Last weekend, several anti-Israel groups attempted to organize a boycott of Israeli products sold at Trader Joe's and demanded that the company remove these items from its store shelves.In response, Trader Joe's issued a statement saying: "we sell products, and do not use our products as political tools...[and] have no intention of removing any products based on pressure from any group."
According to a report in the Jewish Journal, activists in Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco went ahead with their initiative by passing out leaflets in support of a boycott at local Trader Joe's stores and taking Israeli products off the shelves.
While boycott and divestment efforts against Israel are not a new tactic on the part of the anti-Israel movement, these sorts of campaigns have proliferated since Israel's military operations in Gaza. In February, a U.S.-based boycott group called the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel was formed and anti-Israel groups on several college campuses attempted to pass resolutions advocating for an academic boycott against Israel during the spring semester.
For more, check out: Boycott and Divestment Efforts Proliferate on Campus
or Anti-Israel Activists Target Trader Joe's
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1 comment:
While the whole idea of a couscous boycott seems pretty idiotic, there is something to learn from the boycott’s failure vis-a-vis the relationship between business and politics. I take a stab at the subject here: http://www.divestthis.com/2009/06/battle-of-couscous.html. And for anyone who bought Israeli products as part of the counter-boycott, my mom has provided some tasty sounding recipes on the same blog.
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