{"id":824762,"date":"2026-05-27T04:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/824762\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:35:13","slug":"park-slope-food-co-op-votes-to-boycott-israeli-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/824762\/","title":{"rendered":"Park Slope Food Co-op Votes to Boycott Israeli Products"},"content":{"rendered":"

The members of the Park Slope Food Co-op voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to boycott Israeli products, approving a measure hailed by supporters as a moral stand in defense of Palestinian rights<\/a> but castigated by opponents as an endorsement of an antisemitic movement to eliminate Israel.<\/p>\n

The measure was approved by a wide margin of more than 2 to 1, reflecting the depth of dismay in one of New York\u2019s most progressive and well-heeled neighborhoods at Israel\u2019s treatment of the Palestinians. Sixty-seven percent of those who voted approved the boycott, and 31 percent opposed, while 2 percent abstained.<\/p>\n

The co-op has long embodied the political concerns and consumption habits of many Brooklyn liberals and is sometimes mocked as the fastidious superego<\/a> of one of the borough\u2019s most expensive neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

But the push to ban Israeli products drew public attention far beyond Park Slope\u2019s leafy streets and alarmed Jewish leaders who saw the campaign as a hyperlocal manifestation of rising antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The co-op will boycott goods produced in Israel and Israeli products made in the occupied Palestinian territories until Israel abides by international law, including by ending discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in any territory under Israel\u2019s control, according to the text of the approved measure.<\/p>\n

The boycott will apply<\/a> to a small number of goods, including some produce, several brands of tahini, olive oil and hair care products.<\/p>\n

The co-op\u2019s more than 17,000 members have debated a ban on Israeli goods on and off for years, but the campaign gained new momentum during Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the debate has devolved into physical fights outside the store, tense community meetings and sweeping accusations about supposed conspiracies to either benefit or destroy Israel.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Alyce Barr, a leading boycott campaigner who has belonged to the co-op since 1978 and is Jewish, said the co-op \u201cis not now and never was just a grocery store\u201d and that it had a responsibility \u201cto avoid products that depend on the exploitation of others.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the co-op\u2019s members had to take a stand against Israel\u2019s treatment of the Palestinians, and that allowing the status quo to continue was as much a political choice as making a change.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoting yes on this boycott is voting against genocide, voting against apartheid and voting yes to getting our co-op back on the right side of history,\u201d Ms. Barr said.<\/p>\n

(The Israeli government has repeatedly denied that it has committed genocide in Gaza, although Israeli and international human rights groups and a United Nations commission on Israel\u2019s war conduct have said that the country has done so.)<\/p>\n

Opponents of the measure said its significance was greater than it might seem. In a sermon earlier this month<\/a>, Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a leader of the anti-boycott campaign and the senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, told congregants that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement sought \u201cthe elimination of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The movement, known as B.D.S., seeks to economically and culturally isolate Israel because of its treatment of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is this petty, annoying fight in our neighborhood grocery store worth so much time and effort?\u201d she told the congregation. \u201cBecause it is part of something much bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the vote on Tuesday, Rabbi Timoner said in an interview that \u201cthis was a really sad night for a lot of Jews in Park Slope.\u201d She said she planned to resign from the co-op, where she had been a member for many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a vote for peace of justice or humanity,\u201d Rabbi Timoner said. \u201cIt was disguised as one, but B.D.S. is a movement for eliminating Israel, and I think a lot of Jews who are my congregants are going to feel that antisemitism has infected a really important local institution at a time when there is so much antisemitism growing everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the third hour of the meeting on Tuesday night, the membership voted to move immediately to a vote after the pro-boycott side had addressed attendees, but the anti-boycott side had not.<\/p>\n

Maribeth Batcha, a senior member of the committee running the meeting, said that in all her years at the co-op, \u201cno one has ever voted to end discussion before discussion began.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the boycott proposal passed, Joseph Szladek, the co-op\u2019s general manager, said that most of the paid staff had wanted the boycott to be put to a referendum rather than to be voted on during a meeting.<\/p>\n

Tensions over the vote had led the co-op to say over the weekend that it would hire security to protect its building after it received threats and suspicious substances sent through the mail.<\/p>\n

In an email on Tuesday, the co-op\u2019s management asked the attendees \u201cto maintain a respectful and cooperative tone\u201d during the meeting, which was held online, with anonymous voting conducted via Zoom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize that these issues have generated intense interest and that members hold deeply different views,\u201d the co-op\u2019s management said in the email. \u201cPersonal attacks, inflammatory language, or comments directed at anyone\u2019s identity \u2014 including religion, ethnicity, or national origin \u2014 are unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the Zoom meeting on Tuesday night, the co-op\u2019s management said roughly 8,400 people had registered to attend it. After the measure passed, the co-op\u2019s management said on Zoom that almost every person present had voted.<\/p>\n

Claire Fahy contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The members of the Park Slope Food Co-op voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to boycott Israeli products, approving a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":824763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,99801,116877,338504,267709,338501,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,151567,338500,145324,297239,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-824762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-boycott","tag-boycotts","tag-congregation-beth-elohim-brooklyn","tag-cooperatives","tag-divestment-and-sanctions-bds","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-park-slope-brooklyn","tag-park-slope-food-co-op","tag-supermarkets-and-grocery-stores","tag-threats-and-threatening-messages","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}