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Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, December 5, 2002 Rainbow Grocery's ban on carrying certain Israeli-made goods has angered some customers and prompted the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco to demand that the Mission District co-op reverse its boycott immediately. The worker-owned store is losing business over its decision to remove Israeli products from two of its largest departments, packaged foods and bulk foods, a Rainbow spokesman said. Other store departments -- each of which enacts policies independently -- still carry Israeli-exported health and beauty items and candles. But a months-old ban on some Israeli foods means Rainbow isn't carrying, among other things, the chocolate coin-shaped candies commonly called gelt, which are popular among Jews during Hanukkah, an eight-day holiday that began Friday night. The ban was adopted through a vote of workers empathetic to Palestinians. They felt the store should take a stand at a time of escalating violence and uncertainty in the Middle East.
Reactions to the boycott, which was the subject of a Chronicle story Wednesday, demonstrate how Israeli-Palestinian tensions have found their way into the aisles of a 27-year-old neighborhood supermarket in a city with a reputation for tolerance and diversity. Similar debates have found stages on university campuses and through divestment campaigns targeting large corporations with money in Israel. At Rainbow, the topic has divided employees and customers -- many of whom are neighbors -- emotionally and politically and fueled e-mail and Website discussions nationally. About 100 people called the store with reactions Wednesday, mostly to disagree with Rainbow's partial boycott, said spokesman Scott Bradley, who has worked at the store for three years. "Ninety-nine percent of it is people calling up and being very polite and saying they're not going to shop here anymore," Bradley said. Those callers included San Francisco resident Michael Disend, who said he was a longtime Rainbow Grocery customer. That changed this week. "Rainbow is a store that I hold in great esteem, because I share those cooperative values. . . . When I saw the (newspaper) piece today, it was a blow to the heart," Disend said. He said Rainbow's selective boycott of Israeli products smacks of anti- Semitism. He urged a boycott of the store and a picket line on Folsom Street in front of the entrance if Israeli products aren't restocked. "People are very, very serious about getting it together," Disend said. "I would be one of the very first people out there." The Jewish Community Relations Council, representing 80 Jewish congregations and organizations in the Bay Area, on Wednesday called for Rainbow to reverse the ban immediately. Council members also want to meet with store leaders to discuss what prompted the action in the first place. "We are deeply disappointed and angered that they have done this," said Yitzhak Santis, the council's Middle East affairs director. "This decision is politically motivated by activists (with) an anti-Israel agenda, and not a human-rights agenda. . . . They're not boycotting products from any other countries. They single out Israel. I find this discriminatory and antagonistic." A group supporting the boycott, however, said this week that its view is based on human-rights concerns for Palestinians and is part of a broader effort to support Palestinians and minimize financial aid to Israelis. "For all of the (banned) products we are talking about, there are alternatives. There isn't anything that is uniquely Israeli," Eyad Kishawi, a member of the Justice in Palestine Coalition of the Bay Area, told The Chronicle on Tuesday. The coalition is asking Rainbow to broaden its ban to include all Israeli- made goods and wants similar actions taken by about 30 other Bay Area businesses it considers socially and politically progressive, said Eyad, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Among e-mails circulating Wednesday in support of the coalition's stance were some calling the ban a brave and appropriate action on behalf of Palestinians. As pressure builds on Rainbow from people on all sides of the Israeli- Palestinian debate, some store employees want more than ever to adopt a storewide boycott, while others strongly disagree with any ban, Bradley said. "Things take a long time to happen here, because everything has to be voted on," he said of efforts toward a resolution. Rainbow has about 200 employees, 175 of whom have voting privileges as co-op members; about 60 work in the two departments that enacted the boycott. Bradley said it's clear that some customers are turning away. "A lot of workers are worried about it," he said. "It hurts. We've never had a response to anything like this before." |
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Rainbow Grocery Cooperative has not instituted a storewide boycott against Israeli products. Our own policy requires 51% of the Membership to approve a storewide boycott. At no time has a boycott of Israeli products come up for a vote by the Membership. The email that many of you received stated: "She indicated to me that a 'collective worker vote' was taken and a decision was made to 'boycott' all products made in Israel." This is simply not the case. It is very possible that the statement that was made by our worker was not clear or it was misunderstood.
