Ridiculousness: Anti-Israel Protesters say Don’t Shop at Trader Joe’s

June 20, 2009 · Filed Under Baum's Blog 

I don’t just like Trader Joe’s. I LOVE Trader Joe’s. In fact, I’m not sure that I could ever move to a city that doesn’t have one. It would mean major withdrawal.

I just got an email from a friend about a misguided group of people which was planning on boycotting Trader Joe’s and protesting there today – because they sell Israeli products. There’s a good and thoughtful overview in this Nashville Scene blog…  (Apparently, I am out of the loop since I just heard about this.)

Bottom line? Even if I didn’t love Trader Joe’s, I would still not be able to comprehend these anti-Israel protesters.  They claim Israel has an economy fueled by apartheid.  I think not.  Have the protesters  studied their history and political science?  I think not.

I am not going to make it to Trader Joe’s tonight, but supporters of Israel are proposing that we buy Israeli products from Trader Joe’s and encourage them to continue selling Israeli products. Sounds good to me. Some people even went to the stores today to buy all of the Israeli items so that the protesters couldn’t do any damage to the products.  Well done!  Now the Israel supporters have to figure out what to do with all of that couscous.  The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg has a very funny comment on this.  Goldberg wrote:  ” …I hear the Israeli couscous goes well with grilled scapegoat…“

For the record, Trader Joe’s has issued a statement that they will not be removing the Israeli items from their stores – and they trust their customers to decide what they want to purchase.  Good for them.

Were any of you at Trader Joe’s today?  Did you see any of this craziness going on?

Snack time – let’s see what I can find in my pantry from Trader Joe’s!  Couscous anyone?


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3 Responses to “Ridiculousness: Anti-Israel Protesters say Don’t Shop at Trader Joe’s”

  1. jon Says:
    June 20th, 2009 at 10:03 pm

    My mom provided some couscous recipes for my anti-BDS blog http://www.divestthis.com. One’s savory, one’s sweet and both sound great. Not only are we going to crush the BDS “movement,” but we’re destined to eat better than them as well!

  2. Peter Schogol Says:
    July 16th, 2009 at 11:15 pm

    My mother wouldn’t buy any products from Finland because Finland was allied with Nazi Germany against Soviet Russia. You wouldn’t think there were that many Finnish products she had to choose not to buy, but my mother was a woman of principle.

    In the 1970s I boycotted Chilean wines because of General Pinochet’s dictatorship. This was an actual as opposed to my mother’s theoretical boycott as I was fond of Chile’s good inexpensive reds.

    Are there any conditions under which I would boycott products from Israel. Yes. Have those conditions occurred yet? No. Could they ever occur? I don’t see why not. Israel is, after all, a nation, tempted as all nations are to use power irresponsibly.

    If I were of a mind to boycott products for political reasons there are countries I would consider well in advance of Israel. I can only hope that Israel’s present rightward swing and unabashedly irredentist policy towards all of Palestine doesn’t make me reconsider.

  3. Peter Schogol Says:
    July 18th, 2009 at 6:19 pm

    Since responding to this post I’ve decided to investigate further and discovered that the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom publishes a list of, and encourages Israelis to boycott, products made at the industrial parks in the Israeli settlements. Here’s the FAQ:

    http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/faq.html

    Based on this information I too have decided not to buy products on this list. And yes, several of them are marketed in this country, notably the “Ahava” line of skin and hair care products.

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