Support Rainbow's bulk department

'with such a ridiculous name as "rainbow", just on general principles'

that's all we needed to know about you. thanks!

She doesn't like 2nd grade girls, or muppets for that matter.

A boycott of all of Israel is very broad. If it's that broad, you might as well extend it to a boycott of the US, because Israel gets lots of money from the US government.

But it would be kinda hard to run a grocery store in California without selling US produce, wouldn't it?

"A boycott of all of Israel is very broad. If it's that broad, you might as well extend it to a boycott of the US"

The boycott of S Africa had an effect... Israel exports less to the US so a boycott could easily be more effective...

And, on that note isn’t it weird to remember all the Republicans who showed up at the antiapartheid protests to protest for apartheid and demonize the ANC as Communist. I’ll bet they are the same people backing Sharon and posting right wing comments on here these days. Struggles always seem hard when you are fighting them but the right will quickly collapse in on its own moral bankruptcy when we win

because Amnesty International, who does excellent, conservative factfinding, just declared that the State is committing crimes against humanity...that's why.

Opposing crimes against humanity also includes opposing Hamas. You don't have to support Israel to oppose hate. Israel seems to be cornering the market there.

http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/countries/israel/occupied+territories?OpenView&Start=1&Count=30&Expandall

Just wanted to take a moment and prove to you something I have been saying for a while now: Zionists are all non-native Israeli Jews, and the action by the Rainbow Grocery proves it.

1) The co-op specifically banned Israeli goods without mentioning Zionist goods -- implying that Israeli goods are Zionist goods because they are produced by Zionists

2) The co-op targeted every worker and company of Israeli origin regardless of their position on the conflict -- implying that the geographical location of a person/company is far more important than whatever position they claim to hold

3) The co-op claims the departmental boycott is not a racial or religious based attack -- implying the Israelis affected by the boycott is are carefully chosen targets not the collateral damage of an indiscriminant attack -- hence they must be Zionists

I am no more racist than those who stand with me at the Rainbow Grocery co-op. We know who the Zionists are.

December 5, 2002

THE STATEMENT at San Francisco's Rainbow Grocery Cooperative customer service counter read: "Thank you for your concern. We currently do not have a storewide boycott on Israeli goods. After a lot of storewide discussion and debate, some departments have decided to continue to sell products from Israel and others have decided to not carry them anymore in support of freedom for Palestinians and all people." (The part in italics was hig 1 h 8fe lighted marked "optional," so staffers could choose not to repeat it.)

I read the statement midafternoon Tuesday. Two hours later, Rainbow's public relations committee -- it's a cooperative, so everything's by committee -- issued a new statement. Gone was any reference to "freedom for Palestinians and all people." In its place was the assurance that only two departments -- package and bulk -- had voted to boycott Israeli products and that there was nothing anti-Semitic behind the vote.

"The decision made by these departments does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Rainbow Grocery," the statement read. "Our workforce is an extremely varied group. We have a variety of opinions, and we don't always agree."

Why the change? They were busted. A shopper discovered she couldn't buy Israeli gelt (chocolate coins) for Hanukkah because of the boycott at Rainbow, which, it turns out, had been in force for a year. Her husband then sent out an e-mail on the boycott that traveled far and wide. Outrage provoked angry phone calls and Rainbow's PR voice mail was full. The "worker/owners" were in full damage-control mode.

It would be easy to dismiss this food fight as a fringie fiasco -- you know, discord among the large jars of beet root powder and bladderwrack, in a cooperative that is anything but -- cooperative, that is.

But nothing stays fringe in San Francisco. Today, package and bulk. Tomorrow, City Hall divests all assets. Unless this movement is nipped in the bud.

Is Rainbow boycotting any other countries, such as that champeen of human rights abuses, China? The answer is no. Worker/owner Cyrus Heiduska explained that China sells too many products, and often much cheaper than goods from other countries.

So why the Israeli boycott? Heiduska said that store workers knew that both sides had committed atrocities, but they wanted to show solidarity with "the most oppressed party."

Do you think the Palestinians and their backers believe in freedom? I ask. "We want freedom for all people whether or not they are fighting for freedom. We believe that everybody deserves a home and a homeland and the ability to live in peace."

The man who wrote the e-mail, I discovered, is Ian Zimmerman of personal- injury law advertising fame. Zimmer 7bf man doesn't think all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, but the boycott is "certainly anti-Semitic in its impact, and a reasonable person should see that."

Yes, the store has a right to wage a boycott, just as consumers have a right to boycott the store.

