[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: What a wonderful world the West Coast lefties in
the Olympia Food Co-op live in. The only bad countries are China, Norway
and Israel. ]

Boycott Announcement
www.olympiafood.coop/20100716-BoardBoycottIsrael.pdf

The Board of Directors has decided that the Olympia Food Co-op will boycott
Israeli made products
and divest from any investments in Israeli companies. The Co-op would stop
carrying the Israeli
products it currently sells and would not stock new products from Israeli
companies. If the Co-op has
money invested in Israeli companies or bonds, we would terminate those
investments. We would
refrain from dealing with non-Israeli companies that sell products or
services to Israel that are used to
violate the human rights of the Palestinians.

Members requested that the Co-op honor the international call for boycott.
The Board made the
decision while following the Olympia Food Co-op Boycott Process (available
at the Co-op website at
www.olympiafood.coop/boycott). The Board consulted and used the Co-op
Mission Statement and
the By-Laws to guide in making this decision:

From the Mission Statement:

Support efforts to foster a socially and economically egalitarian society

From the By-Laws:

Adopt policies which promote achievement of the mission statement and goals
of the Cooperative

Why boycott?

Boycott is a nonviolent tool for social change that has been tested and
proven effective in a variety
of campaigns. It is an essential part of the engaged civilian’s toolkit and
is an empowering process
that everyone can participate in.

There is a rich history of boycotts for social change, from the Indian
“Swadeshi” boycott of British
goods, to the Montgomery bus boycott in the 1950s, to the California grape
boycott in the 1960s,
or the more recent Coalition of Immokalee Workers boycott of Taco Bell.

The Olympia Food Co-op has engaged in a number of nationally and
internationally called boycotts
including: products from China (human rights abuses); products from Norway
(whaling abuses);
products from Colorado (anti gay legislation); Gardenburgers (farmworker
abuses) and more.

Perhaps the best example of this nonviolent tactic used to change the
policies of a country is the
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign (BDS) on apartheid South Africa.
As Nelson
Mandela has pointed out; “Boycott is not a principle; it is a tactic
depending upon circumstances….

A boycott is directed against a policy and the institutions which support
that policy either actively or
tacitly. Its aim is not to reject, but to bring about change.”

Why an Israeli products boycott?

The Israeli products boycott is part of a nonviolent international
grassroots campaign of boycott,
divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to compel Israel to follow international law
and respect
Palestinian human rights.

The campaign’s clearest statement comes from a 2005 call for international
action, signed by
nearly 200 Palestinian civil society organizations and endorsed by prominent
activists from
Desmond Tutu to Arundhati Roy to Naomi Klein.

Isn’t this “anti-Israel”?

Criticizing US foreign policy is not anti-American and Israeli supporters of
BDS are not anti-Israel.
Supporting BDS is no more anti-Israel than boycotting South Africa is
anti–South Africa or anti-
White or boycotting China is anti-Chinese. Boycott is a nonviolent
people-powered tool for change.
This is about working for peace and justice in the region.

When BDS was leveled on South Africa, the goal wasn’t to “delegitimize”
South Africa, to eliminate
white South Africans, or to destroy South Africa. The goal was specific: To
end Apartheid and the
human rights abuses associated with it. That was the goal. BDS was the
tactic.

Why should the Co-op honor the boycott?

The Olympia Food Co-op operates with an awareness of economic, ecological,
and social justice,
which is imbued in its mission and in its policies. The Co-op has a history
of factoring in social
ethics to its merchandising decisions — choosing not to carry certain
products due to a workers’
strike or an existing boycott campaign. The Co-op has also refused to stock
items that contain
packaging construed as racist or sexist.

Because the Co-op understands that social ethics and social justice are
inseparable from providing
the community with goods, it is only appropriate that the Co-op honors the
boycott campaign,
which fits perfectly with its existing boycott policies. Honoring the
boycott help the Co-op live up to
its goals and mission statement.

What ends the boycott?

As outlined in the Palestinian Call for Boycott, the boycott will end when:

1. Israel ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and
dismantles the Wall;

2. Israel recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens
of Israel to full
equality;

3. Israel respects, protects and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees
to return to their
homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

As a member, how do I give input on this decision?

The Board welcomes all feedback from members. You can contact us by emailing
board@olympiafood.coop or by calling our business office at 357-1106 ext 12