By Matt Chaban 5/16/12 4:47pm

Silicon Alley U

This place is teaming with baddies. (Cornell)

The Evil Eye! Israel Boycott Comes to Roosevelt Island As BDS Movement Targets Tech Campus

After they came after our hummus, it was only a time before they came for our mobile app engineers.

Anti-Israeli groups set on depriving New York of two of its most important commodities have moved on from the dowdy old Park Slope Food Co-op to the shiny new Roosevelt Island tech campus. What do both have in common? A commitment to the environment and Israeli imports. Curbed has spotted a new group, New Yorkers Against Cornell-Technion, dead set on stopping the new tech campus, Mayor Bloomberg’s biggest achievement since the smoking ban, because of the affiliations of Cornell’s lesser-known (on these shores) partner.

According to the New Yorkers Against Cornell-Technion’s website, Technion is complicit in every nefarious Israeli deed from the settlements to circumcision. Read More

By Matt Chaban 3/26/12 3:20pm

Co-op't

The boycott's a schmear campaign!

Hizzoner’s Hummus: Mayor Bloomberg Slams Park Slope Food Co-op’s Israel Boycott

Probably the last person anyone would ever expect to shop at the Park Slope Food Co-op has decided to weigh in on the heated controversy roiling the organic aisles of the brownstone bastion. At the ribbon-cutting for Steiner Studios this morning, Mayor Bloomberg was asked for his position on the proposed Israel boycott. Were he to actually don an apron and sort bulk natural supplements for two hours a month, the mayor’s vote would be a resounding “no.”

For those who know the mayor and his non-New York politics, the reasoning is simple. Like fellow pol Chuck Schumer, he is a staunch defender of Israel. (You don’t have to be Jewish to boycott the boycott, either, as Public Advocate Bill DeBlasio did earlier today.) In fact, the mayor encouraged stronger ties with the Land of Milk and Honey. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/22/11 1:27pm

Co-op't

Organic democracy. (BKLYN GUY/Flickr)

In Defense of the Park Slope Food Co-op’s Israel Boycott

On the progressive blog Waging Nonviolence, Kiera Feldman mounts a vociferous defense of the Park Slope Co-op’s right to boycott Israeli goods, should its members feel so inclined. It is in large part a 1,600-word critique of The Observer‘s recent series on the BDS debate that has swept the brownstone bastion in recent months. We considered grabbing a few paragraphs for a “smug” blockquote commentary of our own, but instead, we’re giving the subject a full airing here, republished with permission. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/03/11 1:39pm

Co-op't

Is that a bomb-sniffing dog? (wonderyyort/Flickr)

The Night The Observer Almost Blew Up the Co-op

With world leaders taking sides in the debate over a boycott of Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Co-op, what do the members, those who are not leading the fight, think? Outside 782 Union  Street on Monday night, the signature green-and-red neon sign buzzing overhead, The Observer encountered the kind of zealous ambivalence and shoulder-shrugging apathy so often associated with Brownstone Brooklyn.

“Why are they boycotting Israel? What about China? It’s stupid,” said Andrew Sepulveda. “You know, we’ve got these water bottles that say ‘Designed in America,’ but they’re made in China. And sometimes you open them up and there are little notes inside and it says, ‘Help me. They’ve got a gun to my head.’ What are we doing about that?” Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/03/11 12:01am

Co-op't

Co-Op Grocer Model Proves Wildly Successful For Brooklyn Food Co-Op

Soy Vey! Could a Hummus Fight Kill the Co-op?

Israel and the Park Slope Food Co-op have a lot in common. Both were founded in part by Jewish socialists. Both are governed by a raucous democracy with laws and rituals to rival the Talmud. Both have a soft spot for hummus and couscous.

And now both are plagued by the Palestinian question. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/03/11 12:00am

Co-op't

dersh

First They Came for the Penises: Dershowitz Fears BroBos’ Circumcision Boycott

In this week’s issue, The Observer talked to Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor and maybe the staunchest defender of Israel on the planet, about a proposal for a boycott of Israeli goods at the Park Slope Food Co-op. In his typically brazen style, Mr. Dershowitz compared pro-boycott co-op members to bear-baiting-hating Puritans and vowed to shut the BroBo institution down if a boycott went through. “You have to fight fire with fire,” he said. Soy veyzmeir, but these were some of his tamer declarations. Read More