US food co-op considers boycott of Israeli goods
Reageer (0)21-9-2010
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A US food co-op will vote Tuesday on a plan put forward by the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement to ban Israeli goods from store shelves in a move that has riled Israeli diplomats.
Israeli deputy consul-general for the northwestern US area Gideon Lustig traveled to Port Townsend, Washington, the town whose co-op is considering the boycott, at the request of an Israel advocacy group which opposes the boycott of Israeli products.
The proposal asks that the store pull Israeli products from its shelves until Israel complies with UN decisions regarding the occupied territories, lifts the siege on Gaza, ends apartheid policies against Palestinians, and recognizes the refugees' right of return.
Israel has taken an unusually strong interest in the case, activists say viewing Lustig's efforts, including scheduling meetings in an apparent last-minute bid to dissuade co-op officials from supporting the initiative, as evidence that Israel fears the growing BDS movement.
This is despite that according to the co-op's 2009 financial report, the eight targeted Israeli goods represent a fraction of inventory. Annual sales amount to about $10,754,609 or which about $3,000 -- less than one percent -- comes from the sale of goods produced in Israel.
The Israeli envoy held a private meeting with Sam Gibboney, the co-op board president, Dena Bugel-Shunra, an activist supporting the bid, told Ma'an.
The meeting was closed to co-op members and to the public, but Gibboney acknowledged that the subject of the meeting was the boycott, Bugel-Shunra said noting that Gibboney was one of the few board members opposing the initiative.
Gibboney has also not held similar meetings with boycott supporters, they say. Bugel-Shunra noted that such closed-door meetings violate the co-op's bylaws, why may explain why one side of the debate has not sought special attention.
"I'm troubled that board members of our own food co-op would hold closed meetings on a subject that has aroused so much interest within our community," Bugel-Shunra said in a separate statement.
"We need to shed more light on this issue rather than open our co-op up to allegations of back-room deals," she said.
Another boycott advocate, Jim Watson, said in the same statement that "We believe that these meetings with the consul-general should not occur. It would be in violation of board policy."
Lustig defends his participation in the meetings
"I feel I can provide members of the co-op board information that is valuable to help them make a decision," he said Sunday.
"Getting [a few] Israeli products out of the shop is tagging Israel as an apartheid country in the Middle East, and that doesn't get anybody anywhere," Lustig was quoted as saying by the Peninsula Daily News publication.
The issue has grown ugly in recent weeks, BDS campaigners say, with pro-Israel advocates appearing at public debates making accusations of racism and anti-Semitism as well as comparing the campaigners to Hitler.
Campaigners on both sides of the issue recognize the symbolic importance of the town's proposal which, if approved, comes only two months since the Olympia co-op passed the nation's first such boycott initiative.
(This version CORRECTS Port Townsend is a town in the US state of Washington, not California.)
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