Lately Alice Rothchild appeared on Arabic Hour, Arab-American community television, to talk about boycott. We asked her for a summary of the show, which you can watch here.
I was asked to discuss local Boston area efforts in the realm of BDS so…
I outlined the general arguments for BDS work, how this does not “delegitimize Israel” etc etc and focused on how this is translated on the local grassroots level (a good general intro-from the point of view of a Jew worried about the direction of Israeli policy-to the topic): in particular
1. Boston Hummus campaign (this is a coalition of over 20 groups) re: Tribe (supports the JNF) and Sabra Dipping Hummus (supports the Golani Brigade), this was inspired by work done by American Jews for a Just Peace Philadelphia
2. Jewish Voice for Peace, We divest, TIAA CREF campaign, there are Boston area activists working on a Flash Mob, writing TIAA CREF as shareholders, etc, and I just finished an op ed that has been picked up by JVP and hopefully it will see the light of day
3. Grassroots International, based in Boston, joined the campaign focused on Elbit, their concern is land and water rights
4. Activists are focusing on the upcoming contract with Veolia which is responsible for 60% of greater Boston commuter rail service as well as a segregated bus service for Jewish settlers in the OPT and the Tovlan landfill in the Jordan Valley (dumping garbage from settlements and Israel into the OPT)
5. Several of us met with an aide to Governor Deval Patrick who gave Tribe (in Taunton) tax breaks and is working to strengthen business relationships with Massachusetts and Israel (oy)
So my statement basically is there are a lot of exciting opportunities to do BDS work in your own community and many good reasons to do it as well.
haha. didnt think my last post would get through – i stand by my statement though.
deval is interested in staying governor and being able to show his face at Harvard. So, tribe it is.
Lots of exciting opportunities to shout loudly and fail miserably.
If anyone is an expert on shouting loudly and failing miserably, its hophmi, who does it Monday through Friday right here, folks.
“lots of exciting opportunities” indeed –
Think Globally, Act Locally
-Giant Eagle grocers have stores in ~4 states in eastern US — Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, WV. Giant Eagle is privately owned by five Jewish families who are ardent supporters of Israel and who give generously to UJF.
UJF uses those funds to support illegal settlements.
Giant Eagle MUST be subjected to a boycott of their $8 billion revenue business until GE’s owners change their behavior and stop funding activities that the UN has declared to be illegal, and that Israelis at the very highest level have KNOWN are illegal, since Israel’s top legal officer wrote a legal opinion in 1967, that quoted, for the benefit of Israel’s president and Knesset, the International convention that declared settlements in occupied territories to be ILLEGAL.
BOYCOTT Giant Eagle —
Giant Eagle®, Inc. is one of the nation’s largest food retailers and food distributors with approximately $8.2 billion in annual sales. Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle®, Inc. has grown to be the number one supermarket retailer in the region with 164 corporate and 58 independently owned and operated supermarkets in addition to 155 fuel and convenience stores throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, north central West Virginia and Maryland.
It’s time to comfort afflicted Palestinians and afflict the comfortable –who are responsible for the afflictions borne by Palestinians.
If you live in
Akron
Columbus
Cleveland
Youngstown
Pittsburgh
Harrisburg
Hagerstown, MD
West Virginia
BOYCOTT GIANT EAGLE
BOYCOTT GetGo gas stations (ask yourself how much you are saving if that 5 cent per gallon gimme means a child in Gaza lives without adequate food).
Your forgot singing and dancing hophmi.
I’ll remind you also that the anti-apartheid campaign in South Africa failed for ~35 years, then, it didn’t.
We will fail many times before we succeed, but we only need to succeed once.