Tuesday, July 20, 2010

U.S. Food Co-op Boycotts All Israeli Products; Movement Presses for Other Boycotts on Israel

The Forward (Israeli) website reports today (July 20, 2010) that the board of directors of the Olympia Food Co-op in Washington state has decided that no more Israeli products will be sold at its two grocery stores in the city.

The board met on July 15, and the boycott went into effect the next day.

Olympia is the hometown of the International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 in Gaza, when a bulldozer ran her over as she tried to prevent demolition of a Palestinian house.

The Olympia Food Co-op boycott is only a tiny part of an effort that the BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) movement is mounting on U.S. companies. The Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) activists have collected thousands of signatures calling on firms and institutions to divest their money from companies that "profit from the violation of international law through home demolitions, the destruction of life sustaining orchards, the construction of roads and transits that only Israelis can use, the killing of civilians by drones, and many other injustices."

No comments:

Post a Comment