From the Committee to Abolish BDS from the PSFC (Park Slope Food Coop): This Wed. March 29th at UN Headquarters: Another Anti Israel BDS Conference this time featuring Niki Haley determined to push for Action. Let us once and for all finally put an end to toothless anti -BDS resolutions and anti-BDS ineffective condemnations.

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Once again there is the Second Massive anti-Israel BDS Conference to meet at the UN headquarters March 29th.  http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/wjc-and-israels-mission-to-un-to-co-host-annual-ambassadors-against-bds-summit-at-un-headquarters-in-new-york-3-2-2017 Second Massive Anti-BDS Conference to Meet at UN

https://unitedwithisrael.org/second-massive-anti-bds-conference-to-meet-at-un/

They have as their featured guest speaker Niki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Great choice as she seems like a doer. Watch her on Youtube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmnbLxEhKuk

She says she is determined to push for action.  We are following closely hoping and praying that under the Trump Administration and under his people they will follow through with concrete punitive measures like defunding UNRWA  agencies who are enemies of Israel. 

Trump Admin Prepares Exec Order to End Funding for UN Agencies Giving Full Membership to PA, PLO http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/breaking-nyt-report-trump-admin-prepares-exec-order-to-end-funding-for-un-agencies-giving-full-membership-to-pa-plo/2017/01/25/ 

Nikki Haley Puts U.N. on Notice: U.S. Is 'Taking Names'

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/world/americas/nikki-haley-united-nations.html

UNITED NATIONS — The American ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, issued a stark warning on Friday to allies and rivals abroad, saying in her first remarks at the headquarters of the world body that the Trump administration would hold to account those who do not back the United States.

"You're going to see a change in the way we do business," Ms. Haley said. "Our goal with the administration is to show value at the U.N., and the way we'll show value is to show our strength, show our voice, have the backs of our allies and make sure our allies have our back as well."

"For those who don't have our back," she added, "we're taking names; we will make points to respond to that accordingly."

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18447 Nikki Haley's first hurrah By Ruthie Blum

We on the committee to Abolish BDS from PSFC are hoping that the fight against BDS will move on to the next stage...

We have heart enough of toothless anti-Israel BDS resolutions and ineffective condemnations!

Having been at last year's first anti-Israel BDS Conference and as someone who is part of the Committee to abolish BDS from the Park Slope Food Coop, let me disappoint you with the sad news, from our perspective,  that this conference was a lot of hot air and talk and didn't translate to something of substance. Their recommendations did nothing to help abolish BDS in the Park Slope Food Coop and in fact the BDS has intensified. 

Note our goal is to demolish BDS and not merely to stop it.  Stopping it works temporarily and comes back with a vengeance. 

Legal Scholars at BDS Conference UN can't see the Forest for the Trees.  https://abolishbds.blogspot.com/2016/11/legal-scholars-at-bds-conference-un.html

We are a committee to abolish BDS from the PSFC (Park Slope Food Coop). http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/39/27/dtg-park-slope-co-op-casualties-2016-01-07-bk.html.   Read about us below in the the ZOA post as well. 

Now we understand why those who disrupt COOP business deserve disciplinary action to keep them in check. We agree that those who don't show up to work or are thieves should be disciplined. 

However, in this scenario, the true offenders were not those that disrupted the BDS agenda item but rather those who put the BDS on the agenda in the first place! It is the PSFC BDS https://psfcbds.wordpress.com/  which is offensive, who have found a warm embrace and platform in a food coop which brainwashed 17,000 of its members against Israel and Settlers living rightfully in their ancestral homeland in Judea and Samria.  It is they who deserve to be ousted by a disciplinary committee. Unfortunately the disciplinary and hearing committee have a BDS Bias. 

If the agenda item to be presented was pornographic wouldn't the members be justified in stopping the presentation?  