Zimmerman noted that the Rainbow brigade is now learning "that it's not a free ride, and I think that's a good thing."

The odd thing is, for one year, there was a free ride. The boycotters heaped scorn on a small democracy fighting for its life, and no one said peep. No one asked if they were outraged at suicide bombers who deliberately kill Israeli children. No one challenged them to explain how they could say they are boycotting for freedom, without boycotting the oppressive financiers of violent Palestinians.

They had a free ride. They could feel superior and pure, hyping "freedom for the Palestinians and all people." Except they didn't really mean that part about "all people."

Its easy to make the Palestinian cause seem antiSemitic when you can argue both sides setting up a straw man that can easily be torn down...

Editor -- Regarding "Middle East unrest hits grocery store" (Business, Dec. 4):

What a great idea for certain departments of Rainbow Grocery to make up shoppers' minds for us and exile Israeli-made products to the wilderness. Surely their logical next step will be to banish matrioshkas and black caviar, to demonstrate our pique at Russia's war in Chechnya. Of course, if they do that they would also need to expel their Jasmine tea and bamboo shoots to protest China's repression in Tibet. But why stop there?

Lest they send the mistaken impression that they support India's actions in Kashmir, the store's nan and curry should be cast out. And they should have no problem evicting Egyptian hummus and babaganoush to show their solidarity with Cairo's imprisoned gays and lesbians. Don't forget a boycott of U.S. goods while they're at it, because that would break the back of American-Zionist imperialism and bring about the second coming of Che Guevara.

After Rainbow Grocery is through, it will be the most morally pure shop in the world, offering items exclusively from Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Bon appetit!

Editor -- Regarding "Middle East unrest hits grocery store" (Business, Dec. 4):

What a great idea for certain departments of Rainbow Grocery to make up shoppers' minds for us and exile Israeli-made products to the wilderness. Surely their logical next step will be to banish matrioshkas and black caviar, to demonstrate our pique at Russia's war in Chechnya. Of course, if they do that they would also need to expel their Jasmine tea and bamboo shoots to protest China's repression in Tibet. But why stop there?

Lest they send the mistaken impression that they support India's actions in Kashmir, the store's nan and curry should be cast out. And they should have no problem evicting Egyptian hummus and babaganoush to show their solidarity with Cairo's imprisoned gays and lesbians. Don't forget a boycott of U.S. goods while they're at it, because that would break the back of American-Zionist imperialism and bring about the second coming of Che Guevara.

After Rainbow Grocery is through, it will be the most morally pure shop in the world, offering items exclusively from Norway, Sweden and Iceland. Bon appetit!

I'm glad Rainbow Grocery isn't boycotting Israel. I'm against a boycott of Israel. Once when I was considering buying an item of clothing, and wasn't sure I should buy it because I was short of money, I decided to buy it because I saw a "Made in Israel" label on it. However, I am upset and troubled by Israel's treatment of Palestinian Arabs.

Rainbow Grocery is obviously run by a bunch of anit-semitic racist scum. I wouldn't shop there if they gave their food away for free.

I'm not at all sure what you mean by "support" Redwood. I support the right of Rainbow to make this decision and I've sent them a comment explaining that. But as a fellow anarchist, I am less comfortable with what I see as their complaining about the consequences of their decision. Choose sides in a tribal conflict and you must expect to lose the business of the tribe you have offended. You have no gripe about that.

Apparently they decided that "being on the right side of this issue" was worth whatever financial "hit" Rainbow would take by the loss of most of its Jewish customers. Perhaps even endangering Rainbow's survival (I don't know what percentage is involved). It's a choice in comparative values. Well neither you nor they should be at all surprised that the Jews make a similar value judgement and conclude that Israel (however oppressively it may be acting) is worth more to them than the survival of Rainbow.

Friday, 6 December, 2002, 13:14 GMT
Israel accused over Gaza killings

Two Palestinian homes were targeted in the raid

A United Nations official says eight of the 10 Palestinians killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning were unarmed civilians.

It was as if the doors of hell were opened in our camp by the helicopters and the tanks

Witness Mohammed Al-Maqadama Christer Nordahl, of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, said that two of the eight were UN employees working at a nearby school.

But a senior UN spokesman told the BBC that UNRWA was conducting an investigation into the deaths and had not yet reached any conclusions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2549905.stm

I got this email from Rainbow which is unclear - they say there is no boycott but make no reference to the particular departments who appeared to have been doing a boycott. Maybe this is the best strategy to calm things down, or maybe all these news stories were fake? who knows.


