We are pleased to report at tonight’s General Meeting of the Park Slope food coop, the members voted to reject and defeat the attempt to have our food coop join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel Movement. The Board of Directors affirmed the members’ vote. Our Coop was the winner tonight. Food and community triumphed. The Coop will continue its mission to provide great food at great prices.
We have proved that it is possible for a highly diverse group to work together collectively to build a successful enterprise based on an unusual business model. The Coop is a place where people park their politics at the door. As always, we will welcome people of all beliefs and interests to build a strong and dynamic community.
The BDS movement does nothing to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, or improve the lives of Palestinians. Peace will come through a negotiated settlement between the 2 sides that will include mutual recognition of rights and national aspirations. The BDS leadership works against peace by rejecting all cooperative endeavors between Israelis and Palestinians. By placing all blame on one side only, and by ignoring context, the BDS movement serves to bolster the most rejectionist elements of the Palestinian cause. The real goal of BDS is to end the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
The Coop is proud to join the other institutions that have rejected BDS.
In March 2012 we defeated a BDS initiative at the Park Slope Food Coop.
In 2024 we will stop them again.
Congrats guys, and great post!
ReplyDeletecongratulations to Barbara and all who worked so hard to defeat this drive to deligitimize Israel
ReplyDeleteYasher koach to all for a job well done!
ReplyDeletethanks for all your efforts on this.
ReplyDeletei am glad i went to the meeting tonight.
i voted NO.
you helped put this over the top.
Barb:
ReplyDeleteyour effort was so essential to the defeat of this Food Coop proposal. Thank you so much for all your hard work.
avishay
Congratulations, Park Slope Food Coop! We in Olympia, Washington thank you for exemplifying the democratic process at its best and showing the world that food cooperatives are about wholesome food and caring community and not about divisive political advocacy under misguided pretenses. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteEven one of the sharpest critics of Isreli policy Norman Finkelstein sees the BDS movement for exactly what it is....a move to destroy Israel. Thank you for standing up for fairness and sanity.
ReplyDeleteCome on Barb, you need to have a posting for the final vote count:
ReplyDeleteFinal Tally:
no vote or invalid vote: 4
in favor of holding the referendum: 653
opposed to holding the referendum: 1005
HURRAY!