April 1, 2025
By Barbara Mazor
Imagine a political movement that is hostile to your community or identity group. Now imagine that its supporters have engaged in violence against your community—assaults on individuals, gunfire, arson and the defacement of properties associated with your people. Imagine that these supporters justify their cause using false, misleading and incomplete information.
Now picture them refusing to engage with you in discussion. If you challenge their claims or point out the harm they cause, you’re accused of acting in bad faith and vilified.
Finally, imagine that—even though this movement’s goals have no direct relevance to the Park Slope Food Coop—its supporters are pushing the Coop to promote and endorse it.
If you can imagine all that, then you understand the current reality faced by many of the Coop’s Israeli and Jewish members. This is precisely the situation with the Members 4 Palestine (M4P) campaign to push the Coop into endorsing the BDS Movement.
What BDS Stands For
BDS is an integral part of the anti-Israel movement. If the Coop were to endorse BDS, we would be aligning ourselves with those who:
· Rip down posters of hostages.
· Deface public property and Jewish businesses and institutions with graffiti.
· Assault and harass Jews in the name of “Free Palestine.”
· Chant, “We don’t want two states, we want ’48,” openly rejecting coexistence.
· Call the October 7 massacre “heroic.” This attack included 1,200 murders, mutilations, torture, rapes, burnings and kidnappings.
· Hold, abuse and starve kidnap victims.
Meanwhile, this movement ignores the atrocities of Hamas—including theft of aid, seizure of civilian infrastructure, intimidation and summary executions—against the very people of Gaza it claims to support.
BDS Is Not About Peace
BDS is not pro-peace. BDS is not pro-coexistence. Instead of endorsing BDS, we should be amplifying the voices of those who truly seek peace, such as:
· Bassem Eid
· Mohammed Dajani Daoudi and The Wasatia Movement
· Walid Salem
· The Palestinian Peace Coalition (Geneva Initiative)
· Roots/Shorashim/Judur
· The Parents Circle – Families Forum
M4P’s Refusal to Engage
Perhaps M4P is unaware of all this. On multiple occasions, we have invited M4P to engage in dialogue. They have ignored our entreaties. The only response has been a Gazette letter stating, “Let’s discuss it at the General Meeting.”
A one-minute sound bite at a General Meeting is not sufficient. Nor is there any guarantee that truly informed voices will be given the opportunity to speak.
A Violation of Coop Values
BDS and the broader anti-Israel movement are fundamentally at odds with the values of the Park Slope Food Coop and the Cooperative Principles of the International Cooperative Alliance.
Its very consideration by the Agenda Committee (AC) for scheduling represents a failure of the AC to act responsibly.