Dear Customers and Concerned Neighbors,

We apologize for those of you who may be receiving a second mass mailing.
Unfortunately, we are simply unable to respond individually to all who have
emailed, called or faxed letters to us. We would like to set the record
straight for those of you who have heard conflicting stories about this
issue.

There is no boycott at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative against Israeli products.
At no time did a boycott of Israeli products come up for a vote by the
Membership. Our policy requires 51% of the membership to approve a boycott.

We want to emphasize the following point: in no way do we tolerate any
workers at Rainbow Grocery who support hatred, racism or any form of
religious oppression in or outside of our workplace.

We feel compassion for all parties in the Middle East, intense pain for the
losses suffered and dreams unfulfilled. Our ultimate and paramount hope is
and has always been peace in the Middle East.

It is dialogue that ultimately will provide the avenue for resolution of the
difficult and complex issues in the Middle East. Your feedback and
commentary are important to us. We hope that the outpouring of intense
communication in the past week can be a step in the process of peace, not a
step towards the escalation of conflict.

Sincerely,
Board of Directors
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative

Being Jewish and supporting Israel has no real relationship. Anyone who says there is a relationship is anti-Semitic.

I wouldn’t support a US government embargo, since the goal should be a reduction or end to US military aid (which increase the incentives for peace). But, as private consumers a more general boycott seems like it could be effective.

REVISION: There is No Boycott of Israeli Products

Recently there has been an email campaign telling people to boycott Rainbow because of a supposed boycott of Israeli products.

There is no boycott at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative against Israeli products. At no time did a boycott of Israeli products come up for a vote by the Membership. Our policy requires 51% of the membership to approve a boycott.

We want to emphasize the following point: in no way do we tolerate any workers at Rainbow Grocery who support hatred, racism or any form of religious oppression in or outside of our workplace.

We feel compassion for all parties in the Middle East, intense pain for the losses suffered and dreams unfulfilled. Our ultimate and paramount hope is and has always been peace in the Middle East.

It is dialogue that ultimately will provide the avenue for resolution of the difficult and complex issues in the Middle East. Your feedback and commentary are important to us. We hope that the outpouring of intense communication in the past week can be a step in the process of peace, not a step towards the escalation of conflict.

12/06/02

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Rainbow Grocery health food store on the edge of San Francisco's Mission District is becoming a center of contention this week over a decision to drop Israeli products from certain departments.

"The symbolism is very powerful,'' commented Yitzhak Santis of the Jewish Community Relations Council Thursday. He said his council, made up of 80 synagogues and other groups in the region, wants to set up a meeting to ask the worker-operators of the large retail outlet on Folsom Street to reconsider but has so far received no response.

"We really want to have a meeting with them,'' Santis added.

In the meantime, his organization has been urging members that anti-Semitism may play a part in the situation at Rainbow and to call the store and express their views.

Many have chosen to do so.

A worker answering telephones at the store Thursday afternoon said more than 500 calls have been received since news reports made public a decision months ago to cut just a couple of products from two of the store's departments.

"We're getting a lot of calls and we are very concerned,'' she told one caller, adding that not everyone at the 200-employee cooperatively run business shares the same political views.

Scott Bradley, a member of the staff's public relations committee who has answered media questions, was not available Thursday to comment on the situation and a customer service representative said no one else was authorized to speak publicly.

A statement on the grocery company's Web site maintained that no boycott of Israeli products is in effect, although the Package and Bulk departments had stopped carrying those products last year out of concern over human rights issues overseas.

But Santis said he understands that only products from Israel have been excluded, characterizing the decision as an ideological one rather than a humanitarian one. He said he is concerned that the move could start a broader trend elsewhere around the store, which carries aisles-worth of household and cosmetic products in addition to food.

"This is the first time we've heard of a retailer pulling Israeli products from their shelves,'' Santis said, "and we hope it is the last.''

I love how all these liberal-peacenik phonys vent their racist hate-mongering on behalf of a store that is not actually boycotting Israel.
That seems to happen with liberals quite a bit: acting as spokeman for a group without actually determining what they want. It explains Pres. Johnson's War on Poverty (poverty won) and the rabid opposition to privitize Social Security (after all, private investment has only beaten Socialist Security by a mere 875% in the last 8 years

Sorry, both Norway and Iceland support Japan and whaling. That, to many, is worse than killing middle-easterners.

support rainbow grocerys boycot and extend it to all israeli products thruout our great united states of america.stop ther boycot only when they surrender their nucleur weapons to the united nations as iraq should do. they must leave palestinian christian, muslim, children and all others alone. no more murderous violence. to eat israli food is to become unclean. would you elect charlie manson president and then by HIS food products.
baba

Employees Reportedly Vote To Ban Israeli-Made Products

POSTED: 2:50 p.m. PST December 8, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- A reported decision to ban some Israeli-made goods has thrust a popular San Francisco alternative grocery store far afield from its peaceable fare of organic teas and granola into the center of the Middle East conflict.

