Last week members of a hyperlocal community institution voted to boycott Israeli products.
“Big deal,” I hear you saying. But it is, because the vote by members of the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn is a microcosm of what’s happening all across our country.
We are fighting among ourselves based on interpretations of one another’s words and actions that are often wrong. We are dividing our communities into two camps — pro-Israel versus pro-Palestine — when, I believe, the only hope for the over 14 million people who live in Israel and the occupied territories is a vision that is both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli.
Most people who support boycotts of Israel, like a majority of the members of my local food co-op who voted in favor of the boycott, don’t mean to strengthen the Israeli government or the Israeli right. They don’t intend to weaken the Israeli left or to boycott the very people who are trying to bring justice and peace to the region. Many may simply feel powerless in the face of profound injustice and want to register their protest.
I understand that. And, even so, I chose to resign my membership in the co-op after 11 years.
Here are some of the conditions, as I see them, that produced this vote. First of all, there are the indefensible actions of the current Israeli government and the extreme suffering of the Palestinian people in both Gaza and the West Bank. Second, while it is not necessarily an antisemitic act to vote for the boycott, there is pervasive antisemitism running through the conversation about Israel that casts the nation as uniquely evil and that operates, like racism, Islamophobia and other forms of bias, often unconsciously. Third, there is the idea that the only way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to end the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, instead of changing it.
While the group Park Slope Food Co-op Members for Palestine, which organized the boycott, is not formally affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, it described the vote as “echoing the demands of the nonviolent, Palestinian-led” B.D.S. movement. The measure says the co-op’s boycott will end when “Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices.”
But a founder of the global B.D.S. movement, Omar Barghouti, has indicated that its longstanding campaign to boycott, divest and sanction will not end when there is a Palestinian state. This seems to mean, presumably, that even when there is a State of Palestine, the boycott will continue until every Palestinian who wants to move into Israel can do so, until there is no longer a majority Jewish state anywhere in the world.
B.D.S. differs from other boycott movements that have aimed to change countries rather than effectively eliminate them: In its 25 years of existence, B.D.S. has done almost nothing to advance a Palestinian state. It has done little to weaken this Israeli government. Instead, B.D.S. strengthens the Israeli right, which clings to power with the claim that the world hates Jews and points to the singling out of Israel for boycotting as evidence.
B.D.S. weakens and undermines the fragile Israeli left, made up of people working for equality and justice for all in Israel and Palestine. And in addition to being ineffective and, in my opinion, counterproductive, the global B.D.S. movement divides local communities like ours in Park Slope.
Many Jews know about the global movement and experience boycott votes like the co-op’s as endorsements of what I and many other Jews see as the campaign’s eliminationist agenda. They misinterpret the motivations of those who voted for the co-op boycott, thinking that all of them are seeking to end the existence of the one place on earth that’s supposed to be a safe haven for Jews, at a time when antisemitic violence is rising everywhere.
In the case of the Park Slope Food Co-op, a member was able to use the rules to block all discussion of the boycott proposal, so that no argument could be made during last week’s meeting — not one word could be spoken — against the boycott before the vote.
So what can we do? The single best thing we can do is break the binary. Stop seeing this conflict as Israeli versus Palestinian, and see it instead as those who care about only one side versus those who care about both Palestinians and Israelis.
As a rabbi, I use my platform to speak out regularly against the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, against this Israeli government and the Israeli settler movement, and for safety, democracy and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians. I speak out for the protection of innocent civilians in Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.
Standing for all might sound weak or conciliatory. But, to the contrary, supporting Palestinians and Israelis is the only way forward. Our congregation actively supports organizations in Israel and Palestine, such as Standing Together, whose membership of Israeli Jews and Palestinians is working for a shared and equal future, and activists like Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon, who are Palestinian and Israeli peacemakers.
You don’t have to be a rabbi to do this. We can change the way we see this conflict and the people who live there, all of whom deserve safety, freedom and peace.
Upon reflection, I’m not sure that I did the right thing by leaving the Park Slope Food Co-op. The vote hurt, a lot. It hurts too much to be a member right now. But I don’t think it’s a good long-term strategy to walk away.
We’re more likely to overcome our divisions if we turn toward each other. There are very brave people in Israel and in Palestine who do that every day.
If they can do it, we can, too.
