Recently, we have seen the boycotting of Israeli products by a Pro-Palestinian group in France as reported in my blog. The latest attempt was made on June 20 here in the USA by a group just formed known as “Don’t Buy Into Apartheid” who officially declared Saturday June 20th “World Refugee Day”.
As a result, they also decided to boycott the company TRADER JOE’s based in Pasadena. They called for a boycott of the store including all kind of actions from passing leaflets to damaging products from Israel, as reported in an article in JewishJournal.com
Specifically, the organization is instructing participants to hand out leaflets at Trader Joe’s stores, describing the Israeli products sold at the supermarket, asking cashiers to stop carrying Israeli products, pulling Israeli products from shelves, and damaging Israeli products.
This is another attempt at ostracizing Israel in the name of world peace and anti-apartheid. This agenda is despicable and dishonest. Consider the reason given by one of the group’s organizers when asked why they were doing this:
Raphael says the group decided to target Trader Joe’s in particular because the national chain does not carry any Palestinian products.
It is obvious that their main reason if not their ONLY reason to boycott Trader Joe’s, is their distaste for Israel, NOT the fact that Palestinian products are not carried in the store ( what are Palestinian products anyway? who are the Palestinians anyway? But that question is for another day!).
Many other countries of the world are NOT REPRESENTED at TJ’s, simply because they don’t have products to offer that fit the chain’s market.
ONCE AGAIN ISRAEL IS UNJUSTLY TARGETED.
I love Hummus, I love pitas, I love Camembert and I love Riesling. That makes me a Jew/Persian/French/German supporter. Not bad for being Jewish myself!
Am I confused? NO, I just don’t mix politics and food.
Shop TJ’s and travel the world as you sit at your table with friends and family.
Background on the boycott can be found here:
http://www.divestthis.com/2009/06/when-all-else-fails-trash-supermarket.html
And for those of you planning to buy a bunch of Israeli products at Trader Joe’s this weekend, some fine couscous recipes (courtesy of my mom) are available here:
http://www.divestthis.com/2009/06/what-to-do-with-all-that-couscous.html