[Peace-discuss] NYT: politicians weigh in on boycott Israel debateat Park Slope Food Coop

Wed Mar 28 03:08:04 UTC 2012

My My,

This has obviously hit a sensitive nerve if Bloomberg and all of these other assholes are speaking out publicly.
One would think that they would care less about the decision of the majority of members of a simple food coop in Park Slope Brooklyn, or at least ignore the event.
Obviously they are concerned that this might set a good example for others, in particular faith based and university investments and certain pension fund investments.

David J.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Naiman 
  To: Peace-discuss List 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 6:29 PM
  Subject: [Peace-discuss] NYT: politicians weigh in on boycott Israel debateat Park Slope Food Coop

        http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/nyregion/boycott-plan-at-park-slope-food-co-op-draws-politicians-opposition.html Advertise on NYTimes.comBoycott Plan at Food Co-op Is Opposed by City Officials

        Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
        Michael Rieman, center, handed out fliers opposing a boycott of Israeli products by the Park Slope Food Co-op. A vote on whether to hold a referendum on the boycott is expected Tuesday. 

        By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
        Published: March 26, 2012

        Many of New York City’s leading politicians said Monday that they opposed a boycott of Israeli products by the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn, speaking out on the day before the market is expected to hold an initial vote on the proposal. 

        Related
          a.. Divisions and Irritation in Food Co-op’s Debate (March 24, 2012) 
          b.. Big City: Food Co-op Politics Leave a Bad Taste (March 4, 2012) 
          c.. Times Topic: Park Slope Food Co-op
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        Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, called the idea “ill conceived.” Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, said it was “madness.” Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, described the proposal as “an anti-Semitic crusade.” 

        Asked about the issue at a news conference in Brooklyn, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called Israel a close financial and political ally and said he wondered why the co-op would conduct a foreign policy debate. 

        “Why any of this has anything to do with selling food, I don’t know,” Mr. Bloomberg said. 

        The mayor said he would encourage New Yorkers to do more business with Israel, not less, and noted that Israel itself had been formed after a vote at the United Nations, then in Flushing, Queens. 

        “I think it has nothing to do with the food,” he said of the boycott. “The issue is there are people who want Israel to be torn apart and everybody to be massacred, and America is not going to let that happen.” 

        The proposed boycott, an outgrowth of an international movement that pushes for divestment and sanctions against Israel, has pitted neighbor against neighbor at the 39-year-old co-op, a Brooklyn institution known for its organic produce and its socially conscious membership. Co-op members are scheduled to vote on Tuesday on whether to hold a referendum on the boycott. 

        The boycott would be largely symbolic, because the co-op carries only a half-dozen or so products imported from Israel, including paprika, olive pesto and vegan marshmallows. 

        But the debate has been divisive, and is taking place in an affluent neighborhood with an energized, highly active constituency that turns out in droves for local and citywide elections. 

        “It’s my home turf,” Mr. de Blasio, a longtime Park Slope resident and likely mayoral candidate in 2013, said in a phone interview on Monday. His office had issued a written denunciation of the plan over the weekend. 

        “I really have a lot of respect for the co-op and its history, and maybe that’s in part what’s motivating me,” said Mr. de Blasio, who is not a current co-op member. “I’m pained that an organization that has done so much good would wade into these waters.” 

        Unlike Mr. de Blasio, Ms. Quinn has not issued a formal statement regarding the vote on Tuesday. But the speaker, who is also planning a run for mayor, quickly responded to a reporter’s inquiry on Monday and spoke at length about her own experiences visiting Israel, including a trip in 2007, when a rocket attack occurred nearby. 

        “The relationship between New York and Israel, in my opinion, is very, very significant, and something I feel very, very strongly about,” Ms. Quinn said. “This boycott is ill conceived. I don’t think there should be a vote, and I hope that is what happens.” 

