Someone forwarded this very informative article. I think it gets to some of why the boycott has been such a divisive issue. I am going to post a link and an excerpt. - Berd

The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/failure-american-jewish-establishment/ June 10, 2010

by Peter Beinart

In 2003, several prominent Jewish philanthropists hired Republican pollster Frank Luntz to explain why American Jewish college students were not more vigorously rebutting campus criticism of Israel. In response, he unwittingly produced the most damning indictment of the organized American Jewish community that I have ever seen.

The philanthropists wanted to know what Jewish students thought about Israel. Luntz found that they mostly didn’t. “Six times we have brought Jewish youth together as a group to talk about their Jewishness and connection to Israel,” he reported. “Six times the topic of Israel did not come up until it was prompted. Six times these Jewish youth used the word ‘they‘ rather than ‘us‘ to describe the situation.”

That Luntz encountered indifference was not surprising. In recent years, several studies have revealed, in the words of Steven Cohen of Hebrew Union College and Ari Kelman of the University of California at Davis, that “non-Orthodox younger Jews, on the whole, feel much less attached to Israel than their elders,” with many professing “a near-total absence of positive feelings.” In 2008, the student senate at Brandeis, the only nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored university in America, rejected a resolution commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of the Jewish state.

This is for stories, articles, blogs, and other posts related to the Thursday 15 July 2010 decision by the Olympia Food Co-op Board of Directors to boycott products from Israel due to aggression against Palestinians by the state of Israel.

Wednesday 4 August 2010
Olympia BDS presentation at Traditions about their work advocating for the Olympia Food Co-op to boycott products from Israel. It was a full house at Traditions last night. The above photo is from about 9:30, near the end of the night, after when people began to trickle out around 9 or so. I estimate that there were 80 or more people in attendance. Members of the organizing group presented for about an hour and a half or so, and then the floor was opened up for Q & A.
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In this photo, Muhammad Ayub asks a question of the Olympia BDS movement organizers.

For more information, please see: www.olympiabds.org/

Here is a brief news round up of the media's take on Olmypia Food Co-op Boycott of Israeli goods.

KPFA Soujorner Truth Show here

Seattle Times here

An announcement on Democracy Now here

Ha'aretz, an Israeli nespaper, here

On the front page of the Olympian here

UPDATED JULY 23 with more news:

Alternative Information Center in Israel/Palestine here

Olympia KOMO News here

Olympia Covers Support Rally here

There are lots and lots of anti co-op posts on crazy right wing blogs and news sources that I will not repost.

Also, there have been a ton of horribly, hateful phone calls to the Co-op staff. They did not make the decision and it is harrassment. These are NOT supporters of the boycott who are doing this.

Those that support the boycott are directed to contact the board or sign the petition. Visit www.olympiabds.org on directions how to do so. The flood of calls do not represent the sentements of our community.

Other news on Boycott Divestment and Sanctions:

There was good attendance at yesterday's peace vigil, as people came out to mark the 43rd anniversary of the Nakba, when Israel launched its war of occupation against Palestinians in 1967. The MV Rachel Corrie, a ship attempting to carry 1,200 tons of cargo to the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip, was arrested by the Israeli military early this Saturday morning. For more information about the MV Rachel Corrie's mission, please visit The Free Gaza Movement.

Here are some photos from yesterday's vigil:

About 48 hours ago a convoy of ships carrying humanitarian relief supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip was attacked by members of an Israeli military special forces unit. At least nine human rights workers were killed.

Within hours of the attack, emergency demonstrations were called for and planned. At the demonstration in Olympia there were over 100 Freedom Flotilla supporters. Here are some photos from the event.

