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Politics & Government

Pols and Officials Weigh in on Food Coop's Proposed Israel Ban

Councilmember Brad Lander, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and even Mayor Michael Bloomberg have condemned the Coop's BDS group's proposed Boycott.

The Park Slope Food Coop’s controversy on will start on Tuesday night during their vote on how its members should vote on the boycott, has set off such a big debate that now even Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing in.

“These are businesses that should be run as businesses,” Bloomberg told the New York Post at Sunday's St. Patrick’s Parade in Bay Ridge. “I certainly am adamantly opposed to boycotting Israeli products...Israel is a very important ally of America. We shouldn’t forget that.”

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio agreed, urging members to call off the vote, says McBrooklyn.

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“I am urging my Brooklyn neighbors to reject the proposal offered by some members of the Park Slope Food Coop. Plain and simple—it's wrong,” said de Blasio in a statement. “The Coop is an important community institution with a great tradition of tolerance and inclusion. Its members should reject the boycott resolution on Tuesday evening as an outrage to our collective values as New Yorkers.”

Councilmember Brad Lander, D-Park Slope, told The Jewish Week back in February that the boycott idea was “a one-sided and unfair effort, which is not only deeply mistaken as foreign policy, but also threatens to divide and harm the Food Co-op, a longstanding and important community institution.”

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Lander added that he believed that peace between Israel and its neighbors “can only be accomplished through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians at the bargaining table—something made even more difficult by misguided proposals like this.”

When Park Slope Patch asked its readers if the , we got 1,211, with 861 votes for "No" and 350 votes for "Yes."

One commenter said that the Coop shouldn't vote on divisive issues:

"The Park Slope Food Coop should not take a position that divides the community. Individuals can boycott Israeli products and if they are not bought they will not be reordered."

If you are a member and want to vote on how to vote for the boycott, go to Brooklyn Technical High School, 29 Fort Greene Place (use the main entrance on South Elliot at the corner of Dekalb) at 7 p.m.

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