Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Enters Third Year At Park Slope Food Co-Op

(wallyg 's flickr)

Remember waaaay back in February 2009 when the Park Slope interwebs got all upset about the thought that the Park Slope Food Co-op might ban Israeli products? The story is by no means dead, and today the Observer goes deep into the issue. “I think they’re latching onto it like slogans," one opponent of the ban told the pink paper. "Like true believers, it’s the cool thing to do. You know, ‘I’m a progressive, and it’s a progressive cause,’ so I think that’s how it’s coming through, very thoughtlessly.”

Part of the problem with the B.D.S. movement as it is called (as in "boycott, divestment and sanctioning of Israeli products and companies") is that nobody really seems to know exactly how many Israeli products the Co-op carries. Some say it is just some bath salts (but not those bath salts) and "the occasional peppers or lychee," while others (they've got a website!) think there is more on the shelves. Either way, the issue has some members of the famous market murmuring about anti-Semitism. “We don’t have any shoppers here from South Africa or Nestlé. But this is different—this is Chaim town,” said one member. “This is the heart of Chaim town. So to come in here and try and push this boycott against Israel goes against everything the co-op is about, everything it was founded on.”

And it keeps going. Alan Dershowitz is ready to go to war if the Co-op goes through with a ban. “It reminds me of what one great historian once said about the Puritans: they were opposed to bear-baiting not because of the harm it did to the bear but because of the pleasure it gave the viewers,” the Harvard law professor told the paper. “And that’s what these people are, they’re bigots. Many of them are anti-Semites. Some of them don’t know they’re anti-Semites. That doesn’t give them a pass...We will stop at nothing to make them pay an extraordinarily heavy price for their bigotry.”

Anyway, the issue won't be going away anytime soon. If the topic of B.D.S. does get put to a referendum, it'll be another six months or so before a vote could take place. And if one were to come, it isn't like the Co-op really has that much to worry about: “Would I leave the co-op?” an anti-B.D.S. organizer said to the paper. “Did I leave the country when a certain president spent eight years in office?”

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in Food on August 4, 2011 9:00 AM

Comments [rss]

EricKosten

If being Anti-Israeli is the same as anti-Semitism, then the ADL, J-Street, and every other lobbying organization that claims to be a "pro-Jewish, not pro-Israeli" group should be taxed like any other foreign lobby (they currently call themselves a domestic lobby, and thus, pay the according tax rates).

Point being, the two are not the same. I hate Korean food. I do not hate Koreans. Etc.

LiberalGirl

Muslims currently have virtually all of the Middle-East, North and East Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, and some east European nation I can't think of right now. Let Israel keep Palestine. Relocate the current squatters to the United States where they can start living normal lives, and let Israel have Palestine.

iam draize

Thats a silly arugment.

Why not say white people already have Europe and the US so they shouldnt colonize a place in the ME?

People have indiviudal rights. Just because there are other people who are muslims in the ME doesnt mean the Palestenians lose their rights to Palestine. People have individual human rights. You are willing to erase them from Palestenians..as if they have no rights. When this is done to white people, you make musuems and movies about it and call it a war crime....but Arabs...no they dont get the same rights? Why?

Mr Mel

How about products from Syria, we ok with that?

iam draize

diversion alert

Mr Mel

You're gonna have to learn about multi-tasking.

me

Native people of the americas have had their lands stolen from them, and have been almost entirely exterminated by oppressors who are no less than nazi's.

chud_hunter

Wow, this is dumb. Really?...I mean, really?... All I know is that both sides have done their share of reprehensible deeds and need to accept that fact in order to move forward. A very simple (duh) view but I'm not claiming to be an expert on this topic. All of the highly opinionated, self-annointed experts who aren't Israeli or Palestinian, or who haven't spent any significant time living in the region should shut up and stop pretending like they know everything in this big gray area.

iam draize

I/P is usually represented as something complex..as something with gray areas... something about religion..a conflict going back thousands of years.

This is a myth. The conflict began when one group of people established a state and kicked out the native population. This is how the Zionists described themselves, Zionist colonialists...and they were escaping not only anti-Semitism, but also Assimilation. They wanted a place where they could preserve their religion, race and culture...this is why the couldn’t assimilate with the Palestinians who were there...

Its not complicated. There is no symmetry between the state of Israel and the refugees of Palestine. History is filled with examples of on side using might to enforce ideologies that go against the law. People like you who say 'oh it’s a gray area' remind of the people MLK wrote to from a jail cell in Alabama...

Here is quote, you should read the full link.

" I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Ar...

ml560

Fact: Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Arab women can vote. That is the true reason why the Islamofascists hate Israel.

iam draize

An outright LIE. In all but three out of 22 countries in the Arab League, women have the right to vote and run for office

cited:
http://www.economist.com/node/...

Watch this video to see how the IDF treats 'Arab' women....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

felixthecat

Boycott products from Canada. They club baby seals. Please

zombiebob

Mmmm... baby seal... DELICIOUS!

felixthecat

You are from 3rd world where they would eat penises and fetuses.

zombiebob

You keep on saying that I'm from the third world , and accuse me of eating disgusting things. Sir, I say, I am from NYC, and I enjoy baby octopus, yummy yummy veal, and I regularly hold chickens while others kill them on a farm outside of the city.

boobloomberg

Why shouldn't Israel grant citizenship to anybody it wants...All states do. Name one right that a Jewish Israeli has that a non-Jewish Israeli does not?

zombiebob

Look go for it, do what makes you happy, but stop lying about it, and stop getting pissed that other people get pissed about it. And stop hiding behind America. Actually, stop telling LIES to America, stop stealing our tax dollars, Stop dragging us into conflicts with your lies...etc etc etc...

zombiebob

hows about this from below. HAsbara is paying you too much money:Take the Nationality Citizenship Law passed in 1952, which grants automatic citizenship to Jews who immigrate to Israel, while excluding non-Jewish native-born Palestinians who under this law must prove residency and pass other tests.

forta leza

Ok then where is the boycott on Saudi Arabia for granting preferential citizenship treatment to Muslims? Where is the boycott on Poland for granting preferential citizenship treatment to ethnic Poles? Where is the boycott on Ireland? Italy? India? Where is the boycott on Liberia for limiting citizenship to blacks?

The fact is that discriminatory citizenship policies are an excuse used to seek boycotts of Israel, not the real reason. Because if it were the real reason, the same people who seek boycotts of Israel would seek boycotts of dozens of other countries.

iam draize

So in 2011, it would be ok if America decided it was 'christian' nation? And it would be okay if the American government took steps such as redrawing borders to advert the 'demographic' threat from the minority religions?

Of course not, but this is par for the course with Israel. Israel is an anarchonism in the modern world, its a country with both its feet planted in colonialism who is trying to bs people thats its a liberal democracy.