Princeton Students Nix Alternative Hummus Brand

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Princeton University students voted down a referendum by a pro-Palestine student group calling for the Ivy League university to expand its hummus offerings, the school's student government said Friday.

It was a quirky campus vote about a chickpea dip that delved into international relations.

The student group Princeton Committee for Palestine wanted university-run stores to sell an additional brand, arguing that Sabra, the only brand currently offered, supports human rights abuses.

Sabra is based in Queens, N.Y., and Richmond, Va. Company officials say the firm makes donations only to charities in North America – and not to political causes.

The firm is owned by PepsiCo and the Israeli food conglomerate Strauss Group. Strauss contributes money to support troops in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Critics say some of those forces have abused the rights of Palestinians. Sabra officials say there have been attempts on other campuses to ban their hummus, but none has succeeded.

In Princeton, the effort wasn't to ban it, but to offer an alternative – and there's no guarantee that the university would have agreed to do so.

The undergraduate student government said the referendum lost 1,014 to 699.

As media attention built about the vote, a pro-Israel student group Tigers for Israel fretted that the outside world might view the university, one of the nation's most prestigious, as a place hostile to that country.

The group's officers were relieved Friday when results of the vote were announced. "This is an Israel-friendly campus that fosters open dialogue and discussion on issues relating to the Middle East," they said in a statement.

Comments

[Nelson Daniels]

11:35 PM on 12/11/2010

BDS treatment of Israel is absurdly hypocritical because:

There is no BDS treatment of Turkey for its brutal conquest and occupation of Northern Cyprus.
There is no BDS treatment of Spain for its conquest and occupation of Mellila and Ceuta.
There is no BDS treatment of Morocco for its conquest and occupation of Western Sahara.
There is no BDS treatment of France for its brutal conquest and occupation of Corsica.
There is no BDS treatment of China for its brutal conquest and occupation of Tibet

And these countries were not facing imminent destruction, as Israel was in 1967.
And these countries have returned nothing, while Israel has returned 93% (all Sinai, all Gaza,
25% of Golan, and big chunks of the West Bank.

Could a lot of hypocrisy (and a little anti-semitism) account for the different treatment?

[tallndumb]

09:13 PM on 12/07/2010

somewhat along the same lines but perhaps more prevalent is the "kosher tax". take the time to look some of your packaged foods. most of them have a kosher symbol on them. we pay a bit more for foods for this. the food company pays to have the food made "kosher". 99.9% of us dont care if the food is kosher or not yet we pay for it. take a look at your bag of chips or your can of beans.i bet you paid a kosher tax and did not know it.

[Matzpen]

04:30 PM on 12/07/2010

This slight defeat is unfortunate. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is the best chance we're ever going to have for a just peace in Palestine
http://sherrytalksback.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/no-to-pinkwashing-israeli-apartheid/

[Saint Poopypants]

09:28 AM on 12/07/2010

Too bad The Palestinians don't make anything to sell anywhere.
I'd boycott the bejesus out of all of it.

[StCuthbert]

02:44 PM on 12/06/2010

Couldn't even get a resolution to recommend an alternative to Sabra hummus passed. 

Yeah, BDS is really making Israel quake in its boots.

[Trial Lawyer]

01:37 PM on 12/06/2010

Go Tigers--and the whole Princeton offense in basketball isn't bad either.

[gabbagabbawill]

03:03 PM on 12/05/2010

Then the students should just boycott it and not buy it... Make your own hummus. It's easy. All you need is a food processor or blender. You'll save money and make better tasting recipes too, just tweak the recipe to your liking. I like lots of garlic and tahini in mine.

[AshinoD]

10:40 AM on 12/05/2010

I love Sabra hummus it's creamy and flavorful. One of the better brands. I just don't think I can break myself of it....sorry.

[VanTroi]

03:04 PM on 12/05/2010

creamy death

[Greg Mirsky]

03:12 PM on 12/05/2010

Chto russkomu horosho, to nemcu smert'.