Those that stopped the BDS Presentation at the General Meeting are heroes to be commended! Here is an idea of what they  prevented the unsuspecting audience from hearing

In a  BDS narrative:

Israel is accused of every evil. In particular, there is mention of "massacres," "ethnic cleansing," "famine" (of Palestinians), "indiscriminate bombings," and "acts of genocide." The terminology used is particularly savage, and the goal perfectly clear. To promote the boycott of Israel, Palestinian NGOs are trying to equate Israeli actions with those of the Nazis.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, in France http://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/KnobelFlashpoint43.pdf2002 - 2010 By Marc Knobel Marc Knobel is a Scholar of History and Director of Research at the CRIF 

But the million dollar question is will the legal experts against-Israel BDS take on our case? 

So far not..Why not? Apparently, we don't have a case...apparently PSFC BDS presentations in PSFC were justified under the 1st Amendment of Freedom of Speech! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution. 

On the other hand, a pro Israel, pro IDF, Pro Judea and Samaria narrative from the Coop's perspective is "political" which goes against the "mission Statement" of the COOP. Therefore such a narrative is silenced and suppressed. 

The PSFC COOP selectively will decide that a presentation is considered too political  or considered hate speech in order to reject anything that would put  Israel and settlement in Judea and Samaria in a positive light.  At the same time they use the resources of the Coop to spread  pro BDS propaganda and lies to advocate for "human and Palestinian rights" which they have determined is not political and in keeping with the mission Statement of the PSFC. 

Legally and practically at the moment, it is our opinion that PSFC BDS is a cancer that is part and parcel of the PSFC and has affected and weakened the COOP from effectively acting as a food coop or even being objective enough to hold a fair hearing.  

Case in Point: Would the members of the PSFC Coop agree to hosting an Organic Food Presentation coming from an Organic Farm in the Shomron who happens to be in the forefront of innovations in the field of Organic Farming?

To even suggest doing so is considered by most everyone in the Coop, even those who love Israel, as divisive, controversial, counterproductive  and contrary to a collective and civil discourse. To those who hate Israel it is an anathema. 

This just proves how pervasive the brainwashing has become..

The members of the PSFC clearly voted against BDS in their Coop in 2012 but those on the Board of the Directors and the officers apparently do not care. That in and of itself is very problematic.  They are self appointing and perpetuating group. They represent a BDS Agenda and put whatever they choose on the Agenda and dictate agenda all in the name of diversity and any objection is suppressed and any serious protest to their agenda is a violation of the rules of conduct in the Coop and subject to disciplinary action. Protection of Freedom of Speech is hijacked and reserved only for those who agree with the progressive liberal pro BDS point of view. 

Pro BDS bias in PSFC is evident not only among the Board of Directors but has permeated the entire Coop over the past 8 years and is evident in the LIneswaitier Gazette, the PSFC paper, BDS website, reading groups and all the PSFC committees including the PSFC disciplinary committee and the PSFC hearing committee not to mention the bias of buyers not to buy Israeli products etc.

BDS presents a false one sided picture. They are hypersensitive to anything that is anti BDS, and anti Radical Islam, depicting it as hate speech and Islamophobia.  Will they be honest enough to admit that the victims of Terror in Israel (and often elsewhere) are diverse but the killers are Muslim? (A quote from Daniel Greenfield Sultan Knish).  

Defending the IDF for example for roadblocks with "minor" facts like they are entrusted with  protecting Israeli citizens against terrorists is naturally not part of the BDS presentation. 

Prestigious Lawyers, Alan Dershowitz among them, are sound defenders of the BDS rights of Freedom of Expression and fail miserably to protect the rights of the Pro Israel's side's right to expression...

This golden rule is a doctrine not to be questioned by minions like ourselves. 

Yet it doesn't take a brilliant law professor with umpteen degrees to put 2 and 2 together.  If anti BDS speech is considered hate speech and rejected from the Coop and BDS speech is protected under the 1st Amendment then of course BDS wins hands down.  Legal Scholars by pushing the 1st Amendment rights for the other side have undermined their own efforts!

These super lawyers will pat themselves on the back if they manage to go after a company that can be proven to have boycotted Israeli products. Maybe then they can prevent city or state offices from doing business with them. That is well and good but simply scratches the surface.

The Legal Response - Amb. Alan Baker

The international community needs to act to criminalize incitement to terror  http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-legal-response-amb-alan-baker.html?m=1

...Terror involves two basic components: ideology and practical implementation. Both are often inter-dependent. Ideology comes through education, brainwashing, and incitement. Implementation comes from the availability, manufacture, supply or easy acquisition of weapons in order to implement the ideology.

