Park Slope Coop rejects boycott on Israeli products (VIDEO)
The Park Slope Co-op voted on March 27, 2012 against a motion that would have moved it closer to a boycott on Israeli products.
NEW YORK — The Park Slope Co-op voted on Tuesday night against a contentious motion that would have moved it closer to a boycott on Israeli products, said The New York Times.
The vote was essentially to decide on whether to hold a referendum on a boycott, with 1,005 members voting against the motion and 653 in favor. The Times said the vote had "embroiled the venerable neighborhood institution for many months and divided its membership."
The Guardian provided some perspective on why the story mattered: "The 39-year-old co-op is a cultural touchstone in Brooklyn: a rich source of affordable organic produce for its 16,300 members, and a rich source of earnest hippies to ridicule for non-members. In recent months, the simmering politics of the Middle East, combined with the simmering seriousness of many co-op members, have fuelled tremendous tension in the community, even leading prominent New York politicians to weigh in on the proposed boycott."
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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg weighed in before the vote, "We should be encouraging Israel to have more business with us, and us with them — not discouraging it," according to The New York Daily News.
The Washington Post offered some more history on the co-op, saying it was one of the largest and oldest co-ops in the United States which had its members contribute labor in order to keep prices low. Non-members can only visit the store, but cannot make any purchases. According to the Brooklyn Paper, the co-op banned products from South Africa during apartheid.
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A group calling itself More Hummus Please opposed the referendum, calling the boycott movement, known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), discriminatory, according to The Wall Street Journal. The BDS group's website said after the vote, "The vote tonight has shown us that we still have a lot of work ahead in the fight to end Israeli oppression of Palestinians."
The boycott, if implemented, would have been largely symbolic, as the co-op only carries a few Israeli items including organic paprika, kosher marshmallows, tapenade and pesto and a seltzer-water maker, according to The Times.
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