[hchavez]

08:22 AM on 12/05/2010

How do you support our troops? I hear and read this all the time. But, I am not sure what it means. How do you, as a fellow citizen, appreciate their service? Do you buy a magnet to put on your car? Do you give them a job? Do you shake their hand? Or, do you just not spit at them when they are wearing their uniform, as they were spat upon during the Viet Nam war? Just what, exactly, is meant when you say "I support our troops?"

[kv3854]

09:59 AM on 12/05/2010

advocate/support for good legislation, volunteer..

[gabbagabbawill]

02:58 PM on 12/05/2010

how do you?

[hchavez]

04:25 PM on 12/05/2010

I served in the military. Thank you for asking.

[VanTroi]

02:58 AM on 12/05/2010

I will never buy sabra again EVER

[MelissaGoldman]

03:15 PM on 12/05/2010

I on the other hand, will never buy any other kind of hummus besides Sabra again EVER.

[StAlphonso]

03:43 PM on 12/06/2010

Nor will I.

But what will I spread on my bagels?

[slowca117]

08:28 PM on 12/04/2010

Snacks should be evaluated on deliciousness alone. What's next, someone claims Lucky Charms supports the IRA?

[Spock]

08:10 PM on 12/04/2010

I had some Sabra hummus back in October. The pine nut version. It was delicious. :)
I'm a big fan of hummus.

[al343806]

12:32 PM on 12/05/2010

My personal favorite is the garlic flavored sabra hummus.

[SiberianRat]

01:41 PM on 12/05/2010

That's my favorite too. WAS my favorite. I'm boycotting now.

[StCuthbert]

02:45 PM on 12/06/2010

Why? Settlers don't make it.

[subdolphin]

06:27 PM on 12/04/2010

Good for Princeton!!!

[erehwon2]

06:08 PM on 12/04/2010

This restores my faith in Princetonians' common sense and good taste. ;-)

[kentah]

10:24 AM on 12/05/2010

What the exclusion of brand competition?

[GraphicMatt]

12:06 PM on 12/06/2010

Most stores where I live only sell Sabra brand.....there is something to be said about quality and it's not like there is a huge demand for hummus to warrant stores to offer a selection of brands. Athenos is a pretty good brand as well, but harder to find since Sabra came out.

[VanTroi]

03:05 PM on 12/05/2010

why shouldn't there be a choice of brands? why are people forced to eat one type of hummus? this restores your faith?

[Chicagowill]

05:10 PM on 12/05/2010

First, I graduated in the Princeton class of 1974. Let me remove all politics from the discussion to answer your question. If you want to re-insert them after I am done, go ahead.

When a procurement department goes to market to buy a commodity,they usually use a standard methodology. The product or service being procured has to meet the university's requirements for quality, including, in this case, "deliciousness", and timeliness (i.e. can they deliver as often as the university needs). However, once those constraints are satisfied, the negotiations usually come down to price. The vendor will want the biggest order it can get. To get that, it almost always has to give a better price. If Princeton offered a second product regularly, it would jeopardize its ability to get the best price. When it does offer a second product, it is usually to test it against the current incumbent to see whether it should change vendors (within the restrictions of the contract) or because the vendor wants the customer to try out a different product.

As they say in New Jersey, "Nuttin' poissonal. Just business".

[tundramonkey]

04:49 PM on 12/04/2010

Wasn't there a massacre at Sabra, frequently said as Sabraandshatila? Why, golly, look at Wikipedia, which has an interesting article on Sabra and Shatila. One might think that a foodstuff produced by a company from the country that aided in the massacre, and named for the refugee camp where the event occurred, might burn a little.

[VanTroi]

02:58 AM on 12/05/2010

yep children were raped in front of their parents then the parents were murdered

[Saco A]

12:46 PM on 12/05/2010

These Christian-Lebanese militias were cruel.

[Json]

11:09 AM on 12/05/2010

Sabra is also a fruit and sort of a slang term for native israelis.