Two Italian grocery chains, Coop Italia and Nordiconad, announced they will discontinue carrying and distributing all Israeli agricultural products beginning next week. The decision came in response to one of Italy’s strong BDS campaigns, Stop Carmel-Agrexco.
The chains have said they are boycotting all Israel products because they cannot distinguish between colony-originated produce and mainstream apartheid oranges, so they chose to boycott all.
This may sound incidental, as Israel insists on ambiguity with regard to the origin of its exports so that settlement products are not met specific, targeted boycott. This “joke-is-on-you” approach by Israel has worked for a long time, because the EU, among others, has been too cowardly to stand up to Israel’s arrogance. But the tide is turning and we are beginning to see a case of the “arrogance backfires” as the grassroots take matters into their own hands and put the onus on Israel.
Speaking of onus, this may sound fun and a good strategy, it’s certainly effective in dealing with Israel, but be careful: When the pressure on Israel starts to bite, its very likely that they would agree to minimal demands such as marking West Bank and Golan products allow them to targeted with boycott, after all their volume is minimal. I hope that is not enough to lift boycott.
Israel should be boycotted for being Israel, for being the apartheid regime it is, and if we fall into the trap of conditioning and qualifying BDS we will never win. We can’t outfox Zionists. What if they sell colony produce in Tel Aviv and export similar produce from Jaffa instead to Europe, then it’s back to joke-on-you games, believe me, Israel has a whole book of them.
It would be funnier than when the US asked them to allocate aid from the US to building settlement… they probably smiled and used it to build weapons, and took the weapon money and build settlements with it.
[Tarboush Tip: Layth]
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i'm surprised italians are doing this. italians seem to be bootlicks for israel.
Posted by getoffyourknees | May 25, 2010, 4:34 pmNot really, their government is.. the Berlusconi conservative government is a bootlick, other governments had to go along with the EU as a whole, but the public is very pro Palestinian and discontent with Israel. Solidarity is widespread and you need to look no further than football matches to see it.
Posted by Fayyad | May 25, 2010, 10:32 pm"Israel should be boycotted for being Israel" Really? I agree with you that products from settlements in the occupied West Bank should be banned, as well as companies that operate there and support the occupation project. But if you're just boycotting Israel for being Israel (where the apartheid state is only true about the West Bank, not Israel proper, by the way), your actions are just interpreted an an anti-Israeli act and not as an anti-occupation act. While it's difficult to separate the two (and this is what the Italians said, that Israel's ambiguity made it hard for them to ban Israeli West Bank products), you must separate the two. Otherwise, Israelis will just interpret it as yet another anti-Israel ban and not link it to their wrong occupation. Israelis are used to being banned. Recall that the Arabic Leagues ban till the 1980s just made Israel more self-sufficient. So suppress your anti-Israelism, because it doesn't help your purpose.
Posted by Salty Mac | May 26, 2010, 2:56 amWhen a thief steels you punish the whole person you don't just cut the hand that stole!! As long as occupation exists Israel as Israel should be Banned … what you suggest would be very right if Peace existed..
Posted by Palestinian | May 26, 2010, 1:44 pmI disagree with the statement that Israel as an apartheid state only refers to the West Bank. Israel fits the definition of an apartheid state as a whole. Additionally, there are enough refugee camps in the West Bank and enough people in the towns who were displaced in 1948 and 1967 without the right of return that further make that statement untrue. It doesn't help anyone's purpose to turn a blind eye to the realities of a situation. The truth isn't always convenient.
Posted by Miriam | May 26, 2010, 11:04 pmHow does Israel proper (not the occupied territories) fit the definition of apartheid state? There's Palestinian representation in the Israeli parliament (11 Palestinian seats out of 120). There's freedom of movement for Israeli Palestinians around Israel. Israeli Palestinians can study in whichever university they'd like to (there are no Palestinian-designated universities). There might be discrimination, but that doesn't mean it's an apartheid state.
Posted by Salty Mac | May 27, 2010, 2:57 amHope to see a boycott vote debated at Berkeley City Council this summer… it would be a nice way to spend the summer.
Israel is 100 times more brutal and racist than Arizona… which is brutal and racist already.
So boycott both of 'em.
Posted by City Council | May 26, 2010, 7:25 pmTHE LEVEL OF IGNORANCE DISPLAYED HERE IS BEYOND WORDS. NOT EVEN WORTH DIGNIFYING WITH A RESPONSE. TYPICAL INTERNET SHIT POSTED BY UNEDUCATED PEOPLE. JUST LOOK AT GROUND ZERO THATS ENOUGH TO MAKE ANYONE SUPPORT ISREAL!
Posted by Mohammed BERNSTEIN! | August 21, 2010, 2:49 pmI was going to say how ridiculous you sound because you used 3 sentences and created 3 glaringly stupid self-apparent logical fallacies. 1) "ignorance is beyond words," yet you're attempting to use words to describe it. 2) "Not even worth dignifying with a response," yet you're responding. 3) "Just look at ground zero. That's enough to make anybody support Israel" Really? I'm part of anybody. I've looked at "ground zero" and I still believe Israel is an illegitimate concept.
However, since you took the trouble to angrily put your caps lock key on before posting, I am now convinced that everything you've said is absolutely true (not).
Posted by Jamal | August 21, 2010, 8:10 pm