Boycott boondoggle
Middle East policy debate divides supporters of Rainbow Grocery

By Camille T. Taiara

On Aug. 1, after eight months of strife, the worker-owners of the Rainbow Grocery cooperative began voting on an issue that has become symbolic of a bitter divide in San Francisco's progressive community: whether or not to boycott Israeli goods. The vote is taking place through Aug. 15.

In the meantime many onlookers are keeping close watch on the struggle as an important measure of just how much support the pro-Palestinian movement can expect from the left in San Francisco.

The split began late last November, when a shopper looking for gelt, chocolate coins traditionally associated with the celebration of Hanukkah, discovered that the store's bulk- and packaged-food departments had been boycotting Israeli goods for the past year. She and her husband sent out a mass e-mail, and within a matter of days, the store was bombarded with messages of outrage and accusations of anti-Semitism.

The quasi-boycott garnered immediate criticism in the San Francisco Chronicle and catalyzed opposing sectors of the greater San Francisco community – most notably the local Jewish Community Relations Council and the Justice in Palestine Coalition.

Rainbow went into damage-control mode. On Dec. 22 the cooperative ordered the two renegade departments to desist from boycotting Israeli products unless the store as a whole approved such measures.

In a phone interview with the Bay Guardian, Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle East Affairs at the JCRC's San Francisco branch, characterized the boycott effort as being based on "an ideology of hypocrisy and double standards" and accused the co-op of ignoring the mainstream Jewish community's concerns. Rainbow, he rightly pointed out, does not have any such boycott in effect for products from other countries with disturbing records of human rights abuses – like China, Egypt, or Lebanon.

Boycott supporters say such charges are no more than a hollow tactic to divert attention from the issue at hand. "Israel is in the process of dispossessing the Palestinian people of their land and turning them into the largest refugee population in the world," Emily Katz Kishawi of the JPC said.

Now the moment of truth has come. Will the worker-owners of Rainbow – a local business long revered as a symbol of progressive business practices – choose to take a formal stance in opposition to Israel's U.S.-aided military occupation of Palestinian territories, or will it back down for good?

Rainbow employees have been advised to stay mum about the store's internal affairs. Board member Elizabeth Donoghue would not provide the Bay Guardian with even ballpark figures on how many public comments the store has received on the issue, a specific date on which the votes will be tallied, or any details on past Rainbow boycotts.

What's more, it seems the co-op changed the rules for approving boycotts since the scandal broke last winter. According to official Rainbow statements quoted in the Chronicle in December, a boycott required simple majority approval. Today, it requires a two-thirds majority, Donoghue verified.

"Rainbow is seen as a tipping point," Katz Kishawi said. "If they adopt certain practices, others will follow suit.... The coming two weeks are critical for this campaign."

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