Sarah Wellington of We Will Not Be Silent makes her position clear at the Park Slope Food Coop. Photo credit Trey Pentecost
Next time someone talks up the American tradition of free speech compared to other societies (including me!), remind them of this.
Park Slope, Brooklyn, is one of the most liberal and highly-educated communities in the western hemisphere, indeed any hemisphere. Every other week, the Park Slope Food Coop publishes a newsletter called the Linewaiters’ Gazette. In August the publication said that the issue of possibly boycotting Israeli goods– chiefly the seltzer-maker SodaStream– was so divisive that it was not publishing letters on the subject of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS):
On behalf of the Linewaiters’ Gazette, Co-Coordinating Gazette Editor Joan Minieri told the meeting the paper will temporarily suspend publication of all BDS and anti-BDS letters and articles until the editors can devise a sustainable policy for the letters, one that would allow civil discourse within word limits. The handling of the large volume of strident BDS and anti-BDS letters has occupied increasing amounts of editors’ time.
Minieri reported that over a 12-month period, 74 percent of the letters submitted were written by the same 10 people. It’s not unusual, she said, for an editor to spend 15 to 20 hours just on BDS-related letters for a given issue of the paper, trying to avoid publication of slanderous or libelous statements and hate speech—a situation, she pointed out, that is not consistent with the Coop’s policy of equity in member labor. On top of the added workload, she said, is the stress of navigating the highly charged and politicized atmosphere around this issue, with members regularly questioning the integrity and judgment of the newspaper’s staff.
She told the meeting the suspension was temporary, and would last a maximum of several months, and was not intended to censor speech, but to give the paper some breathing space to think about how to handle the issue fairly and accountably. Preceding her announcement, in the open forum, a number of members, including David Barouh and Mitchel Cohen, complained of censorship and suppression by the Gazette of their letters.
I wonder what she means by hate speech. Does that including speech that trashes Israel? Park Slope Food Coop Members for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions are appalled by the policy:
“The Linewaiters’ Gazette continues to suspend any and all letters and articles about BDS, Israel or Palestine even as it relates to food that we stock on our shelves. The Gazette staff claim they need time to devise and propose a fair and comprehensive editorial policy regarding the management of controversial issues including BDS. We find it highly problematic that while a vote to boycott SodaStream is pending, the Gazette has ‘temporarily’ disallowed a pro and con discussion of this controversial product. Please consider speaking up about this censorship which is impeding our ability to discuss Sodastream’s many food injustices as a product that is complicit with Israel’s human rights abuses. The November 24th GM will probably focus on the Gazette’s censorship. Please attend that very important GM.”
It sure looks like a selective policy. This recent issue mentions would-be boycotters of Israeli products in a negative manner, as disruptive; and recent issues have published this anti-BDS event promotion for November 8:
How many narratives are there in the Israel-Palestine conflict? One above all? Two competing ones? How about five narratives? How about one hundred? If you’ve always felt that “pro” or “anti” positions only put us at odds, and that angry resolutions help no one, you should come and bring your alternative solutions for peace in the Middle East and for our beautiful Coop. This will NOT be a debate on the pros and cons of boycotting. For this meeting please bring your own (hopefully vegan) dish to share with all present.
Jesse Rosenfeld is a Coop member since 2004, secretary for the General Meeting, and has brought a new brand of Palestinian olive oil to our shelves. He believes in empowerment, not boycotts.
Sarah Wellington of We Will Not Be Silent, Photo credit Trey Pentecost
Good to know what is going on in Brooklyn, seems to be axis mundi: “Park Slope, Brooklyn, is one of the most liberal and highly-educated communities in the western hemisphere, indeed any hemisphere” – These words sound to me as a somewhat colonizing perspective by an author who presumably is mastering a single language at all and pretends to know not only the whole “western Hemisphere”, but even “any hemisphere”, or am I wrong?
Krauss
November 1, 2015 1:54 pm
If you want a sure-fire way to get depressed, just read these kinds of stories. It’s shocking to me how supposedly “liberal” places such as this still can’t deal with Jewish Apartheid. And it also shows how many supposedly “liberal” Jews are only liberals when they are in the minority among a large Christian majority. The true test of liberalism is when ethnic nationalism concerns you.
And as we can see, plenty of “liberal” Jews are anything but. It’s sad, but at least it’s a forcing function which reveals people’s true character.
At the same time, I have to believe that New York will lag the rest of the nation. California, for instance, is far ahead of New York. You don’t see those kinds of “Israel day parades” in other parts of the nation except New York and that’s not a coincidence. So appearances can deceive you.
niass2
November 1, 2015 2:25 pm
Cant a fascist be liberal. Whatever. This is deep now, everyone knows it, my wife had to tell her mom to shut up about her insane ugly granddaughter joining the IDF. My wife prefers I dont scream at her mom, and it wouldnt do any good anyways, but we all do know that the whole family thinks its insane, and this person will freak if she sees any violence at all. Hopefully she will get eliminated. I’d be happy to attend her funeral. and I learned long ago when these liberal fools tell me how great right wing politicians are, its because they are idiots who think they are smart. My rents aint that dumb, but they think I am being me when I talk about palestine, so they ignore me. My parents know that Isreal is a joke, a human rights abuser, a false representation of whatever judaism really was,a genocidal bunch of idiots who use their ancestors deaths as a bank account. This is over folks, Isreal can run but it cant hide. Isreali and American Jewish products aint selling at Stop and Shop even when they are marked down 80%. I wonder why. A$7 box of matzoh for $2 and I still aint buying. And I like matzoh,and herring. I am Jew after all. The Italian bakery is near the darkstar anyways, in NYC, Near the Ramble on Rose. I’ll stick to that while Isreal destroys itself. Its very yummy anyways, I promise u.
