Park Slope Food Co-Op Votes to Boycott Israeli Products
Members will decide whether to lower the boycott threshold and bar Israeli goods, a move management says has fueled threats and disruptions.
- On Tuesday, members of the Park Slope Food Coop voted to boycott Israeli products, with 67% of 6,772 votes cast in favor, 31% opposed, and 2% abstaining. The vote will remove nine Israeli-made items, including Ecolove hair products and Osem Bamba snacks, from shelves.
- Debates over Israeli products have divided the coop since 2009, but tensions escalated dramatically after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and ensuing Gaza war, as PSFC Members for Palestine and anti-BDS group Coop4Unity mobilized competing campaigns within the 16,000-member coop.
- Before the main vote, members approved lowering the boycott threshold from 75% supermajority to 51% simple majority by 68% to 31%, with 1% abstaining. The meeting moved entirely online after staff reported conversations had devolved into physical altercations and the coop received threats and suspicious packages.
- Rabbi Rachel Timoner, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim who led the opposition campaign, announced her intention to resign, describing the result as "a very sad night for many Jews in the area." Incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman condemned the vote, stating it shifts responsibility for Israeli government actions to American Jews.
- The coop's history of boycotting apartheid South Africa from 1973 to 1994 provided precedent for supporters, with one arguing the vote can spread to universities and labor unions. The dispute now shapes the Democratic primary race for Congress in NY-10 Congressional District, where two Jewish candidates have staked opposing positions on Israel policy.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Park Slope Food Coop rips Israeli products from store hours after boycott vote: ‘Enjoy your mediocre hummus!’
Israeli-made products were ripped from the shelves of the lefty Park Slope Food Coop just hours after being banned in a historic vote — prompting scores of Jewish shoppers to threaten to quit the member-run market in revolt.
Brooklyn food coop votes to boycott Israeli products after years-long push
Members of the Park Slope Food Coop in the Brooklyn borough of New York City voted on Tuesday night to boycott Israeli products, citing the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.The measure passed by a margin of 67% (4,551) to 31% (2,083), with 2% abstaining, according to vote totals reported after the virtual meeting. Coop members first approved a bylaw change lowering the threshold for boycott measures from a 75% supermajority…
Brooklyn food co-op votes to implement boycott of Israeli products
Two-thirds of the roughly 7,000 members of the Park Slope Food Co-op who took part in Tuesday's meeting voted in favor of the boycott of all Israeli products 'until Israel complies with int'l law'
Brooklyn's Park Slope Food Coop votes to boycott Israeli products
(JTA) — Members of the famed worker-owned grocery store in Brooklyn’s Park Slope voted Tuesday night in favor of a boycott of Israeli products. The vote came after a years-long battle that divided coop members and the Park Slope community. Of the 6,772 votes cast at a meeting that lasted for hours, 67% voted in favor of the boycott, 31% voted against, and 2% abstained, according to immediate results of the vote viewed by JTA. Nearly 7,000 out of…
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