The fact of the matter is that BDS is not so much the issue as Israeli businesses are booming. 

The brainwashing and indoctrination is the problem and that must be stopped. 

The Governer came out with an executive Order against BDS.  Sounds impressive but again just fluff.

The City Council came out with Legislation against BDS.  Sounds impressive but nothing but hot air air.  

We have had no address to voice our complaint. Not in the City of New York and not in the State of New York. Our letters and phone calls went unanswered.  For starters there isn't any committee or address where we can even launch a complaint.   Needless to say there is surely no way then to follow through with an investigation.  All the elected officials put it on their resume that they are sponsors of anti-BDS resolutions and it's great for reelection hype but as far as we can tell it means zero or the value of the paper that it is written on.   

The fact that  PSFC  have engaged in libelous indoctrination, anti semitic lies and innuendos accusing Israel of the Occupation of Palestinian Land for the past 8 years,  embedding itself in the governing of the PSFC misrepresenting itself as a food coop, while using the resources of the PSFC, using the members membership fees etc,  hosting a PSFC facebook page to advocate for  BDS "Palestinian rights" ,  BDS propaganda, promoting liberal progressive, anti Trump, pro migrant, communist and socialist  agenda spreading viscious and hateful propaganda, and suppressing and silencing equal time with Pro Israel truths is of no value in a court of law?

Maybe this year the anti-Israel BDS Conference will be different under the Trump Administration...The best speakers last year were the Pro Israel Arabs who understood the nature of the beast.  Mort Klein of ZOA spoke well as he is not afraid to speak of the Biblical connection of the Land and the Israel Nation.  

The facts are that Arabs have a much better life under the State of Israel than they do under Hamas or Fatah.  They have  better education, health coverage and work opportunities. Soda Stream made an amazing Employer for Palestinians.  

Arabs living under Arab government don't have it so good. Syrians have had a half a million people slaughtered this year alone not to mention the migration of 47% of its population. World shrugs as Hezbollah prepares massive civilian deaths. 

Lebanon has made Hezbollah, whose rocket launchers are in homes and villages, part of its official army, making it responsible for civilian deaths on both sides should war erupt. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20314?utm_source=activetrail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Finally let me address one of the saddest reasons of what is most hampering anti-BDS efforts.

Unfortunately, it is quite painful to say that the Government of Israel who is hosting this anti BDS conference is also to blame.  They threw settlers from Amona and Ofra out of their homes very recently   . The claim that they were built on Palestinian Land is highly questionable.  The Jewish homeowners received all the proper permits form the State of Israel to build. In addition there is no Arab who  is claiming the Land and there is no Arab who will have any benefit from this Land once the Jews were thrown out.

Let there at least be be a transparent open and fair trial as per who are the rightful claimants of the property.  

The government of Israel has empowered the BDS narrative by forcing the Jews from their homes in their ancestral homeland.

In Conclusion:

So long as the officers and Board of Directors of the PSFC with an anti Israel Bias are in control of the Coop, and runs their committees, and filters elections and appointees of those who edits their papers, and buys the products and decides the agenda of the their general meeting, and those who runs the disciplinary committee and the hearing committee, BDS will continue to silence and suppress any pro Israel, pro Judea and Samaria, pro organic food education if it in any way reflects positively on Settlements of Judea and Samaria...

The Legal Community does not address the brainwashing of BDS as being criminal subject to investigation, prosecution and conviction with punitive action. 

BDS brainwashing is ideology which is the precursor that leads to economic warfare in the form of actual Boycots Divestment and Sanctions and to actual Terror attacks!  The brainwashing justifies the  Palestinian cause and their "armed struggle" which is just a pseudonym for justified terror attacks.  

Do anti BDS legal scholars care that in the PSFC a pro Israel narrative can't even get a foot in the door and that sympathizers of BDS have brainwashed the members of the Food Coop against Israel and against the Settlers of Judea and Samaria and have controlled the narrative and the bias over a span of many years? 

