Glenn Beck Calls Park Slope Food Coop's Potential Boycott Of Israeli Goods 'Anti-Semitic'

Glenn Beck thinks the potential boycott of Israeli products by the Park Slope Food Coop is "anti-semitic," The Brooklyn Paper reports.

The former Fox News pundit and current internet TV host attended a fundraiser for the Gush Katif Museum in Crown Heights Wednesday where he told a room full of Israel-supporters, "What is happening with the food co-op where they are seriously considering a boycott of Israel?” he said, comparing the suggested ban to drawing swastikas. "When you use words like 'I'm just anti-Israel' or 'I'm just anti-Zionist' -- that's anti-Semitic.."

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Borough Park), also in attendance, seemed to agree with Beck. "You have some idiots in Brooklyn," he said. "Nothing like a self-hating Jew!" (Hikind is the one who used a picture of Lady Gaga to argue against the same sex marriage bill in June).

The Coop decided this week to hold a vote on whether the 39-year-old store, which boasts 16,000 members and specializes in organic products, should hold a referendum on a ban of Israeli goods like hummus, paprika and seltzer.

(To recap, that's a decision to vote on whether to hold a vote--the latest news in the ongoing, three-year saga.)

The proposal, being put forth by the Park Slope Food Coop Members for Israeli Boycott Divestment Sanctions, is in response to Israel's treatment of Palestine. "Economic engagement with the state of Israel gives it the means and muscle to oppress, destabilize, and colonize the Palestinian people," wrote a Coop member in a recent newsletter, The New York Daily News reports.

On a blog dedicated solely to stopping BDS at the Coop, however, a member writes, "The 3 demands of BDS are based on a faulty understanding of the relevant international law. The real goal of BDS is to end the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Thus, BDS has been rejected over and over by every institution where it has tried to get an honest endorsement. BDS looks forward to yet another stunning defeat at the Park Slope Food Coop."

Other members just don't care. "You will not change Israeli policy by boycotting its products," Alan Rosner told The Daily News. "If it is approved, it will be damaging to the coop and a futile exercise."

The Coop has a history of taking a stand on major issues. The Wall Street Journal remembers:

The decision to introduce meat at an institution where organic and nonorganic products don't comingle was divisive. The green light to sell beer came only after two referendums spaced more than a decade apart. And a ban on bottled water took two years to push through...

Previous bans have included everything from Nestlé, because of its promotion of formula over breast-feeding, to products from South Africa during apartheid, and Chilean grapes during the Pinochet regime.

Comments

[dopaminejunkie]

11:22 AM on 02/28/2012

Glenn Beck is just playing the crowd, dropping words with which he is not familiar. For facts and a list of links about this issue, including a chronology of Park Slope Food Coop bans and boycotts, visit my FAQs on the PSFC's boycott of Israeli products: http://t.co/D6S0dObB

[ennui the third]

06:36 AM on 02/28/2012

Some more hipster twaddle that gives a bad name to the left.

[Simondj]

12:39 PM on 02/27/2012

Glenn Beck couldn't give two shakes for anyone of the Jewish faith. He's simply trying to ensure that his God has a runway to land on during the "second coming."

[Nwo2012]

11:26 AM on 02/26/2012

Jewish or Democratic. Choose one.

[molare88]

03:58 PM on 02/26/2012

anti semitic and ignorant, you are both

[jonnyquest]

12:14 AM on 03/04/2012

See how this boycott got a clown to change his tune? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/03/rush-limbaugh-apologizes-to-sandra-fluke_n_1318718.html

Money changes everything,maybe the Israeli gov't will wake up tho i doubt it judging from their history of oppressing others.

[Rosin the Bow]

04:20 PM on 02/26/2012

Greek or democratic. Choose one

[Nwo2012]

07:40 PM on 02/26/2012

The Greeks invented democracy.

Thanks for playing, Einstein.

[jonnyquest]

12:14 AM on 03/04/2012

When did you replace Alex Trebek?

[Nwo2012]

10:22 AM on 02/26/2012

Zionism is a political ideology. Its not special. Anybody is free to criticize it or support it however they see fit.

Furthermore being Zionist doesn't mean supporting the israeli occupation of Palestinian land and supporting the disgusting treatment of israels current right-wing israeli government of an entire occupied Palestinian population.

Making israels occupation of Palestinian land too expensive to maintain by boycotting israeli products tainted by occupation is a no-brainer. Its non-violent action. Something israel supporters have been demanding for years.

Stop complaining.

[njoytday]

03:57 PM on 02/26/2012

Need a bridge? You got sold nonsense.