What is true is that last year the Package and Bulk department members had a discussion about Israeli products. After this discussion, the two departments decided to remove the Israeli products that they carried from the shelf. We allow our departments wide latitude in their purchasing decisions. Worker and customer feedback often affect these decisions. A number of other departments continue to carry products manufactured in Israel.
We want to emphasize the following points:
1. The decision made by these departments does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Rainbow Grocery. Our workforce is an extremely varied group. We have a variety of opinions, and we don't always agree. Many times we agree to disagree.
2. In no way do any of the workers who made the decision to discontinue products made in Israel support anti-Semitism or any other form of racism or religious oppression. To the people who made the decision, their concerns were based on human rights violations. To confuse anti-Semitism with the issues of human rights abuse and religious freedom changes the argument in a substantial way. Rainbow still carries Jewish and Kosher products and always will.
Your feedback and commentary is important. Thank you to those who sent constructive comments.
Email and let her (and the editor) know what you think of it!
jstrasburg [at] sfchronicle.com
letters [at] sfchronicle.com
Regardless of where you shop, you can send a message against Israel's West Bank apartheid. The UPC code for items made in Israel begins with the numbers "729," making it easy to avoid Israeli products.
Everyone should until Israel becomes a true secular democracy for all regardless of religion, race, or sex, including all the Palestinians and the 5..5 million Palestinians whose right it is to return to their ancestral homeland Palestine-Israel, to live as equals, as is their right according to UN Resolutions, International Law and world opinion.
Here's a great place to do your Christmas shopping-- direct from Palestine, birthplace of Jesus Christ: http://www.paltime.com. I just got my purchase from them yesterday-- a beautiful mother-of-pearl cross pendant, with Jerusalem etched on the back. It took less than a week, and also they gave me a complimentary woven bookmark with Jerusalem written on it.
Jerusalem was always supposed to be an international city according to history and the UN Resolutions and it's only fair: all three religions consider it sacred! Jews shouldn't try to take it all for themselves. How selfish and greedy can they get! (Excluding the tiny minority of Jewish peace activists, of course, who are generous of heart and spirit and wise as well.)
1) The co-op specifically banned Israeli goods without mentioning Zionist goods -- implying that Israeli goods are Zionist goods because they are produced by Zionists
2) The co-op targeted every worker and company of Israeli origin regardless of their position on the conflict -- implying that the geographical location of a person/company is far more important than whatever position they claim to hold
3) The co-op claims the departmental boycott is not a racial or religious based attack -- implying the Israelis affected by the boycott is are carefully chosen targets not the collateral damage of an indiscriminant attack -- hence they must be Zionists
I am no more racist than those who stand with me at the Rainbow Grocery co-op. We know who the Zionists are.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^ta100&d=c
December 5, 2002
THE STATEMENT at San Francisco's Rainbow Grocery Cooperative customer service counter read: "Thank you for your concern. We currently do not have a storewide boycott on Israeli goods. After a lot of storewide discussion and debate, some departments have decided to continue to sell products from Israel and others have decided to not carry them anymore in support of freedom for Palestinians and all people." (The part in italics was highlighted marked "optional," so staffers could choose not to repeat it.)
I read the statement midafternoon Tuesday. Two hours later, Rainbow's public relations committee -- it's a cooperative, so everything's by committee -- issued a new statement. Gone was any reference to "freedom for Palestinians and all people." In its place was the assurance that only two departments -- package and bulk -- had voted to boycott Israeli products and that there was nothing anti-Semitic behind the vote.
"The decision made by these departments does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Rainbow Grocery," the statement read. "Our workforce is an extremely varied group. We have a variety of opinions, and we don't always agree."
Why the change? They were busted. A shopper discovered she couldn't buy Israeli gelt (chocolate coins) for Hanukkah because of the boycott at Rainbow, which, it turns out, had been in force for a year. Her husband then sent out an e-mail on the boycott that traveled far and wide. Outrage provoked angry phone calls and Rainbow's PR voice mail was full. The "worker/owners" were in full damage-control mode.
It would be easy to dismiss this food fight as a fringie fiasco -- you know, discord among the large jars of beet root powder and bladderwrack, in a cooperative that is anything but -- cooperative, that is.
But nothing stays fringe in San Francisco. Today, package and bulk. Tomorrow, City Hall divests all assets. Unless this movement is nipped in the bud.