The San Francisco Chronicle this week reported that Rainbow Grocery employees voted to ban certain Israeli-made products as a show of protest against Israel's role in the conflict with Palestinians.

On Rainbow's Web site , however, the employee-owned store denied there had been a boycott and said a store policy requires 51 percent of member workers to approve one.

At the store, employees refused to speak to a reporter, saying they could not talk for the majority of the store's work force. Asked if any Israeli products had been pulled from Rainbow's shelves, one employee said simply: "Not to my knowledge."

In an article printed in its Wednesday edition, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Rainbow had imposed a "partial ban" of Israeli-made goods in the store's packaged-food and bulk-food departments.

Quoting Scott Bradley, a spokesman for the store's cooperative ownership, the Chronicle reported a few Israeli-made packaged foods were removed from the store's shelves about a year ago.

Asked about the Chronicle report, an employee who refused to give her name said "maybe (the newspaper) misquoted someone."

Learning of the ban, one San Francisco man began a boycott of Rainbow Grocery in retaliation, according to the Jewish Bulletin News.

Bulletin Staff

A San Francisco man who was shocked to learn of a grocery store boycott of Israeli packaged or bulk goods is now organizing a boycott of his own -- of the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative.

Ian Zimmerman learned of the situation when his wife returned from the employee-owned grocery collective after having been told she could not buy chocolate Chanukah gelt for their toddler because the store was boycotting some Israeli-made goods.

Persia Sarnataro, a Rainbow customer-service representative, confirmed that the store's packaged and bulk goods departments opted to cease stocking Israeli goods "in support of freedom for the Palestinian people."

Zimmerman fired off an angry e-mail last Friday to hundreds of Bay Area residents urging would-be shoppers to voice their displeasure and avoid the store. Apparently, the e-mail has made the rounds; Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said he's been forwarded dozens of copies.

"Please make your feelings known to Rainbow and any other business that chooses to play the boycott game," wrote Zimmerman in his letter. "Let them know that life is a two-way street and every decision has consequences."

Scott Bradley, a member of the San Francisco store's PR committee, said about a year ago members of the two departments decided to stop stocking Israeli products, such as chocolate coins, but the ban was not widely noticed until customers attempted to buy Chanukah products before the holiday this year. Other departments still stock Israeli products, such as candles, herbal supplements and lotions, he said.

He added that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a contentious issue among store workers, with employees feeling passionate on both sides. Bradley said the packaged and bulk goods departments' decision does not reflect storewide opinion and "there is no Israeli boycott" -- though Justice in Palestine Coalition member Eyad Kishawi was quoted in Wednesday's San Francisco Chronicle saying that his group was "very close" to pushing a storewide boycott and was hoping to do the same in roughly 30 other left-leaning Bay Area businesses.

Kishawi could not be reached for comment.

Bradley said Rainbow's departments are not ceasing to stock products from nations other than Israel.

Zimmerman said it didn't make any difference to him that the boycott only extended to two departments within the store.

"I think the decision is wrong, wrong, wrong whether it affects one department or another," he said.

"It's that simple. The decision itself is mean-spirited and wrong; I think it's a knee-jerk reaction without the knee. Was there ever a vote taken considering boycotting any other country? If not, why?"

Kahn said he's hoping to meet with Rainbow workers to discuss and possibly reverse the decision, which he labeled "irresponsible and outrageous." Kahn urged members of the Jewish community to "send a strong message to the store, so Rainbow will know how deep the hurt and outrage is in the community."

Some have already voiced their anger against the Folsom Street store without being prodded by Kahn.

Dr. Rick Levine, an internal medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, wrote an e-mail to Rainbow Grocery, which was forwarded to the Bulletin.

"My large family spends several thousand dollars a year at Rainbow. That stops immediately," wrote Levine.

"My wife and I are both physicians and make nutritional recommendations to our thousands of Bay Area patients, usually naming specific products at Rainbow as being nutritious, ecologically healthy and economic. That practice now reverses. Your policy is naive and ignorant."

Levine went on to write that only a public apology would be enough to alter his position, and he noted he was forwarding the letter to "scores of local physicians and synagogues."

