Park Slope Food Coop Just Made Things Much Harder for BDS

Image by Google Earth
The Boycott Israel debate is once more dividing members of a food cooperative in Brooklyn — and this time the anti-BDS side instituted new rules to make it more difficult to boycott anyone.
At a recent general meeting of the Park Slope Food Coop, members voted 294 to 192 to require a 75% super majority, instead of 50%-plus-one, to boycott anyone.
The pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement was specifically targeting the popular home carbonation device called SodaStream, which is made by an Israeli company.
The pro-BDS camp, which wants Israeli isolated because of the continued occupation of the West Bank, was outraged.
“How can the Coop, a progressive institution, support food justice for Palestinians in a system that oppresses them?” wrote Naomi Brussel in the Linewaiters Gazette, the official newsletter of the coop.
The move to make a boycott more difficult is designed, the other side said, to stop what has been years of infighting.
“It is clear that proposals to boycott one or another entity or group can be extremely contentious and divisive. The proposal to raise the percentage necessary to 75% will help insure that there is more support and unanimity to any such proposal,” wrote Saul D. Raw.
A local synagogue, Congregation Beth Elohim, had already barred the coop from meeting there because of the BDS drive, The Indypendent reports.
Space is now rented out at local high schools and the January meeting was held in a Catholic school auditorium.
“We are committed to diversity and equality,” the coop says in its mission statement. “We oppose discrimination in any form. We strive to make the Coop welcoming and accessible to all and to respect the opinions, needs and concerns of every member.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A Jewish nonprofit may have accidentally caused Michigan to drop charges against pro-Palestinian activists
-
Culture For Christian nationalists, Trump’s pope picture isn’t a joke
-
Opinion Is Israel really going to reoccupy Gaza? Ask Trump
-
Yiddish World A photo of my bubbe when Jewish stores still had Yiddish signs
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.