Dear ZOA

Thank you for this letter in the Jewish Week and a chance to vent..but unless we go after the Coop and manage to fire the BDS bigshots from their Board of Directors position and other BDS sympathizer officers and Committee heads and BDS sympathisers from their influential position of leadership the PSFC will continue as it is, a front to disseminate BDS lies, antisemitism, and progressive, leftist, communist anti Trump anti American agenda in the Coop.

Some real punitive and disciplinary action should be taken against BDS members of the PSFC.  We should be "taking names"  

especially since some of the BDS operatives do not disclose their names.They should be removed from their positions of influence.  If this is not possible and they continue to remain in their positions of influence, than punitive action against  the Coop should be taken.  The PSFC is currently operating in violation of their mission statement  under the pretense of being a not for Profit Cooperative Food Coop. Without punitive measures and enforcement, nothing will change. At best they will lay low for a while only to rise again with a vengeance at the first opportunity.

Immediate course of action to turn the situation around..

.We need access to the PSFC membership mailing list in order to get to the membership and provide for them a pro Israel education and an alternative slate of candidates, not weeded out, for positions open for Board of Directors and officers slots. 

Currently BDS Board members sympathizers are in positions that are  self perpetuating and BDS sympathizer are the recommended slate offered as the best possible choice of candidates when the slots open up. 

Someone who is vociferously pro Israel and Pro Judea and Samaria doesn't seem to have a chance to get on the board or to become an officer. Please prove me wrong. . Committee heads positions are weeded out by a sympathetic BDS board of directors so that they too will be BDS sympathizers. These aren't fair elections since they effectively control the slate.

We need to break this cycle so at the very least both sides are given equal time. BDS has for 8 years dominated the narrative.

It's time for BDS be forced out and or elected out!  This won't happen so long as they are in control of the narrative.

 In all fairness pro Israel should now dominate in the PSFC for the next 8 years. Finally they will once and for all focus on organic healthy living instead of all this other crap ( like a nice seminar how manure can benefit mankind as being studied in Itamar at the Organic Zimmerman farm in the Shomron) !

FYI

From: Zionist Organization of America [mailto:info@zoa.org]
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2017 1:19 PM
To: Ticker, Jay (NYSHCR) <Jay.Ticker@nyshcr.org>
Subject: NY Jewish Week Op-Ed: ZOA Fights Anti-Semitism at Food Coop

ATTENTION: This email came from an external source. Do not open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails.

