Dublin Food Co-op Votes to Boycott Israeli Goods:
Members of Ireland’s Dublin Food Co-Op voted overwhelmingly to boycott Israeli goods at a Special General Meeting on 25 November.
This was the third attempt over the last 2 years to bring in a boycott of Israeli goods, reported the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and this time the motion finally passed with 50 in support, and only 6 against.
The Dublin Food Co-op, which was formed in 1983 and is based “on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity,” had in the past an unwritten policy not to stock or sell Israeli produce, though some member were doing so anyway.
The boycott motion states: “The boycott, if agreed, shall remain in force until such time as the state of Israel agrees:
a) to allow humanitarian-aid and un-armed peace activists entry into Palestine without the threat of violence and death from Israeli armed forces; and
b) agrees to honor UN resolutions regarding the unlawful occupation of Palestine in the so called Israeli 'settlements'.
The boycott, if approved, also includes Dublin Food Co-Op's artisan food producer members and organic farmers who occasionally sell at the co-op, fruit and vegetables imported from Israel.”
The decision will affect the co-op’s 1,200 members and is in the vein of their organizational principles, which state that “co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.”
A week earlier, its biennial conference Ireland’s Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) unanimously voted to “support for a boycott campaign of Israeli goods and services and a policy of disinvestment from Israeli companies” as a result of the Israeli state’s continuing breaches of international law and human rights abuses against the people of Palestine.
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