Member owners of the River Valley Co-op, please vote “no” on the proposal to deshelve Israeli products through the purported effort by the campaign’s supporters to make the co-op “apartheid free.” The River Valley Co-op, with locations in Northampton (2008) and Easthampton (2021). is many things. A vibrant space to purchase locally sourced organic foods. A convenient spot for fresh prepared foods. A hub for community events and activities. The Easthampton location includes our beloved Captain Jack’s Roadside Shack.

What the co-op isn’t is a canvas on which to splatter our fears, pain and opinions about the war unfolding in the Middle East. The pain felt by multiple communities following the horrors of Oct. 7 and the subsequent loss of life in Gaza, Lebanon and Israel is a real topic for conversation, but not a vehicle to indiscriminately stoke anti-Israel sentiment. This would do nothing to end the suffering in the Middle East but would further divide our community. So vote “no.”

The co-op board isn’t equivocating with its request to oppose this measure. Vote “no.” The issue is clearly viewed as so divisive and harmful to the organization and the community that it represents that they are not even deigning to veil their ask. This is well delineated in their letter to member owners. We should respect their thorough consideration and vote “no.”

We are seeing in our peaceful Valley the latest manifestation of BDS: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It is the modern movement that picked up where Europe left off. A movement that marginalizes Jews through boycotts, second class citizenship, and economic dispossession. Whether it is the River Valley Co-op, the edict of a Russian czar, or a Spanish inquisitor, it is really all the same. We are just living in the current inception of policy that looks to harm and demonize Jews.

Make no mistake about the purported target being “Israel”— BDS policies  alienate and punish Jewish people who have nothing to do with the conflict. This, combined with other harmful, century-old tropes, is why antisemitism has risen drastically in the U.S. and around the world. So vote “no.”

Supporting this campaign won’t stop this war or the horrible loss of life associated with it. It won’t bring an end to Hamas and other Iranian proxies. It won’t return hostages. It won’t elect a new Israeli prime minister. What it will do is indiscriminately target Israeli businesses strictly for being Israeli.

Israeli businesses that certainly could be owned in whole or in part by the roughly 20% Arab population. Israeli businesses that may strive to employ Palestinians with work visas from Gaza or the West Bank. Israeli businesses that may themselves side against their government in the current war. Vote “no” so that businesses in a land that is home to half the world’s Jewish population aren’t punished for opinions against the policies and actions of the Israeli government.

Friends, we have a lot of work to do to bring peace to the Middle East. Vote “no” so that we don’t widen the divide even further. Vote “no” so that perhaps our community can begin a process of more nuanced conversations and reject this kind of absolutism. Vote “no” for a world where we understand the history of Jewish pain, the horrors of Oct. 7, the problematic policies of the Netanyahu administration, the plight of the Palestinian people, the threat of Iranian-backed proxies, and hold them all in one space where none is more or less than the other and our pains are shared.

Owen Zaret of Easthampton is a River Valley Co-op member.