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NY Jewish Week Op-Ed: ZOA Fights Anti-Semitism at Food Coop Share       For more information contact Morton A. Klein 212-481-1500 Follow @mortonaklein on Twitter NEW YORK, March 22, 2017 By Eytan Sosnovich and Susan Tuchman, Esq. Two year ago, four individuals spoke out against hate.  As a result, they, and every member of their households, were barred from their community for an entire year. The community is the Park Slope Food Coop and the form of hate is anti-Semitism. The Coop's mission is worthwhile: to make healthy and affordable food available to everyone who wants it.  Yet, over the last several years, the Coop has seemingly become obsessed with bashing Israel – and only Israel – tolerating repeated efforts to have Israeli products removed from Coop shelves.  It is difficult to understand what the Jewish state has to do with offering healthy and affordable food in Brooklyn, but then anti-Semitism has always been beyond reason. The Coop regularly features anti-Israel articles and letters in its bi-weekly newsletter, provides a platform to anti-Israel speakers at general membership meetings, and repeatedly raises boycotting Israeli products. By April of 2015, many of the Coop's members had rightfully had it. At yet another general membership meeting featuring an Israel-hating speaker, dozens of Coop members spoke out and demanded that the speaker stop his assault on Israel.  Four members were singled out among the many who objected to the viciously biased presentation, and were suspended from the Coop for disrupting the meeting. All of us should be deeply concerned about the failure of state and local representatives to stand up to the Coop's tolerance for unremitting anti-Semitic attacks on Israel. Upon learning of the injustice done to these Coop members and their families, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) sent a strongly worded letter, reminding the Coop that boycotts against Israel are illegal in New York State and urged that the four members be reinstated. The Coop failed to respond. Undeterred, the ZOA initiated a petition that garnered hundreds of signatures, asking the Coop to stop its anti-Semitic obsession with Israel and reinstate the four members who spoke out against hate. Again, no response from the Coop. A former Coop board member did reach out to us in an unofficial capacity.  His comments were illuminating – and alarming.  He urged the ZOA to stop advocating for the suspended Coop members.  He explained that it is Coop policy to allow anyone to speak about anything at general membership meetings, even if the speech is anti-Semitic.  Yet he made an exception for speech that might be offensive to African Americans:  He did not believe that the Coop would provide a platform to a member of the Ku Klux Klan.  When we pushed him about this clear double standard, he explained that those who incite hatred of Israel and Jews at the Coop have "plausible deniability" to the charge of anti-Semitism because their hateful speech is masked as criticism of Israel. But according to the U.S. government's definition of anti-Semitism, demonizing Israel, and singling out Israel and holding it to a standard that no other country is held to – which is exactly what has been happening at the Coop – are forms of anti-Semitism. Given New York State's prohibition against anti-Israel boycotts and a New York City Council resolution condemning the anti-Israel boycott movement, we reasonably believed that state and local officials would be deeply troubled to learn that the Coop was punishing members who strongly objected to Coop activities that could be illegal and violated public policy.  We were wrong.  We contacted New York State Senators Jesse Hamilton, Kevin Parker and Diane Savino, New York Assembly Members Jo Anne Simon and Pamela Harris, and New York City Council Members Brad Lander and Chaim Deutsch.  Each represented either the Coop or one or more of the suspended Coop members. Not a single elected representative intervened, even to express concern about the injustice of the Coop's harsh punishment and the unfair burden it was placing on the suspended  members and their families. "All of us should be deeply concerned about the failure of state and local representatives to stand up to the Coop's tolerance for unremitting anti-Semitic attacks on Israel." Their suspensions will end next month, but the ordeal they endured, and the failure of our elected representatives to step up to the plate to help them, is an important lesson not only for Coop members, but also for the rest of us.  Coop members who simply want to buy healthy and affordable food are still being forced to tolerate fanatical, hateful attacks on the one Jewish state.  The Coop's newsletter is still rife with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic articles. One recent article called for the boycott of Sabra Hummus, because it is "half owned by an Israeli company." Sabra Hummus, however, isn't produced in Israel, but in the United States. All of us should be deeply concerned about the failure of state and local representatives to stand up to the Coop's tolerance for unremitting anti-Semitic attacks on Israel.  While we commend those representatives who supported legislation against anti-Israel boycotts, we – and all of you – expect more from our elected officials.  Recent violence, vandalism and threats against Jewish institutions are getting heightened public attention. But the truth is that anti-Semitism has long been a serious problem in the U.S.  The FBI's hate crime statistics bear this out:  Jews have always been the biggest target of religious hate crimes.  We need to know that when the anti-Semitism is expressed as anti-Israelism, community institutions like the Park Slope Food Coop – and our elected representatives – will not tolerate it.  Otherwise, Jew-hatred, however it is expressed, will continue to grow. Eytan Sosnovich is the Director of Regional Affairs for the Zionist Organization of America Susan Tuchman is the Director of the Zionist Organization of America's Center for Law and Justice This article was published by the Jewish Week and may be found here.

Full story can be found here:  http://zoa.org/2017/03/10357045-ny-jewish-week-op-ed-zoa-fights-anti-semitism-at-food-coop/

Follow ZOA    About the ZOA The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is the oldest and one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the United States. With offices around the country and in Israel, the ZOA educates the public, elected officials, the media, and college/high school students about the truth of the ongoing Arab war against Israel. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.- Israel relations through educational activities, public affairs programs and our work on Capitol Hill, and to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media, in textbooks, in schools and on college campuses. Under the leadership of such presidents as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, and current President Morton A. Klein, the ZOA has been - and continues to be - on the front lines of Jewish activism. www.zoa.org. For more information contact Morton A. Klein 212-481-1500.

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Sincerely,

Robin Ticker

Israel Advocacy Calendar (www.IsraelAdvocacyCalendar.com).

Activist emails sent to my list  are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch.  May their memories serve as a blessing. 

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