Brooklyn Food Co-op Votes to Boycott Israeli Products

The Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn voted Tuesday night to remove nine Israeli products from its shelves. The decision came after a three-hour virtual meeting attended by roughly 7,000 of the co-op’s 17,000 members. Of 6,772 votes cast, 67 percent supported the boycott, 31 percent opposed it, and 2 percent abstained.

A separate measure lowering the passage threshold from 75 percent to a simple majority also passed, 68 percent to 31 percent.

The boycott targets items including certain bell peppers, persimmons, olive oil, sesame products, Dorot frozen herb cubes, and Osem Bamba. The resolution states the co-op will not sell goods produced in Israel or Israeli settlements until Israel complies with international law.

The measure was first proposed in 2024 by Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine. An opposing group, Coop4Unity, formed the same year to resist the effort. Both sides have campaigned for months.

Co-op coordinators moved the meeting online and increased security after receiving threatening letters, suspicious mail, aggressive calls, and hostile online activity. Staff cited safety concerns for holding the vote remotely. Co-op leadership condemned comments that referenced “Jewish supremacism” and “Arab supremacy,” calling them inconsistent with the organization’s standards.

The vote follows more than a decade of discussion at the co-op about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Past boycotts at the store have targeted products from apartheid-era South Africa and Chile under Augusto Pinochet.