The members of the Park Slope Food Coop in New York City have finally done it. After years of debate, emotional speeches and progressive soul-searching, they have bravely struck a blow against Israeli snack foods.
History will surely record the moment with appropriate gravity.
At a marathon meeting last week, the co-op voted by more than a two-to-one margin to boycott Israeli products, denouncing Israel’s conduct and congratulating themselves for standing on “the right side of history.” Few neighborhoods could transform sesame products and peanut puffs into an international moral referendum. Park Slope has now managed it.
Notably, members first voted to lower the threshold required for passage from a 75% supermajority to a simple majority. Moral certainty, it seems, becomes considerably easier after adjusting the rules.
The Park Slope Food Coop has long occupied a special place in the American progressive imagination. It is not merely a grocery store, but a cultural institution — a place where ordinary shopping decisions are routinely elevated into statements of political and moral identity. But even by those standards, this latest exercise in selective morality deserves recognition. Because once grocery shopping becomes a form of geopolitical theater, ideological consistency becomes surprisingly demanding.
If co-op members are truly committed to cleansing their lives of Israeli influence, the removal of tahini and Bamba is only the beginning. They can start with Waze, which should make navigating Brooklyn traffic substantially more adventurous. From there, they will have to confront the uncomfortable reality that countless laptops and smartphones rely on Intel technology developed in Israel. USB flash drives? Israeli innovation helped pioneer those too.
The complications only grow from there. Israeli researchers and companies have contributed to advances in emergency medicine, surgical devices, cancer treatments, cybersecurity and water desalination. At some point, the co-op may need to clarify whether members are still permitted to benefit from Israeli medical innovation during actual emergencies.
Agriculture poses similar problems. Israeli advances in drip irrigation and desert farming helped reshape modern produce cultivation worldwide. Ideological consistency may eventually require sacrificing more than tahini. Before long, the only truly safe product left in Park Slope may be locally sourced self-righteousness.
The fight over the boycott reportedly became so intense that organizers moved the meeting online and increased security precautions. It is difficult to imagine a more perfect snapshot of contemporary Park Slope than thousands of adults anonymously logging onto Zoom to wage an ideological battle over Bamba.
The absurdity, of course, is not merely the boycott itself. People are free to oppose Israeli policies. Israelis do it every day. The problem is the grotesque double standard and theatrical self-importance surrounding this particular obsession.
The Park Slope activists do not appear similarly mobilized against Chinese products over the Uyghurs, Iranian goods over executions and terrorism, or countless other countries engaged in genuine mass brutality. Somehow, the moral microscope always lands on the world’s only Jewish state.
And yet, after all the speeches, slogans, tears and Zoom voting, what exactly has been accomplished? Hamas remains in power. Palestinians are no freer. Israelis are no safer. Antisemitism is no lower. But somewhere in Park Slope, a morally satisfied shopper can now walk home believing the world has been improved because the co-op no longer stocks Bamba.