        Asked for his view, Mr. Stringer, another likely mayoral candidate, issued a fierce denunciation, writing in an e-mail that the co-op “should not be torn apart” by a proposal he deemed anti-Semitic. “This action is an unwarranted attack on one of America’s strongest allies and an embarrassment to our city,” he wrote. 

        Israeli politics is a topic close to the heart of the city’s sprawling Jewish population, a group that has proven decisive in several high-profile political races in Brooklyn and Queens in recent months. 

        “New York’s neighborhoods have their own foreign policy,” said Mitchell L. Moss, a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, who added that the inclination of New Yorkers to weigh in on world events can have political implications for local elections. 

        “The boundaries of New York’s mayoral campaigns are infinite,” Professor Moss said. “Everything is potentially an issue.” 

        A version of this article appeared in print on March 27, 2012, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Boycott Plan at Food Co-op Is Opposed by City Officials.

        Saturday's article:

        http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/nyregion/at-park-slope-food-co-op-a-debate-and-disinterest.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=Park%20Slope%20coop&st=cse

        March 23, 2012
        Divisions and Irritation in Food Co-op’s Debate

        Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
        Outside the Park Slope Food Co-op, Felicia Glucksman, above center, lobbied Jon Crow against a boycott of Israeli goods as Sarah Wellington, in background, pushed for a vote on the issue. 

        By KIRK SEMPLE
        A graphic designer came to buy ingredients for dinner. So did an entrepreneur and a musician, an engineer and a law firm employee — all streaming into the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn for its bounty of organic produce, artisan cheese and fair-trade coffee. 

        The foot traffic the other night reflected in part the changes in Park Slope, an increasingly upscale neighborhood where the store was founded 39 years ago by a group of shaggy idealists inspired by the socially conscious ethos of the time. 

        Now, though, this cultural and retail anchor on Union Street, which counts about 16,000 members and had $45 million in sales last year, is engulfed in a debate that evokes its social and political roots: whether to boycott products from Israel to protest the Israeli government’s policies toward Palestinians. 

        The debate has splintered the membership, turned neighbor against neighbor and provoked threats of litigation. Yet above all, many people seem uninterested in, or even annoyed by, all the arguing. Their reactions point up how the co-op has evolved from a countercultural upstart into a neighborhood institution as conventional as children’s soccer leagues on Saturday morning. 

        As one co-op member, an Internet entrepreneur, put it, “A lot of people couldn’t care less about the progressive stuff.” 

        On Tuesday, at the co-op’s monthly meeting, members will vote on whether to hold a referendum on the boycott — “a vote on a vote,” as some have taken to calling it. Turnout is expected to be so large that organizers have shifted the meeting from its usual location, a nearby synagogue that fits 350 people, to the auditorium of the Brooklyn Technical High School, which can hold about 3,000. 

        The push for a boycott is part of an international lobbying effort against Israel called B.D.S., which stands for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. Boycotts are intended to pressure Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and recognize “the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality,” according to the movement’s Web site. 

        In recent years, calls for anti-Israel boycotts have embroiled food co-ops around the country, including those in Sacramento and Davis, Calif.; Seattle, Olympia and Port Townsend, Wash.; and Ann Arbor, Mich. All but the effort in Olympia have been unsuccessful. 

        The Park Slope debate has percolated for several years but started gathering force in 2010, spawning competing groups. Members use the co-op’s biweekly newsletter, The Linewaiters’ Gazette, to air their views about the boycott and, more broadly, Middle East politics. The issue has been debated on local blogs and has filtered into the national news media. 

        Opponents have accused boycott supporters of anti-Semitism and contended that a boycott would achieve nothing, pointing out that the co-op carries at most about a half-dozen Israeli items, including SodaStream soda makers, organic paprika and bath salts. 

        “I can’t believe how much attention this is getting,” said Barbara Mazor, a founder of an antiboycott group called More Hummus, Please. “It’s very strange. It’s a grocery store!” 

        “We’re being asked to take a position that’s not going to make a bit of difference,” she added. 

