An appeal to the Park Slope Food
Coop Coordinators and Members of the Board of Directors
My husband and I have been Coop
members for over 23 years, and my friendship with some of you goes back that
far. You have my deepest respect and
appreciation for the work you have done to create and maintain the Coop. You are the stewards of the Coop.
You listened to my concerns when
the pro-BDS group began their efforts at the Coop. You empathized with me. Although you opposed the BDS initiative
because you recognized its potential negative effect, you declined to interfere
with the process of Coop governance.
Instead, you opted to allow the BDS initiative to proceed to the General
Meeting with the expectation that a political defeat for the action would put
the issue to rest. I disagreed, yet I
respected your decision. I defended it
when I spoke to the press, and I never disparaged the Coop publicly.
When we held the vote on the
BDS referendum proposal,
less than 4% of the total Coop membership came out to vote in its
favor.
BDS was overwhelmingly rejected
by the membership.
Yet, a few members
continue to utilize the Linewaiters’ Gazette as a platform for promoting their
anti-Israel agenda.
They submit letters containing
distortions, misrepresentations and false statements.
It is a campaign designed to instill hatred.
Over the past several weeks, those
of us with connections to Israel have seen our friends, relatives and loved
ones subjected to the
barrages of hundreds of rockets.
These rockets are directed at the civilian
population with the intention to
kill, maim and terrorize.
The Hamas charter states “Israel will exist
and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it
obliterated others before it.”
It is the
extraordinary measure on the part of Israel to protect its citizens that has
minimized the casualties and damage.
To end these attacks upon its
citizens, Israel is targeting the weapons caches and the terrorists responsible
for the rockets.
The Israeli weapons,
unlike the Hamas rockets, do not target civilians.
Nevertheless, there will be loss of life and
property among Gaza civilians because of Hamas rockets that will fall short,
because of secondary explosions from Hamas weapons stored in residential
neighbors, and because of Israel’s strikes on these
legitimate military targets
intentionally located in civilian areas.
We are sensitive to this.
While our people are in jeopardy, are
we also to be demonized and vilified in our Coop’s newspaper for legitimate
acts of self-defense? Are we to be
subjected to the rants used to promote hatred of Israelis and justification for
terrorism?
Earlier today I submitted a letter
to the Linewaiters’ Gazette, urging the editorial teams to institute a
moratorium on all submissions related to the Israel/Palestinian/Arab conflict
and/or the BDS movement. I hope that
rather than print my letter they will take my suggestion to heart and start the
moratorium immediately.
Even though Gazette policy is the responsibility of editors, I
ask you, as Coordinators and Board Members, to encourage the editors to take
this step. You have the support 96% of
the Coop. Inclusiveness
and respect for diverse identities are Coop values. A moratorium is a way to support these values.
Dear Gazette
Editorial Teams:
If the Gazette
is going to continue to publish submissions relating to the
Israel/Palestinian/Arab conflict and the BDS movement, then I recommend that
the teams meet and agree upon clear and consistent guidelines. These
should include:
a)
exact definitions for what crosses the boundaries from
legitimate discussion to any form of hate speech or racism
b)
standards for conducting fact-checking and evaluation of
sources
c)
minimum qualifications and background knowledge for
anyone tasked with making the above judgements.
This is a rather
large demand to make of a volunteer staff of a food coop newspaper. It is
much simpler to declare a moratorium on all submissions related the subject.
The Gazette’s
purpose should be to build and strengthen our community, and inform us about
the issues that relate to our store, our food supply and our common
purpose. Yet, the newspaper has been allowed to become a vehicle of small
group of Coop members for the promotion of anti-Israel propaganda. In
March, the Coop community was given the opportunity to weigh in on the question
of BDS. Less than 4% of the total membership showed up to vote in favor
of the proposal. The membership has overwhelmingly rejected the
discussion. It is of no relevance, appropriateness or benefit to the Park
Slope Food Coop community.
These
anti-Israel letters are harmful to the community. They contain
distortions, misrepresentations and false statements. The letters are
designed to instill hatred; the content is at times anti-Semitic. No
amount of vehement denials by the authors can negate the pernicious effect of
these letters upon my segment of the Coop community. We are being
attacked at the heart of our national and religious identity.
Gazette editors
have on multiple occasions refused to publish content they deemed
inappropriate. Discretion is not censorship. There is no shortage
of other media for the expression of anti-Israel views. After nearly four
years of acrimony surrounding these letters, there is nothing new to be said or
accomplished at the Coop. Let’s institute the moratorium and allow
healing to begin.
