Via Judy Balint in Israel
"Last month when I was visiting Seattle, I had the opportunity to take part in a "hearing" of the Olympia Food Co-op whose board had voted to boycott Israeli products. The 15,000 Co-op membership had not been consulted and some of them were upset--not that they were pro-Israel, they were ticked off that the Board had not consulted the members before they launched the Co-op into progressive history by becoming the first co-op in the nation to boycott Israel.
More of that later--in another part of Washington state--the charming, quiet community of Port Townsend--another Israel boycott was brewing. This time however, saner voices prevailed and Jewish activists from all over the state, led by the Seattle StandWithUs group, together with a flurry of letters and op eds in the local paper, resulted in a "no" vote on the boycott last night."
The PTLeader reports:
The Port Townsend Food Co-op board Tuesday voted 4 to 2 to reject a proposed boycott of products made in Israel.
After listening to more than 50 co-op members speak passionately for and against the proposal, the board approved a motion stating that the proposal was inconsistent with the co-op’s boycott policy.
The board concluded that policy does not allow the co-op to take a stand on issues involving countries.
“We are not in the business, fundamentally, of adjudicating international issues,” said board member Rick Sepler.
“That is [just] not the business the co-op is in,” said board member Steve Moore, adding, “It is not why we were elected.”
***
Port Townsend joins the Davis Co-op and the Seattle Co-op in rejecting BDS. Still being ravaged by the BDs'ers is the Scaramento Natural Food co-op. Patricia Daugherty and her partner Maggie Coulter have moved their attentions from Davis to Sac, in search of a BDS victory that remains as elusive in Northern California as Susquach. Want to help defeat the forces of darkness ?
Send emails to the Sacramento Natural Food Co-op and tell them the boycotts are a divisive tool that fragment our community and do nothing to futher the cause of peace in the middle east:
Emails of both Board and Policy Committee:
snfcboard@yahoo.com, michellereyn@gmail.com, sjbrancamp@aol.com, steven_maviglio@yahoo.com, adienst@sbcglobal.net, sonemi@comcast.net, rhdjr65@aol.com, paigelyn@sonic.net, barbara.mendenhall@comcast.net
* * *
Visit the co-op and buycott, buycott, buycott!
Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op
1900 Alhambra Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95816
The Co-op is currently selling several Dead Sea products from Israel, including Masada Dead Sea Mineral Bath Salts, Ancient Secrets Dead Sea Mineral Baths, One with Nature soap, Dead Sea Warehouse Mud Mask, Bath Salts, and Salt Soap. The Winter gift giving season is nearly upon us. Think about a making a gift basket for Mom with these wonderful products.
Buy your tofu, tempeh and beautiful organic vegies. Put your receipt into the suggestion box with a note- I shop the co-op AND I support Israel.
And keep your eyes open for other attempts of BDS'ers to infiltrate our beloved institutions
http://stopbdsnow.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteFood Co-Op Policies Against the Boycott
The following policies direct the Port Townsend Food Co-Op to:
POLICY B8: EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS
CUSTOMER SERVICE AND VALUE
B8.8 Ensure that the store not be utilized for political purposes; therefore, s/he shall not fail to:
B8.8.1 Ensure that signs, banners, newsletters and other materials endorsing or urging opposition to any (a) candidate(s) for public office, (b) referenda, propositions, resolutions or any other items on a public ballot, or (c) community matters not directly related to organic, natural and healthy foods, are not created by the Co-op nor displayed within the Co-op premises except that, with respect to item (c), petition gathering may be permitted at the store entrances so long as ingress and egress are not impeded.
The Peninsula Daily News was obviously impressed with the out of town "big gun" Israel imported from their headquarters in California. Their repoter gave Lustig much more space than he did the human rights arguments made by Kit Kittredge (and, I imagine, other people of goodwill in Port Townsend).
ReplyDeleteThis phrase "photos of children's bodies ALLEGEDLY left in the rubble by Israeli bombings" betrays the reporter's unwarranted skepticism about what Israel did in Gaza at the end of 2008 when it rained burning phosphorus bombs on the people of Gaza in the "Cast Lead" offensive. I would urge readers who want to know more of the facts about war crimes committed by Israel to google "Goldstone Report" and at least read a summary of the indictments of the Israeli army by a well-respected, Israel-sympathetic judge of international affairs.
Please remember the people of Palestine were minding their own business when the Western World thrust the state of Israel upon them in 1948. Ever since then, Israel has been trying to get rid of the indigenous Palestinian population. Come on America, you've seen the results of that kind of ethnic cleansing before. Why support a brutal occupation when you don't have to? Boycott!
LJansen,
ReplyDeleteYou're a moron and a bigot. No point in discussing matters with you.
Ljansen, Actually, the leader of the Palestinian people was happily training members of the Bosnian SS for Hitler. Hardly "minding their business".
ReplyDeleteLjansen, like many "pro-Palestinian" (read "anti-Israel") activists, is probably completely unaware of the reference above. The myth of peaceful Palestinians suddenly evicted at gunpoint from their homes by Zionists (backed by European colonialists)is one that they have unquestioningly adopted.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this picture (http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/mufti_ss.jpg) illustrating the above incident will spark some curiousity.
Perhaps they will read about how the Mufti (http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Haj_Amin_El_Husseini.htm) instigated riots against centuries-old Jewish communities in Mandatory Palestine on the pretext of "defending al-Aqsa" (sound familiar?).
Perhaps they can read the Mufti's quote "We want no progress, no prosperity. Nothing but the sword will decide the fate of this country."--words that were adopted by his protege, Yassir Arafat, as a philosophy of governance when Arafat ran the West Bank and Gaza, using billions in Western largesse to recruit and arm terrorists (and pay for Suha's Paris shopping sprees).
Perhaps they will understand that "itbach el-Yahud" was the rallying cry of the rejectionists in 1920 just as much as in 2010, that the Palestinian leadership has consistently and deliberately chosen jihad over co-existence, and that BDS is just another arm of this endless jihad.
(sadly, in the words of Steve Martin as "Theodoric of York" [http://www.hulu.com/watch/3529/saturday-night-live-theodoric-of-york], "Naaaah.")