Emergency Demonstration to Support the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and to Protest Israeli Violence

FOR IMMEDATE RELEASE DATE: March 10th, 2010 CONTACT: travelqueeries@gmail.com Post-Gay Productions presents “Travel Queeries” Olympia Premiere Screening Followed by Q&A with Director/Producers Date: (Saturday) April 3rd, 2010 Location: Olympia Film Society/Capitol Theater Time: 9:00pm-10:30pm Admission: $5 member/$8 non-members "(Travel Queeries presents a) subjective take on radical queer art, culture, and activism in today's Europe. Interviews, performances, and a great soundtrack prove that 'queer' is not just a cosy umbrella term for all things non-heterosexual, but clearly a political identity." Lesbisch Schwule Filmtage Hamburg, Germany (October 2009) www.lsf-hamburg.de Travel Queeries is a feature-length documentary film that examines the culture, art and activism of radical queers in contemporary Europe. Through personal interviews, documentation of performances, festivals, multi-media arts and community spaces, the film explores queer as a political identity in 21st century Europe, how language and identities translate over cultural and physical borders. The film visits queers explaining the first Pride in Serbia, stories of the drag scene in Berlin, a queer anarchist black-lingerie block at London Pride, and Barcelona’s queer squatters organizing the 8th international Queeruption. With this exciting international lens on queer fringe culture, Travel Queeries uses storytelling as a tool for bridge building between diverse perspectives within the LGBT/queer community, increasing knowledge and understanding of queer European culture. Audiences in both the US and Europe have voiced amazement at the lack of knowledge or access to information about these queer activists and projects based in Europe. Travel Queeries – International Screenings have taken place all over Europe, the Middle East, North America (with screenings in Asia, Australia, and Latin America currently being booked).

Iran: The Green Movement
The New Civil Rights Struggle
A panel discussion

with:
Hamid Dabashi
Shadi Mokhtari
Trita Parsi

Feb. 25, 7:30 PM, at The Evergreen State College, Lecture Hall 1

Iran remains in the headlines: Popular protests, human rights abuses, and threats from the West.

Confused? Intrigued? Frightened?

A panel of prominent Iranian and Iranian-American voices will help you sort it out:

HAMID DABASHI: Columbia professor and author of Iran: A People Interrupted will give a brief history of the Iranian civil rights movement.

SHADI MOKHTARI: Author of After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in America and the Middle East, will speak on the state of human rights in Iran.

TRITA PARSI: President of the National Iranian American Council and author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States, will speak on US foreign policy toward Iran and how the civil rights movement will influence greater Middle East politics.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Tacoma, WA - People came from near and far (Tacoma, Seattle, Olympia, and Portland) for a protest rally against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. The detention center is run for-profit, by The GEO Group Inc. According to the description on company's website:

GEO(NYSE: GGI) is an industry leader and pioneer in the privatization of correctional facilities throughout the world and is the largest publicly traded company engaged solely in the business of managing correctional and detention facilities. The company offers a comprehensive range of prison and correctional related services to federal, state, local and overseas government agencies.

Meanwhile, many people have complained about abuse in the prison, where many individuals (the facility has capacity for over 1,000,) whom have not even been accused of committing any crimes, have been inhumanely detained for months, and in some cases for years, at a time1.

There is more to this story, much, much more. One participant in today's rally called the ICE facility "Guantanamo Northwest". Perhaps that was an exaggeration - but what the conditions are really like inside the prison are not well known to most people.

Another participant informed the assembled rallyers that prisoners in the facility are given pills to keep them calm.

Again, there is much, much more to this story. And certainly it is important to connect the issue of immigration and violations of human rights, with abusive international policies of socio-economic and political dominance and exploitation.

Update: Members of Olympia based groups such as the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace (OMJP), Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO), Evergreen Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano Aztlan (MECHA), Bridges Not Walls (BNW), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and Evergreen Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) were instrumental in organizing and participating in the rally.

Other groups, such as One America and The Tacoma/Pierce County Progressive Roundtable were also instrumental in making this event happen.

- Berd

Here are some photos from yesterday's rally at the Washington State Legislative Building. The rally was to defend Washington State Basic Health Care and it was organized and sponsored by Sisters Organizing for Survival, a campaign of Radical Women. Participants in the rally called for substantial tax reform - including taxes for the rich and for corporate profits, and also to defend the poor and working class against the tyranny of the profit driven economic system. Over 3,000 signatures were gathered for a petition that demands, in a time of economic crisis, the expansion of health and welfare programs. The petition was delivered to the Office of the Governor shortly before the State of the State speech.

Leg. Building Scene at the Rally