Brooklyn's worker-owned grocery approved a boycott of Israeli goods with 67% support Tuesday, ending years of divisive debate among members.
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Members of the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn voted Tuesday night to boycott products from Israel and Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, concluding years of contentious debate that divided the storied institution.
The vote took place during a three-hour virtual meeting attended by approximately 7,000 of the cooperative's 16,000 to 17,000 members. Of 6,772 votes cast, 67 percent supported the boycott, 31 percent opposed it, and 2 percent abstained. The measure will result in the removal of fewer than a dozen Israeli-made items currently stocked at the store, including ecoLove shampoo and conditioner and Al Arz tahini, as well as certain brands of peppers and persimmons.
The vote followed months of dueling campaigns within the membership. One local rabbi opposed to the boycott described the campaign as a "proxy war." The original plan to hold the vote at an in-person meeting at the Picnic House in Prospect Park was changed to a Zoom-only format after many members raised "explicit concerns about their safety," according to internal emails. Coop general coordinators Ann Herpel and Matt Hoagland urged members ahead of the meeting to maintain a respectful, cooperative tone.
The meeting itself proved contentious. A motion passed early in the proceedings to move directly to voting on the boycott without allowing anti-boycott proponents to speak. "The motion was proposed after only the pro-BDS group spoke," one attendee told outlets. Another attendee noted it was "the first time in 15 years an item has been voted on without discussion." Some members expressed concern about potential legal challenges, citing the change in voting rules on the same night as the vote.
Jewish members reported being subjected to threats of violence and intimidation for publicly opposing the boycott. One coop member told outlets that people "were nervous to go physically" to the meeting because "they are fairly violent." Multiple members expressed outrage at the procedural decisions made during the meeting.
Supporters of the boycott framed their position as consistent with the cooperative's values. One member stated, "Many of us just don't shop here again because it's a grocery store. We shop here because it's consistent with our values." Another member, Mitty Owens, said the boycott would send "a political statement—the moral statement that's made which sends a message around the country, around the world."
The Park Slope Food Coop, founded in 1973, operates as a worker-owned cooperative where members work in exchange for shopping access.
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