Kahn said he couldn't think of a Bay Area store ever instituting a boycott on Israeli goods before, and he believed the closest situation was KQED TV's decision to delay indefinitely the airing of an Abba Eban-narrated documentary about Israel in 1993. In that situation as well, Kahn urged members of the Jewish community to make their feelings known. Some canceled their memberships and some threatened to do so, while others called the station to complain.

KQED opted to air the documentary after several months.

Both Kahn and Zimmerman said a simple reversal of the policy would be enough to satisfy them.

"It's easy to make a politically chic decision when there are no consequences," said Zimmerman, a lawyer who lives in the Noe Valley neighborhood.

"The situation in the Mideast is very complex. No question there are abuses on both sides. But to just come out with a reflex response, which I think is half-baked and wrong -- especially when they don't set forth any criteria, don't name any other countries -- it just seems so sophomoric to me."

It's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out. The changes in the public statements from Rainbow suggest that they haven't worked it through on the organizational level. Although it's still too early to tell the degree of the economic impact on Rainbow Grocery, they're probably sweating bullets at the prospect of alienating such a part of their customer base. They are trying hard to look as if they haven't chosen sides, but in the end there are only two ways to do that -- develop a consistent and comprehensive foreign policy applied store-wide, or end the ad hoc departmental boycott.

And if the tacet boycott was already the source of internal contention _before_ it was announced, imagine what it is now that it's blown open and landed them in the newspapers in a negative light.

However, this must also be hair-raising for the pro-Palestinian activists who pushed for the boycott. A high-profile failure here would knock their project off the tracks before it even starts. If a department or two of a basicly lefty co-op grocery -- in SF of all places -- can only maintain a primary (let alone secondary) boycott by keeping it secret, I wonder what that means for the future of _any_ primary or secondary boycott of Israeli goods _anywhere_.

@%<

'"My large family spends several thousand dollars a year at Rainbow. That stops immediately," wrote Levine.'

Exactly right, richie.

Armies have every right to murder civilians - I too won't contribute one more cent to anyone who protests against military murder. How dare they!

That's the way of the world now. The only way to stop terrorism is to murder as many civilians of those terrorists as they kill of ours. More, actually. Twice as many more.

And I'll gladly help pay for the eventual nuke strike that will finally put an end to this terrorism.

"Just wait. The Birmingham bus boycott looked like a failure at first, too."

So did Microsoft "Bob." Because it _was_ a failure.

@%<

EDITORIAL
Tuesday, December 10, 2002

IN SOME OF the best definition-parsing since Bill Clinton, the Rainbow Grocery Cooperative is trying to deny the existence of its semi-boycott against Israel.

Last week The Chronicle reported that two departments at the 27-year-old neighborhood supermarket were refusing to stock Israeli goods. The "boycott" had been going on for about a year to little complaint. Then a customer sent out an e-mail that circulated around the Bay Area. Rainbow spokesman Scott Bradley confirmed the boycott to a Chronicle reporter, though a Rainbow statement stressed that the boycott was not "storewide."

Apparently the not-storewide argument didn't quell customer dissatisfaction.

Now the boycotting store is being boycotted by some Israel supporters.

Rainbow's strategy? Deny and obfuscate. Last week, the store posted a statement on its Web site -- http://www.rainbow.coop -- that announced, "There is no boycott at Rainbow Grocery Cooperative against Israeli products. At no time did a boycott of Israeli products come up for a vote by the membership. Our policy requires 51 percent of the membership to approve a boycott."

Technically the second and third sentences are correct. Yes, there was no membership-wide vote on a boycott -- but the package and bulk departments voted to approve a boycott for their departments.

When no one paid attention to their boycott, some Rainbow workers were proudly scornful of Israeli policy in their curiously selective outrage about "human-rights violations" in the world.

'curiously selective outrage'

Yes, how curious to focus on any ONE human rights violation, especially when our tax money is paying for it almost directly. Isn't that a good reason to ignore it, instead?! Strange. Why on earth would anyone choose ONLY this ONE thing to boycott without considering - first - all the OTHER human rights violations around the world? We should be focusing on all the rest simultaneously with this one. No organization should ever focus their efforts on ONE cause! Impossible! This one is a JUSTIFIED human rights violation if there ever was one! Some countries are okay violating human rights - those countries, of course, that happen to have nuclear weapons and incredible research and intelligence agencies, and who themselves have been the only ones to actually *use* weapons of mass destruction - but places like Burma and Indonesia and any Arab nations . . . not okay! Drop everything and start boycotting Burma! For gods sake! They're the *real* threat int he world! Even better, Nigeria! Boycott all of Africa!