Victory in Park Slope: BDS Loses Vote On Whether To Have Vote

The results are in from tonight's much followed vote by the Park Slope Food Coop on whether to have a vote on whether to join BDS - the "Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions" regime that seeks to replace Israel with an Arab-majority state. Out of more than 1600 votes cast at an unprecedented meeting of some of the coop membership at a high school auditorium, the members present opted to defeat BDS by a margin of 61% to 39%.

It is an important victory for the anti-BDS side because this debate drew significant outside attention beyond the usual I-P partisans, with repeated coverage in the New York Times and other media outlets, as well as by entertainer and paranoid freak Glenn Beck. Also, rather unique to BDS circuses, this one featured several prominent local politicians weighing in, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who delivered a scathing rebuke of BDS.

It is interesting that this partcular vote was accompanied by significantly more outside interest. One could certainly attribute it in part to being in New York City, the home of many media companies. The Park Slope Coop is also a pioneer in the food coop movement, dating to the early 70s, so their move either way may be seen as more significant and impactful than recent similar happenings in Sacramento, Davis, Port Townshend, Ann Arbor, and Olympia.

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61% to 39% is closer than many would have liked, but it is a decisive defeat that will probably keep BDS from trying again in Park Slope for at least a little while. It is also possible that some people in attendance out of deference to (small-d) democratic ideals may have voted to hold the vote but would have voted no in that actual vote. Also the vote itself drew only the most interested members. 39% is therefore an upper limit to BDS support at the coop (Note that this will not stop BDS from claiming that their democratic rights were infringed because of the arcane procedure that this was the vote on whether to hold the vote and not the actual vote - and I note the insane hypocrisy that will accompany this because in Olympia BDS insisted on no vote by the membership).

This is another in a very long line of electoral defeats for BDS, which include all of the above mentioned food coops except for Olympia, as well as every college and university, municipality, and church hierarchy in America where they have tried over the past 10 years (many gory details are available at the excellent Divest This blog). However - and this is crucial for understanding what BDS is all about - BDS will not see Park Slope as much of a defeat, for their goal is not to actually economically harm Israel, which everyone knows could not happen even if every food coop in America stopped selling hummus.

Rather, the goal of BDS is to get the "Israel=bad" meme to be associated with a respected progressive institution such as a coop, university, mainline church, or cool city. And that is unfortunate, because it means we have to strive to defeat BDS every time, not just a majority of times or the most important times. Annoyingly, Park Slope is not the end, it may not even be the beginning of the end, but at least it may be the end of the beginning.

This Friday is Buy Israel Day, and I hope many Brooklynites will hit up Park Slope for the Israeli products they will continue to be able to enjoy.