Petition asks River Valley Co-op to remove Israeli products; store says it will offer alternatives instead
Published: 08-26-2024 3:25 PM |
EASTHAMPTON — A collection of River Valley Co-op member-owners, workers and community members are calling on the store to become “apartheid-free” by removing Israeli products from its shelves at its Easthampton and Northampton stores.
Store management, however, said they are committed to preserving customer choice and don’t intend to remove the products in question.
At a outdoor “teach-in” on Sunday afternoon, members of the Campaign for an Apartheid-Free River Valley Co-op came to the store’s Easthampton location off Route 10 bearing signs, activities and information about their deshelving campaign in reaction to the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza.
Since the beginning of August, the group has been circulating a petition calling on the co-op’s management and board of directors to remove Israeli products from its shelves, refuse the purchase of Israeli goods in the future, and publicly identify as an “Apartheid-free Co-op.” The petition has collected more than 670 signatures with about 315 coming from member-owners, of which there are over 16,000.
“There was a lot of success with the local cease-fire resolutions and an appetite to see more change related to the genocide in Gaza,” said Ian Petty, one of the organizers of the event, referring to a local push to have communities pass resolutions calling for a cease-fire in the war-torn region. “A public presence is a nice way to show people we’re present and we’re still concerned about this issue.”
Petty said that this boycott of Israeli goods is one of the ways in which community members are looking for “material change.” The Israeli goods that River Valley Co-op currently shelves are four brands of tahini, one brand of tampons, bulk couscous and organic sugar cones.
At the teach-in, volunteers hosted activities such as sign and button-making, while distributing materials relative to the deshelving campaign and the role of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) as tactics to push for change. The BDS movement was launched as a nonviolent movement in Palestinian civil society in 2005, modeled on the anti-apartheid campaigns of South Africa.
Leading dozens of protesters to the benches beside the co-op where they held their activities were a local group of “Raging Grannies” singing songs of dissent. The Raging Grannies are an international coalition of women who engage in protests with satirical songs, which began in Canada in 1987. According to Raging Granny Ellen Graves, they are “fighting to get the word out about the war.”
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“Those issues where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, where there’s racism, we’re there,” said Graves. “I think we as white people need to be aware of that racism.”
Henry Morgan, a lifelong co-op member and current student at Hampshire College, said the boycott is an important part of his bid for a position on the co-op’s board of directors.
“I want to see policy change. One, to say we’re not going to shelve goods that empower human rights abuses,” said Morgan. “I think it’s antithetical to River Valley Co-op to support human rights abuses.”
But co-op leadership says that the deshelving likely will not take place. Instead, River Valley Co-op is aiming to give customers the option to participate or not participate in the boycott by providing alternative options but keeping Israeli products on the shelves.
In response to the deshelving campaign and petition, the co-op released a statement saying “we want to share with you that the idea of banning products is not as simple as it may seem. River Valley co-op has never banned products from a specific country before. This sets a challenging precedent.”
“Food is a very personal choice,” said Rochelle Prunty, general manager of River Valley Co-op. “We’re not in the business of trying to exclude certain things — we try to provide choices.”
Prunty said that for each Israeli product the co-op stocks, they are seeking an alternative product from elsewhere to provide in tandem.
“As a community food store, you’ve got to hold it all,” she said.
In late July, River Valley Co-op released a “statement for peace” supporting humanitarian aid for Gaza and peacebuilding efforts locally and beyond in solidarity with statements released by National Co+op Grocers, their “co-op of food co-ops.” The co-op supports contributions to such efforts, but does not plan to exclude Israeli products from their shelves.
Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.