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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Boycotting Israel, and Not

The Forward has a story about a co-op in Brooklyn with 15,000 members, one of whom has proposed a boycott on Israeli products - it's a greengrocer's co-op. If you read the whole article you'll see the boycott will never happen:

Michael Barrish, a 48-year-old Web developer who was shopping on February 17, said the ban is absurd. He believes it would be shouted down by Jews who support Israel, and laughed at by those who find a ban of this nature preposterous. But, Barrish said, “I like being a member of a place in which you can propose what you believe.”

Meanwhile, as part of my other, professional, life, today I came across the interesting tidbit of information that the British Library (not a British library: THE British Library) not long ago migrated its many systems into a single one, the Israeli-made Aleph system. (You can see the marketing propaganda here, if you insist). This means that each and every time one of the Guardian types uses their national library for whatever purpose, including online, they're benefiting from... oy, I don't even want to complete the sentence.

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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2009 at 1:38 AM

    Boycotts such as the one proposed in Brooklyn may be illegal under US law.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 25, 2009 at 6:26 AM

    I'm sure your favorite Guarnianistas don't mind having a Jewish doctor...

    ReplyDelete
  3. rashkovFebruary 25, 2009 at 3:04 PM

    Who's to blame people for wanting to remove support from Israel, when they see articles called "No Plans Yet to Raze Arab Homes in Area Designated for Park", that goes on to detail the plans to raze dozens of homes and evict 1500 people. http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1066645.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. YaacovFebruary 25, 2009 at 4:08 PM

    Think so, rashkov? Interestng, because what the article says is that

    The city's deputy mayor, Naomi Tsur, told Reuters that Barkat's administration, elected in November, was working on a zoning plan for the area but vowed first to seek an "understanding with all the residents of the city."

    Sounds like a convincing case for boycott, huh?

    ReplyDelete
  5. rashkovFebruary 25, 2009 at 5:23 PM

    With all of the mistrust of Israeli policies, Barkat's words come off as mere rhetoric of a scheming politician. This is not my hashkafa, but no doubt this is how the article comes off.

    The typical westerner will not assume that this is the same as other "urban renewal" projects, and that residents will be relocated. There is too much bad blood for it to be that simple.

    Chalk this one up to journalism's inability to put things into context. I had to read the talkback to find some context and history.

    I can't recall if your book deals with bulldozing and property disputes in east jerusalem. It would be nice if there was a hasbara resources similar to the one for global warming: "how to talk to a climate skeptic"
    http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

    ReplyDelete