Who is sewing our garments and what are the conditions in which they are made? This question was raised recently in Israeli society, when human rights abuses were revealed in Israeli-owned manufacturing site in Jordan. 

Elaine Cohen is a joint CEO of consulting company that helps businesses to develop social responsibility. Following the recent affair the company organized a public meeting to discuss the responsibility of fashion businesses in managing supply chains.

[Elaine Cohen, Joint CEO of Beyond Business]: 

“We want that the fashion industry in Israel to take responsibility, to behave in a transparent way, to tell us where they are manufacturing and at what conditions they are manufacturing, and to give us the right to choose whether we want to wear clothes that are manufactured at the expense of human rights.”  

In the last decade most Israeli fashion firms have moved their workshops to countries with cheap labor.

Despite this trend, Sybil Goldfiner chose another approach for her fashion company; prioritizing corporate responsibility in her business guidelines. As a result, 95 percent of production is manufactured in Israel and provides local jobs. And her contract with the manufacturer comprises of work ethic codes such as fair wages and working conditions.

[Sybil Goldfiner, CEO of Comme il Faut]:

“We would like very much the consumer to grow the way they think, and to ask the company they are buying from, how the clothes are made and where they are made.”

However manufacturing clothes in Israel is less cost efficient.

 [Shelly Yechimovich, Parliament Member]: 

"I think that the State of Israel must take responsibility over its low-tech industry, to subsidize it and prefer purchasing from Israeli textile manufacturers".

At the same time, consumers’ awareness and behavior can play an important role in the way the fashion companies choose to act. 

[Elaine Cohen, Joint CEO of Beyond Business]: 

“Industries with exploitation continue to exist as long as we buy their goods. If we stop buying, they will have no market.

Reporter: Elena Tsuprun

NTD, Israel