HarryLaw
November 1, 2015 4:09 pm
“It’s not unusual, she said, for an editor to spend 15 to 20 hours just on BDS-related letters for a given issue of the paper, trying to avoid publication of slanderous or libelous statements and hate speech.” There we have it, what is hate speech? Maybe criticism of Israel, as per French legislation and US State dept. I have never been a moderator,but I would have thought slanderous and libelous speech would not be too hard to weed out, leaving hate speech, am I right Mondo mods?
JWalters
November 1, 2015 6:55 pm
Heard a radio show recently about a scam in which people had a many-year, long-distance relationship with someone they had never met, receiving emotional support, and sending them money. The emotional bonds were very real, even helpful.
Many American Jews are like those people, emotionally bound to a fantasy, by emotional manipulation that began in early childhood. Finding out the truth would be so painful they literally do not want to know the truth.
I’m guessing there’s a Big Donor/Investor or two behind the co-op scene. Some paychecks may be at stake. If even Rabbis are tied up by Big Donors, what’s a mere food co-op? Rabbis are especially helpful in cultivating the emotions. Neighborhood institutions can help weave more ties.
And many of these shoppers may sincerely believe, in their own homes and deep in their hearts, that they and their fellow Jews have been raised by God above non-Jews, that non-Jews really are on earth mainly to serve Jews, that all those Nobel prizes prove it, that even Jewish gangsters are the best, witness Meyer Lansky and Murder Incorporated, and that God intervened to re-create Israel, which will eventually rule the earth in peace when everyone else gets it together and submits.
But back in reality, if Jews truly wanted to be a “lamp unto the nations”, they could set a good example to the world by formally renouncing that part of their official religious dogma. That would be a true step forward for humanity.
Good to know what is going on in Brooklyn, seems to be axis mundi: “Park Slope, Brooklyn, is one of the most liberal and highly-educated communities in the western hemisphere, indeed any hemisphere” – These words sound to me as a somewhat colonizing perspective by an author who presumably is mastering a single language at all and pretends to know not only the whole “western Hemisphere”, but even “any hemisphere”, or am I wrong?
If you want a sure-fire way to get depressed, just read these kinds of stories. It’s shocking to me how supposedly “liberal” places such as this still can’t deal with Jewish Apartheid. And it also shows how many supposedly “liberal” Jews are only liberals when they are in the minority among a large Christian majority. The true test of liberalism is when ethnic nationalism concerns you.
And as we can see, plenty of “liberal” Jews are anything but. It’s sad, but at least it’s a forcing function which reveals people’s true character.
At the same time, I have to believe that New York will lag the rest of the nation. California, for instance, is far ahead of New York. You don’t see those kinds of “Israel day parades” in other parts of the nation except New York and that’s not a coincidence. So appearances can deceive you.
Cant a fascist be liberal. Whatever. This is deep now, everyone knows it, my wife had to tell her mom to shut up about her insane ugly granddaughter joining the IDF. My wife prefers I dont scream at her mom, and it wouldnt do any good anyways, but we all do know that the whole family thinks its insane, and this person will freak if she sees any violence at all. Hopefully she will get eliminated. I’d be happy to attend her funeral. and I learned long ago when these liberal fools tell me how great right wing politicians are, its because they are idiots who think they are smart. My rents aint that dumb, but they think I am being me when I talk about palestine, so they ignore me. My parents know that Isreal is a joke, a human rights abuser, a false representation of whatever judaism really was,a genocidal bunch of idiots who use their ancestors deaths as a bank account. This is over folks, Isreal can run but it cant hide. Isreali and American Jewish products aint selling at Stop and Shop even when they are marked down 80%. I wonder why. A$7 box of matzoh for $2 and I still aint buying. And I like matzoh,and herring. I am Jew after all. The Italian bakery is near the darkstar anyways, in NYC, Near the Ramble on Rose. I’ll stick to that while Isreal destroys itself. Its very yummy anyways, I promise u.
“It’s not unusual, she said, for an editor to spend 15 to 20 hours just on BDS-related letters for a given issue of the paper, trying to avoid publication of slanderous or libelous statements and hate speech.” There we have it, what is hate speech? Maybe criticism of Israel, as per French legislation and US State dept. I have never been a moderator,but I would have thought slanderous and libelous speech would not be too hard to weed out, leaving hate speech, am I right Mondo mods?
Heard a radio show recently about a scam in which people had a many-year, long-distance relationship with someone they had never met, receiving emotional support, and sending them money. The emotional bonds were very real, even helpful.
Many American Jews are like those people, emotionally bound to a fantasy, by emotional manipulation that began in early childhood. Finding out the truth would be so painful they literally do not want to know the truth.
I’m guessing there’s a Big Donor/Investor or two behind the co-op scene. Some paychecks may be at stake. If even Rabbis are tied up by Big Donors, what’s a mere food co-op? Rabbis are especially helpful in cultivating the emotions. Neighborhood institutions can help weave more ties.
And many of these shoppers may sincerely believe, in their own homes and deep in their hearts, that they and their fellow Jews have been raised by God above non-Jews, that non-Jews really are on earth mainly to serve Jews, that all those Nobel prizes prove it, that even Jewish gangsters are the best, witness Meyer Lansky and Murder Incorporated, and that God intervened to re-create Israel, which will eventually rule the earth in peace when everyone else gets it together and submits.
But back in reality, if Jews truly wanted to be a “lamp unto the nations”, they could set a good example to the world by formally renouncing that part of their official religious dogma. That would be a true step forward for humanity.