Opinion: Coop Deshelving Campaign Is Part of Global Anti-apartheid Movement

The following column appeared previously in the Amherst Bulletin.

I am a Jewish valley resident, and I have been a member-owner of the River Valley Co-op since 2010. I support the campaign to de-shelve Israeli made and sourced products from our co-op. If you are a RVC member-owner, you can now VOTE YES for an Apartheid Free River Valley Co-op. More information about the campaign and about how to submit a ballot are available here.

I strongly believe that Jewish safety is entwined with Palestinian freedom. I am committed to doing everything in my power to challenge the unequal system of Jewish supremacy and apartheid upheld by the Israeli government. Even before the upsurge of violence in the last year, every major human rights organization focussed on the region – Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and Al-Haq – concluded that Israel imposes a cruel apartheid regime on Palestinians in all parts of the territory it controls. And the International Court of Justice (the world’s highest court) determined this July that Israel’s “annexation and assertion of permanent control . . . and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination violates fundamental principles of international law.” The situation has only grown more dire since then.

For the last year, I have watched in horror as the Israeli army and air force indiscriminately attack Gaza, reducing housing, schools, hospitals, farms and food systems to rubble, and deliberately displacing its residents into ever shrinking encampments. At least 40,000 Palestinians have been killed so far, with many more buried under the ruins. In mid-June experts estimated that, under conservative projections, the toll from indirect deaths from hunger, disease, and traumatic injuries could put the total deaths at 186,000. Israeli bombs have caused what one doctor described as the “biggest cohort of pediatric amputees in history,” demolished every university, and targeted hospitals. Meanwhile thousands of Palestinian “political detainees” languish indefinitely in Israeli prison camps without charge or trial. According to Human Rights Watch, Palestinian health care workers in Gaza have been targeted for detention and subjected to torture by Israeli forces.

In May of this year, the International Criminal Court prosecutor charged Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant with “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” by among other things, closing border crossings, “restricting the transfer of essential supplies – including food and medicine” and “attacks on and killing of aid workers, which forced many agencies to cease or limit their operations in Gaza.” Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov and Human Rights Watch founder Aryeh Neier (among others) have concluded Israel is “engaged in genocide against Palestinians” in Gaza. I join with many thousands of Jews nationally and around the world and say “Not in my name!” to all of this.

The US government enables these war crimes with a constant flow of weapons and diplomatic cover. Since October, the U.S. has sent Israel over 5,000 tons of military equipment. Fifty-two percent of Americans (and 62 % of Democrats) want President Biden to stop sending arms to Israel until it stops its attacks on Gaza. But despite pleas from constituents for the US to follow its own laws and impose an arms embargo on Israel, lethal arms transfers to Israel have increased.

While we continue to put pressure on political leaders, US consumers must also stop supporting Israeli companies. It is one lever of control we have power over here and now. While de-shelving Israeli made products at our co-op may seem inconsequential, our actions will inspire other communities to act as well; the way municipal ceasefire resolutions proliferated earlier this year. How many people know that in 1984, forty years ago, workers at an Irish supermarket declined to handle South African grapefruit? Their actions helped turn the tide of public opinion in Europe. Our campaign is inspired by a global anti-apartheid movement and part of an ever growing struggle against the apartheid system of Israel/Palestine.

Our effort to de-shelve Israeli made goods is also an answer to a call made by Palestinian civil society. More than 1000 community members have signed the petition for an Apartheid-Free River Valley Co-op. Almost half of us are member owners of the co-op. We belong to the co-op because we see our values reflected in its mission to build a just marketplace. I hope that the River Valley Co-op leadership will listen to the community and membership. We want to send a clear message that we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. De-shelve Israeli made and sourced products now.

Molly Merrett lives in Greenfield and is an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace and Western MA SURJ (Showing up for Racial Justice).