        Boycott supporters said that the symbolism mattered and that every bit of pressure on the Israeli government counted. “It’s saying, if you want to be valid in the eyes of the world, you have to cooperate with international law,” said Liz Roberts, an activist with the Park Slope Food Co-op Members for B.D.S. group. 

        The supporters said accusations of anti-Semitism were unfair and a diversion, and they pointed out that some in the co-op’s boycott lobby are Jewish. 

        The aisles in the store have remained largely civil, but emotions have boiled over on the sidewalk out front. Pro-boycott activists say they have been kicked, pushed and spat on. 

        While the co-op has a reputation for vegetarian fare like kale and quinoa, it also stocks the kind of upmarket products found at Whole Foods, like grass-fed beef, chocolate scones and craft beer. Prices are often far lower than at other supermarkets because labor is provided by members. 

        Members are required to work a shift of 2 hours and 45 minutes every four weeks. Jobs include stocking shelves, running the register and staffing the child care room. The co-op also has a small paid staff. 

        Membership has grown so rapidly in recent years that at times, checkout lines snake through the aisles. Many members are from other neighborhoods in Brooklyn and even elsewhere in New York City and the region. The co-op also prides itself on its racial diversity. 

        “I see people from everywhere, from all layers of society,” said Jörgen Wahlsten, a software engineer from Sweden and a co-op member. “It’s become more and more mainstream.” 

        The co-op is no stranger to political action, approving boycotts on the sale of products from South Africa, Chile, Colorado, General Electric, Coca-Cola and Domino, among others. 

        Joe Holtz, the co-op’s general manager and one of its founders, has been in the fray of all of those debates. He was a 22-year-old college dropout when he and eight friends decided to form the co-op. 

        “The co-ops came out of that whole upheaval of different movements: the civil rights movement, the women’s rights movements, anti-Vietnam War, the gay rights movement,” he recalled. “We were very attracted to the idea that cooperation meant working together and that working together would make for a better world.” 

        The other boycotts were adopted without much fuss, he said, because there was near-unanimous support. But this is the first time the store has waded into Middle East politics, he said, and never has the debate over a boycott been so threatening to the stability of the organization. 

        “This just reeks of divisiveness,” said Mr. Holtz, who opposes the boycott. 

        For many members, it seems, the vote could not come too soon. 

        Outside the co-op the other night, activists from each side of the debate tried to buttonhole members, only to be ignored by most. 

        “Can we encourage you to vote no?” an antiboycott activist asked as he thrust a leaflet at Ron Eugenio, who was with his wife, Jenny, and daughter, Violette. 

        “I’ll read it and figure it out,” he replied, quickly moving away. 

        As the couple carried their purchases to their car, Mr. Eugenio, a case manager at an intellectual property law firm, and Ms. Eugenio, an admissions director at a private school in Manhattan, said they joined the co-op for the healthy, inexpensive food. 

        “It’s not to make a political statement,” Mr. Eugenio said. 

        As she waited for a car to pick her up, Nechama Marcus, a graphic designer, patiently listened to an activist’s arguments. After a pause, she said cheerfully, “I’m for good food!” 

        The activist moved toward another target. Ms. Marcus looked down at her brimming shopping cart and sighed. “I have a lot of cooking to do,” she said. 

        This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

        Correction: March 24, 2012

        An earlier version of this article erroneously stated that Liz Roberts was a member of the Park Slope Food Co-op B.D.S. board. Ms. Roberts is an activist with the Park Slope Food Co-op Members for B.D.S., but no such board exists at the Park Slope Food Co-op. Additionally, an earlier correction in this space wrongly stated that the Park Slope Food Co-op did not have a board; it does. Additionally, the first name of Nechama Marcus was misspelled. 

  -- 
  Robert Naiman
  Policy Director
  Just Foreign Policy
  www.justforeignpolicy.org
  naiman at justforeignpolicy.org

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