Jewish Advocacy Group Files Human Rights Complaint Over New York City Food Co-Op's Israel Boycott

A New York area advocacy group filed a discrimination complaint against Park Slope Food Co-op after the Brooklyn grocery voted to ban sales of Israeli products. The measure passed with 67 percent support and states the co-op will not sell goods produced in Israel within pre-1967 borders or goods from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Fewer than a dozen Israeli-made items would be affected. Jewish groups criticized the vote as rising antisemitism and promised legal action. SAFE (Students, Alumni, and Faculty for Equality on Campus) reported the incident to the New York State Division of Human Rights, which investigates discrimination based on protected characteristics. SAFE said the vote singles out Israel while ignoring other atrocities and that discriminatory boycotts have no place in New York.

"The boycott passed on Tuesday night by a vote of 67 percent in favor to 31 percent against. The remaining two percent abstained. According to the text of the approved measure, the co-op will "not sell goods produced in Israel (pre-1967 borders) or in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." Fewer than a dozen Israeli-made items sold in the co-op will be affected."

"Following news of the boycott's passing, Jewish groups decried what they said is another example of rising antisemitism in New York City. Several groups promised legal action, and on Wednesday a group which calls itself "SAFE (Students, Alumni, and Faculty for Equality on Campus)" became the first to do so by reporting the incident to the New York State Division of Human Rights, an agency created in 1945 to investigate discrimination based on protected characteristics such as gender and race."

""SAFE Campus will not stand by while antisemitism and national origin discrimination are disguised as political activism," SAFE founder and City University of New York law professor Jeffrey Lax said in a statement. "The Park Slope Food Co-op's vote singles out Israel's purported wrongdoing while ignoring incomparable, far worse atrocities elsewhere. We have filed this complaint to hold them accountable and to affirm that discriminatory boycotts have no place in New York.""

""This does nothing to help Israelis and Palestinians make peace," said Avi Posnick, executive director of the northeast office of StandWithUs. "Instead, it actively promotes the agenda of violent extremists, while fueling hostility and division among members of the c"

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