Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at the Park Slope Food Co-op’s vote to boycott Israeli products.
A vote at the Park Slope Food Co-op on Tuesday night ended a yearslong debate among its more than 17,000 members over a campaign to ban Israeli goods — a debate that intensified during Israel’s war in Gaza.
The co-op, a member-owned and -operated food store in one of Brooklyn’s most expensive neighborhoods, offers an array of organic, minimally processed and healthy products with an emphasis on sustainable agriculture.
It says it is the largest and oldest member-owned and -operated grocery store in the world, founded in 1973. And has long embodied the political concerns and consumption habits of many Brooklyn liberals.
The co-op has faced intense conflict because of the Israel-Gaza war and some members’ push to boycott Israeli products. The store hired security guards this week to protect its building after it received threats and suspicious substances sent through the mail.
While some saw the measure as a hyperlocal manifestation of rising antisemitism, others saw it as taking a stand against Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
My colleague Liam Stack reported that co-op members voted by more than two to one in favor of boycotting Israeli products, with 67 percent voting in favor and 31 percent against, and 2 percent abstaining.
So what does that mean?
A handful of goods made in Israel, and Israeli products made in the occupied Palestinian territories, including some produce and several brands of tahini, olive oil and hair care products will be removed from the shelves until Israel ends what the approved measure’s text describes as discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in any territory under Israel’s control.
At the meeting Tuesday night, which lasted more than three hours, Alyce Barr, a leading boycott campaigner who has been a co-op member since 1978 and is Jewish, cited the co-op’s mission to “avoid products that depend on the exploitation of others.”
She said that members had to take a stand against Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and that allowing the status quo to continue was as much a political choice as making a change.
“Voting yes on this boycott is voting against genocide, voting against apartheid and voting yes to getting our co-op back on the right side of history,” Barr said.
But Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a co-op member and leader of the anti-boycott campaign, said after the vote on Tuesday that “this was a really sad night for a lot of Jews in Park Slope.” She said she planned to resign from the co-op.
“This was not a vote for peace or justice or humanity,” Rabbi Timoner said.
Some co-op members first sought in 2009 to join the global boycott, divestment and sanction movement and boycott Israeli products. In recent years, a 75 percent supermajority rule on boycott votes blocked the effort. (The boycott was passed with a simple majority after a vote to end the supermajority requirement.)
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ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended (Eid al-Adha).
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I would rather take them to Disney World for a couple of days than one night at the Garden.” — Fernando Rodas on taking his family of four to watch the Knicks play in the N.B.A. finals at Madison Square Garden. He was only able to find tickets for $2,700 each.
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METROPOLITAN diary
Roasted
Dear Diary:
I was living in Queens in the early 1980s. About a block from my apartment, there was a butcher shop that had a small grocery section.
One Sunday morning when I was at the shop waiting to pay for some items, there was a woman who was probably in her 80s in front of me. Among the items she was waiting to pay for was a six-pack of beer.
The young woman at the cash register told the older woman that she could not sell her the beer. In those days, you could not buy beer before noon on Sundays in New York.
The customer was clearly unhappy. The cashier was apologetic but said there was nothing she could do.
From behind the meat counter, the butcher, who owned the shop, asked what was wrong.
The cashier explained.
Pass the six-pack over to me, the butcher said.
He proceeded to wrap the beer in brown butcher’s paper and hand it back to the cashier.
“It’s a roast,” he said.
— Thomas P. Hannon
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — D.W.
Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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Davaughnia Wilson is a news assistant at The Times who helps to cover the New York City region.
The post The Long, Bitter Fight at the Park Slope Food Co-op appeared first on New York Times.