Is Rainbow boycotting any other countries, such as that champeen of human rights abuses, China? The answer is no. Worker/owner Cyrus Heiduska explained that China sells too many products, and often much cheaper than goods from other countries.
So why the Israeli boycott? Heiduska said that store workers knew that both sides had committed atrocities, but they wanted to show solidarity with "the most oppressed party."
Do you think the Palestinians and their backers believe in freedom? I ask. "We want freedom for all people whether or not they are fighting for freedom. We believe that everybody deserves a home and a homeland and the ability to live in peace."
The man who wrote the e-mail, I discovered, is Ian Zimmerman of personal- injury law advertising fame. Zimmerman doesn't think all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, but the boycott is "certainly anti-Semitic in its impact, and a reasonable person should see that."
Yes, the store has a right to wage a boycott, just as consumers have a right to boycott the store.
Zimmerman noted that the Rainbow brigade is now learning "that it's not a free ride, and I think that's a good thing."
The odd thing is, for one year, there was a free ride. The boycotters heaped scorn on a small democracy fighting for its life, and no one said peep. No one asked if they were outraged at suicide bombers who deliberately kill Israeli children. No one challenged them to explain how they could say they are boycotting for freedom, without boycotting the oppressive financiers of violent Palestinians.
They had a free ride. They could feel superior and pure, hyping "freedom for the Palestinians and all people." Except they didn't really mean that part about "all people."
Recently there has been an email campaign telling people to boycott Rainbow because of a supposed boycott of Israeli products.
There is no boycott at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative against Israeli products. At no time did a boycott of Israeli products come up for a vote by the Membership. Our policy requires 51% of the membership to approve a boycott.
We want to emphasize the following point: in no way do we tolerate any workers at Rainbow Grocery who support hatred, racism or any form of religious oppression in or outside of our workplace.
We feel compassion for all parties in the Middle East, intense pain for the losses suffered and dreams unfulfilled. Our ultimate and paramount hope is and has always been peace in the Middle East.
It is dialogue that ultimately will provide the avenue for resolution of the difficult and complex issues in the Middle East. Your feedback and commentary are important to us. We hope that the outpouring of intense communication in the past week can be a step in the process of peace, not a step towards the escalation of conflict.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Rainbow Grocery health food store on the edge of San Francisco's Mission District is becoming a center of contention this week over a decision to drop Israeli products from certain departments.
"The symbolism is very powerful,'' commented Yitzhak Santis of the Jewish Community Relations Council Thursday. He said his council, made up of 80 synagogues and other groups in the region, wants to set up a meeting to ask the worker-operators of the large retail outlet on Folsom Street to reconsider but has so far received no response.
"We really want to have a meeting with them,'' Santis added.
In the meantime, his organization has been urging members that anti-Semitism may play a part in the situation at Rainbow and to call the store and express their views.
Many have chosen to do so.
A worker answering telephones at the store Thursday afternoon said more than 500 calls have been received since news reports made public a decision months ago to cut just a couple of products from two of the store's departments.
"We're getting a lot of calls and we are very concerned,'' she told one caller, adding that not everyone at the 200-employee cooperatively run business shares the same political views.
Scott Bradley, a member of the staff's public relations committee who has answered media questions, was not available Thursday to comment on the situation and a customer service representative said no one else was authorized to speak publicly.
A statement on the grocery company's Web site maintained that no boycott of Israeli products is in effect, although the Package and Bulk departments had stopped carrying those products last year out of concern over human rights issues overseas.
But Santis said he understands that only products from Israel have been excluded, characterizing the decision as an ideological one rather than a humanitarian one. He said he is concerned that the move could start a broader trend elsewhere around the store, which carries aisles-worth of household and cosmetic products in addition to food.
"This is the first time we've heard of a retailer pulling Israeli products from their shelves,'' Santis said, "and we hope it is the last.''
I should have said 'in the bay area' - I've been told that many cooperatives in the East Bay were lost and became private stores, such as Berkeley Bowl and Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck). There seem to still be a bunch of excellent little cooperatives that are bakeries and sell pizza, etc.(and even show up as a group at the anti-war demos), but I think Rainbow is pretty big as a single entity, amongst cooperatives in the Bay Area, isn't it?