Israel’s output contracted sharply in the final three months of 2023, falling for the first time in nearly two years, as the war with Hamas takes a heavy toll on the economy.
The idea is that once it's moved by customers to a different section, the store will treat the product as bad and toss it out. Yes you're right more work for the minimum wage guy who has to throw it out now, but the idea is that enough loss on that specific product and the manager may stop ordering that/those brands all together. They might not realize the products are related to Israel, just that the other brands are still selling, so by happenstance, the Israeli dates look inferior due to perceived customer purchasing habits. Eventually they may not be ordered anymore and that affects the parent company in Israel.
It's a really long game, but that's what I gather the goal of that specific protest would be.
That's not how it works anywhere I've heard of (and I've lived in the USA and Europe and worked in an American grocery store). Maybe if it's a refrigerated product in the US (or vandalized somehow), but that's not the case with dates.
Not saying that is actually how it will play out, I agree with you that it only actually happens to refrigerated or frozen products (that get discarded when misplaced). That's not to say it doesn't also happen to shelf stable products too and we don't know about it, but I think that is unlikely.
I was just clarifying what I interpreted the original commenters intentions behind said protest would be, not that it would be effective. I believe the interpretation that it's just about messing with low income workers to be not quite what the intention was.