[Nwo2012]

07:41 PM on 02/26/2012

Which part are you struggling with?

The fact Zionism is just a political ideology like Capitalism, Socialism, Racism and Sexism?

[Rosin the Bow]

08:08 PM on 02/26/2012

"Zionism is a political ideology. Its not special. Anybody is free to criticize it or support it however they see fit."

Of course. But to claim Zionism is racism while other forms of nationalism such as Arab nationalism is not is bigoted and anti-Semitic.

[useyourbrain]

10:56 PM on 02/25/2012

If they want to boycott the products, then boycott the products but don't make the decision for everyone else. It's the same for those clucks agains marriage equality. You don't believe in same sex marriage then don't marry someone of the same sex but don't force your religious beliefs on everyone else.

You can have your own personal boycott of any and every product that you see in any food emporium, best buy, department store, whatever -- just don't buy it.

[Yossarian22]

11:57 AM on 02/26/2012

Do you think such a "boycott" would have forced South Africa to end its Apartheid policies?

[Matthew SpencerKociol]

07:40 PM on 02/26/2012

There's a huge difference between a voluntary boycott of an apartheid and a boycott divestment and sanction of an entire country, its people and its culture and religious heritage.

[dennybop]

08:28 PM on 02/25/2012

Objection to Israeli policy in itself amounts to anti-semitism, but I'm not a coop member, and I haven't followed this story. One thing I'm sure of though' is that Glen Beck is more interested in using the controversy to his own political and financial ends rather than being truly concerned about anti-semitism. Glenn Beck needs to keep his fat mount out of this.

[jonnyquest]

11:04 PM on 02/25/2012

How is opposition to Israeli policy anti semitism? There is no criticism of the jewish faith, just the countries policies towards others. Massive fail on your comment.

[dennybop]

12:16 AM on 02/26/2012

It's not anti-semitism....at least it's not in my opinion.
I didn't properly word my comment before hitting 'send'. I tried to figure out how to delete or edit it, but I guess Huff Po doesn't allow that. My comment should have read:

“Objection to Israeli policy in itself *does not* amount to anti-semitism, but I'm not a coop member..."

After realizing I couldn't change what I'd written I had to chuckle. I knew there would be people who read it and not question it...others would read it and object- just as you (rightly) are doing. My massive fail was in not double checking what I wrote before posting!

As for the part about Glenn Beck; I mean everything I wrote.

[Bklyntaco]

12:34 AM on 02/26/2012

I have no idea how disapproval of Israeli policies is the same as anti-semitism.

[dennybop1]

02:43 AM on 02/26/2012

It's not anti-semitism....at least it's not in my opinion.
I didn't properly word my comment before hitting 'send'. I tried to figure out how to delete or edit it, but I guess Huff Po doesn't allow that. My comment should have read:

“Objection to Israeli policy in itself *does not* amount to anti-semitism, but I'm not a coop member..."

After realizing I couldn't change what I'd written I had to chuckle. I knew there would be people who read it and not question it...others would read it and object- just as you (rightly) are doing. My massive fail was in not double checking what I wrote before posting!

As for the part about Glenn Beck; I mean everything I wrote.

[dennybop]

02:45 AM on 02/26/2012

It's not anti-semitism....at least it's not in my opinion.
I didn't properly word my comment before hitting 'send'. I tried to figure out how to delete or edit it, but I guess Huff Po doesn't allow that. My comment should have read:

“Objection to Israeli policy in itself *does not* amount to anti-semitism, but I'm not a coop member..."

After realizing I couldn't change what I'd written I had to chuckle. I knew there would be people who read it and not question it...others would read it and object- just as you (rightly) are doing. My massive fail was in not double checking what I wrote before posting!

As for the part about Glenn Beck; I mean everything I wrote.

[rich3324]

06:12 PM on 02/25/2012

Glenn who?

[Bklyntaco]

12:34 AM on 02/26/2012

High five.

[rayinsf7]

02:48 PM on 02/25/2012

I agree with adamben and many others who do not support this boycot. I live in the Bay Area, and the local coop that I work at considered boycotting Israel. I was strongly against this. I brought in the big guns, Rabbi Lerner, and Joel Schalit (author of Israel vs. Utopia), two of the most radically left jewish activist out there to educate the co-op. .They are both working for peace and they both were against boycotting Israel. One of the most profound arguments is that you are boycotting a food companies that often is run by companies that employee Palestinians. I know of at least one food company that provides salt to our co-op that are run by lefties and are activists in the peace movement. . In the end we resoundedly voted against having a boycott. I think the vote was something like 9 for and 68 against having the boycott. Even though we voted the boycott down there was a lot of fall out for just considering the boycott. We lost a lot of our jewish customers, got unfairly panned in the press, and it stirred up a bunch of internal problems in our co-op. So Park Slop Co-op Don't Boycott Israel!!! Find other means to express your own personal political beliefs.

