The anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement needs a new definition for its acronym, Sheikh Musa Drammeh told an interfaith rally outside the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn on Thursday.
“BDS should stand for ‘blind, dumb and stupid,’” said Drammeh, a New York Muslim leader and founder of the Muslim-Israel Dialogue project, drawing applause from a crowd of roughly 75 people gathered outside the co-op. To support a boycott of Israel, “you’ve got to be completely blind to Israel’s innovation, totally dumb not to benefit from it and completely stupid to deny the humanity of what Israel stands for.”
The rally came less than three weeks after members of the Park Slope Food Coop voted to boycott Israeli products. On May 26, 67% of participating members approved the measure, with members also voting to lower the threshold for future boycott votes from a 75% supermajority to a simple majority. The boycott took effect the following day, and the Israeli products previously sold by the co-op were removed from its shelves.
Founded in 1973, the member-run grocery cooperative has more than 17,000 members. The boycott affects a small number of Israeli-made products, including hummus, frozen herb cubes and personal-care items.
Among those attending Thursday’s rally was Corinne Lang, a member of the Lubavitch Chassidic community in Crown Heights who came to the protest despite the humid 92-degree weather.
“It was like somebody kicked me in the stomach. It was shocking,” she said of hearing the results of the vote. “It’s just Jew hatred. It’s antisemitism, plain and simple.”
Lang said she plans to maintain her membership so she can continue voting in co-op elections.
“There’s an election coming up, and I want to vote that the right people come in and straighten this place out,” she said. “There’s always been a movement here to boycott Israel, but it was smaller. It didn’t explode like this.”
Although she remains a member, she said she no longer shops there. “Now I go to Whole Foods,” she said.
A co-op employee who identified himself only as Joe told JNS that “a few hundred” members have resigned since the vote.
The rally was organized by the EndJewHatred initiative of the Lawfare Project together with a coalition of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and other community organizations. It featured American and Israeli flags and chants of “hey hey, ho ho, BDS has got to go.”
The organization stated the co-op’s embrace of boycott and its decision to ban items from Israel is illegal under New York state law.
“The Lawfare Project does not currently represent any plaintiffs in the PSFC matter, but we strongly support efforts to challenge discriminatory boycotts masquerading as political activism,” Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at the Lawfare Project, told JNS. “Boycotts like this raise serious civil rights concerns under New York law, and if affected members or companies seek representation, we would evaluate bringing a case.”
A handful of passersby shouted pro-Palestinian slogans and insults at the rally, while participants either responded or ignored them. Several police officers monitored the gathering from the perimeter.
A former co-op member, who declined to give his name, said he canceled his membership immediately after the vote. For the 10 years he was a member, he said he shopped at the co-op for “the prices and sense of community.”
“That was before the pandemic. Since then it has splintered,” he said, adding that the Israel boycott campaign ruined his shopping experience.
“You go to the market, and you don’t want to deal with people giving you pamphlets and being political,” he said. “It’s become too political.”
Other speakers included a representative of Hindus for Human Rights and Syrian Jewish activist Abraham Hamra.
“You can try to boycott us. You can try to hurt us. But the Jew is no longer an easy target now that we have a state,” Hamra told the crowd. “We will continue in our pride in Israel and double down, triple down.”
Hamra urged boycott supporters to avoid Israeli innovations if they wished to be consistent.
“Inconvenience yourselves. Boycott the iPhone. Boycott Google. Boycott medical advances,” he said, referring to technologies and innovations developed in Israel or with significant Israeli contributions.
“We know you and won’t forget,” he added. “We will continue and thrive.”
