The Boycott-Israeli-Goods movement has gathered over 700 Rainbow shoppers' signatures, to boycott Israeli goods.

On the Web site of "Rainbow Boycott Israeli Goods", at:

http://rainbowbig.blogspot.com/2008/08/rbig-renews-request-for-meeting-with_4206.html



Open Letter to Rainbow Workers:


RBIG is a group of workers and shoppers organized to
encourage Rainbow to boycott Israeli goods. After
Israel invaded Lebanon in July 2006, RBIG requested a
meeting with Rainbow about initiating such a policy.
We are renewing our request for a meeting for the
following reasons:

** The month of May is the 60th anniversary of the Nakba-
the zionist expulsion and ethnic cleansing of
Palestinians from their homeland.

** On April 24th the United Nations declared that Israel¹s
embargo of fuel has made it impossible to continue
its food aid program in Gaza, leaving 1-1/2 million
Palestinians without drinking water and food.

** RBIG now has over 700 Rainbow shoppers¹ signatures,
gathered at our weekly tabling, which petition the store
to boycott Israeli goods.

Enclosed is a letter, signed by workers and shoppers who are
people of color, expressing their strong objections to Israel¹s
racist policies and adding their voices to this request for a
meeting.

Also enclosed are the five letters we sent Rainbow over the last
20 months stating our reasons for urging the store to consider
initiating such a boycott.


Sincerely,

Nell Myhand (510)-485-6065
Jean Kuchinsky Pauline
Tom Brown


RBIG

Posted by nell at 3:18 PM

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Photo: Rainbow Grocery Cooperative store, Folsom Street, San Francisco.

People of Color Support Rainbow Grocery to Boycott Israeli Goods

On the Web at:

http://rainbowbig.blogspot.com/2008/08/people-of-color-support-rainbow-grocery.html


5/10/2008


Dear Rainbow Grocery



We are writing as shoppers at Rainbow Grocery who are people

of color. Some of us are in RBIG (Rainbow Boycott Israeli

Goods) which as you know has been asking for a meeting with

the collective since mid 2006. We have taken up the boycott of

Israeli goods because the issue of Zionism is first and foremost

a racial justice issue.

Some of us are fairly new to the Bay Area and some of us have

been Rainbow shoppers since the 1980’s. We shop at Rainbow

because we are fighting for our lives in a racist (and sexist)

system that relentlessly assaults our health and wellbeing.

Rainbow is a very important resource for both knowledge of and

access to healthy living food and other natural supports for

disease prevention and cure. We also believe in and support

the concept of collectives.

We also shop at Rainbow because we expect progressive

organizations like Rainbow be responsive to community and

to take a position and strong action for justice. As you know,

the Palestinians are being subjected by Israel to an apartheid

system where people with darker skins are humiliated and

brutalized every day and treated in a savagely racist way. This

is the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, when Israeli soldiers went

from village to village massacring Palestinians young and old.

Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing and seizure of lands from the

indigenous people are eerily reminiscent of the way Native

Americans were treated in this country.

In the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, the role of the Bush

administration in deepening the suffering of Palestinian people,

who are people of color, is presented in great and gory detail.

“Vanity Fair has obtained confidential documents, since

corroborated by sources in the U.S. and Palestine, which lay

bare a covert initiative, approved by Bush and implemented by

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National

Security Adviser Elliott Abrams, to provoke a Palestinian civil

war.” This article exposes how at the behest of the US

government, Israel has unleashed an unimaginable level of

violence aimed at expelling those Palestinians who can/will go,

and killing/maiming as many people as they dare of those who

remain.

As individuals and organizations (including small businesses)

we must confront the question of what it means if we refuse to

stand with people of color around the world and to protest our

racist enemies’ closest friends abroad. As people of color we

daily, must confront the question, what does it mean for our

struggle against racism that Bush's closest ally is empowered

to do as they like with complete impunity by those of us who

consider ourselves to be anti-racist.

We are adding our voices to those calling immediately for a

meeting with Rainbow to discuss Rainbow’s boycotting Israeli

goods.

Sincerely,

Nell Myhand

Synthia Green
Shirley Yee
Faris Barhoum
Pablo Jim
Samia Shoman
Jahahara Alkebulan Maat
Sharon Lungo
Chris Lymbertos
Lily Haskell
Adnan Hamwi
Sannah Rahim
Phil Hutchings
Jess Ghannam
Happy Hyder
Joyce Umamoto
Ayesha Gill
Chris Mazaleh
Nissor Ahmed
Ali Abong
Patricia Hemphill
Grace Shalhoub

Posted by nell at 3:42 PM


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