[njoytday]

04:06 PM on 02/26/2012

After WW11 many boycotted products made in Germany, for example. It is your choice, dont dictate on others. Israeli products are yummy.

[Donns]

10:53 AM on 02/25/2012

If you are a paying member of this coop then cast a vote as to what they should do. If you're not a member then how is it your business what they do?

[njoytday]

04:08 PM on 02/26/2012

If you want Israel to not have business, you mind yours, but if you want it to flourish, it is your right to speak against this desire to choke it..

[Donns]

06:41 AM on 02/27/2012

It is the right of every paying member of the coop to have a say in how they do business. No non-members have that right.

[Trollstein]

09:43 PM on 02/24/2012

Even beck is right once in a blue moon. I am not saying that they are all anti-Semitic. I am saying that undoubtedly some are and the others are merely misinformed enough to blur the distinction.

[Nwo2012]

12:35 PM on 02/26/2012

Im not saying its aliens. But its aliens.

[Rosin the Bow]

04:21 PM on 02/26/2012

The fact that you think anti Semites dont exist is unsurprising but revealing

[FancyAmerican]

06:48 PM on 02/24/2012

I thought Beck moved to Dallas?

[mateoconifer]

05:26 PM on 02/24/2012

What's wrong with treating people like dogs and caging them. What better way to get bitten.

[Gui Montag]

04:33 PM on 02/24/2012

A local small restaurant decides that they are going to allow a local atheist society to use their space for meetings.

In response, a large group of evangelical Christians get together and announce a massive boycott campaign to force that restaurant into not helping such heathen beliefs.

For those of who claim that boycotts are always "democratic" and "an expression of freedom of speech" and therefore justified, I remind you that it is the goal of the boycott that is what matters.

And as we have proved on this thread and elsewhere, the goal of BDS (though perhaps not all of its supporters) is to destroy Israel.

[jonnyquest]

11:23 PM on 02/24/2012

Your mind was destroyed years ago. Open your own market and put BDS out of business instead of whining.

[Gui Montag]

10:19 AM on 02/26/2012

Ad hominem fail.

[Nwo2012]

10:26 AM on 02/26/2012

The world isn't under any obligation to support the israeli economy by buying its tainted products.

[njoytday]

04:11 PM on 02/26/2012

Never got sick from those dates and figs or other products. US has much tainted food, though.

[Gui Montag]

08:25 PM on 02/26/2012

Good story bro.

[Hally]

03:45 PM on 02/24/2012

Someone should explain to Beck that a boycott is capitalism at its best.

A key principle to capitalism is "voluntary exchange". No one has to buy from anyone, but can pick and choose their suppliers based on whatever is important to them.

Didn't South Africa scream when the boycott movement started against them, and now South Africa is leading the way (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/29/south-africa-boycott-israel).

How cool is that?

[Gui Montag]

04:17 PM on 02/24/2012

When the goal of the boycott is racism and another anti-democratic values, it's not capitalism nor something to be admired.

[Hally]

05:14 PM on 02/24/2012

Au contraire, Beck's beloved GOP believes in absolutely unregulated free markets.

Thus, if someone's boycott of a producer is motivated by "undemocratic values" (not sure how that works, seems like apples and oranges to me), then they are free to do so. Same with racism when it comes to buyers.

In any event, your hyperbole is way over blown. The purpose of the boycott is to get Israel to comply with international law and respect the human rights of Palestinians.

Oh, and the legalization of the unauthorised settler outpost of Shvut Rachel in the northern West Bank and approval of 500 new homes there this week didn't do much for Israel's "peace loving" image.

[Boduognat]

01:13 PM on 02/26/2012

On the contrary, the possibility to boycott, by choosing NOT to spend money on certain products or a certain brand of products, is one of the only democratic values left for individual people, and as consumers, people have a lot of power.

And, the BDS movement is aimed against racism and occupation on Israel's part.

[Donns]

10:57 AM on 02/25/2012

Actually South Africa didn't scream all that much when the Americans boycotted them. I was there working for an American company during the 70s and 80s. One good thing it did was that many Americans who were over there living the good life on company costs were taken out and the locals could then run the companies much more efficiently. I refused to leave and started my own business there. Did Ok. South Africa actually came out far ahead once the Americans decided to "show them" and leave.