold without any country-of-origin information to hide their true source. Even major supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi have been caught selling Israeli dates under misleading or missing labels. The situation is even worse among smaller retailers that cater to Muslim communities, where Israeli dates are deliberately misrepresented as Palestinian to deceive consumers.
After more than two years of genocide in Gaza, many people of conscience have refused to buy Israeli products. Yet, because of widespread deception and mislabelling, some now avoid Palestinian dates as well, fearing they could be Israeli in disguise. This confusion directly harms genuine Palestinian farming communities whose survival depend on the annual harvest of dates.
The Palestinian Dates Monitoring Authority (PDMA)
In response to these deliberate deceptions, the Palestinian Dates Monitoring Authority (PDMA) was created to bring honesty, accountability, and transparency to the Palestinian dates market in the UK.
The PDMA enables consumers to make ethical, informed choices that support genuine Palestinian producers while exposing those attempting to profit from exploitation and fraud.
Guided by an advisory panel of experts, the PDMA is built on decades of grassroots research and advocacy led by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, Inminds Human Rights Group, and Resistance Kitchen.
The Role of the PDMA
01
Verify Authentic Palestinian Origin
The PDMA rigorously checks and certifies the true origin of dates being sold as Palestinian in the UK. Verification standards ensure that every brand carrying the PDMA’s approval genuinely sources their dates from Palestine. The verification process is detailed in the section on verification.
02
Monitor and Expose Israeli Products
03
Challenge Unlabelled Dates
Major retailers like Lidl and Aldi have been caught hiding origin information to push Israeli dates onto unwitting consumers. The PDMA actively challenges such practices and works to file formal complaints with trading standards authorities.
04
Expose Fraudulent Labelling
Israeli packing houses in illegal settlements routinely create boxes falsely labelled as “Product of Palestine” for export. Some UK importers knowingly profit from this deception.
Notorious companies such as Offa Exotics source directly from Israel’s largest date exporter, Mehadrin, yet cynically market their products as Palestinian, complete with Arabic text and mosque imagery intended to mislead Muslim consumers.
05
Investigate Mixing of Dates in Palestine
In the long term, the PDMA will also be addressing the issue of mixed produce within Palestine itself, pushing for farm-level traceability and tougher safeguards. Any mixing of Israeli and Palestinian produce is strictly illegal under Palestinian law and punishable by heavy prison sentences.
No occupation exists without collaborators. In 2021, several major Palestinian producers were exposed for mixing Israeli settlement dates with Palestinian dates and exporting them under forged documents from the Palestinian Authority. The PDMA recognizes this as a serious issue, but also a calculated attempt by Israel to undermine trust in Palestinian farming communities and their survival.
This problem must be tackled head-on, but not exaggerated to the point of damaging the Palestinian economy. To put it in perspective, the total value of all Palestinian imports to the UK in 2025 was £22 million, while Israeli date imports alone reached £24.7 million in 2024.
The greater threat is clear: the global marketing and deception machinery behind Israeli dates that continues to exploit both consumers and occupied land.