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The exterior of the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn. Photo by James Leynse\/Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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By Hannah Feuer<\/a> and Mira Fox<\/a>May 27, 2026<\/p>\n The move by a members-only New York City grocery to ban products from Israel achieved a long-sought goal for a boycott movement, while leaving open questions about what happens next\u00a0 \u2014 including possible lawsuits.<\/p>\n Members of the Park Slope Food Coop voted Tuesday night to boycott Israeli products, with 67% of 6,772 votes cast in favor of the boycott and 31% against, following a related vote to lower the threshold for approving boycotts from 75% to 50% plus one vote. The measure specifies that the ban will continue \u201cuntil Israel complies with international law, including by ceasing unlawful discriminatory practices, in its treatment of Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n The co-op had debated a boycott for more than a decade<\/a>, aligned with a global boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.<\/p>\n Some longtime members and staff objected, voicing concerns about dividing a usually cohesive community where members must volunteer their labor and work in teams in order to shop. Tensions flared<\/a> in the run-up to Tuesday\u2019s vote, drawing in condemnations from a local rabbi and congressman.<\/p>\n But the only words on the measure itself Tuesday night came in the presentation from its sponsors, which cited \u201cIsraeli occupation and apartheid\u201d and \u201cgenocide in Gaza\u201d \u2014 followed by a successful motion to preempt discussion before the vote.<\/p>\n \u201cTonight\u2019s win is proof that cooperative movements are powerful models for exercising solidarity and participatory democracy,\u201d said PSFC for Palestine member Taylor Pate, who is running for the coop board. \u201cI am so proud to be a member of the world\u2019s largest member-labor-required food coop that has decisively voted no to supporting a country that has carried out genocide, occupation, and apartheid in Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign\u2019s work is not finished. All Park Slope Food Coop boycotts \u2014 which historically included South Africa and Chile \u2014 must come up for an annual renewal vote.<\/p>\n Alyce Barr, a veteran Jewish coop member who introduced the ban proposal Tuesday night, says future efforts will involve \u201cwork with the members of our coop to make sure that our coop is everything we want it to be \u2014 welcoming, available to people across economic levels and ethnicities\u201d as well as working \u201cto get more people involved in the democratic effort.\u201d<\/p>\n But some attorneys monitoring the vote and its aftermath suggest talk of democracy does not change an outcome they consider discriminatory.<\/p>\n Kenneth Marcus, CEO of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law \u2014 which helped negotiate a settlement<\/a> in 2022 that prevented Ben & Jerry\u2019s from refusing to sell its ice cream in the West Bank and East Jerusalem \u2014 said in a statement to the Forward the group \u201cis actively evaluating all available legal claims arising from the discriminatory nature of this boycott and the procedural irregularities that allowed it to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n Coop4Unity, a group of members who opposed the boycott, said in an email that they had already retained legal counsel and begun to develop a litigation strategy.<\/p>\n New York City<\/a> and state<\/a> Human Rights Law prohibit boycotts that discriminate against someone because of a protected class, such as race or national origin. Groups including the Lawfare Project<\/a> have argued that provision makes it illegal to engage in boycotts of Israeli goods, which they view as a form of discrimination based on national origin.<\/p>\n Craig Gurian, executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center \u2014 which helped draft parts of New York City\u2019s human rights law \u2014 said he believes a suit could be brought that alleges the coop is unwilling to do business with vendors based on their national origin or religion.<\/p>\n \u201cIf anybody on the pro-boycott side is thinking, \u2018Oh, this is a slam dunk, there\u2019s no risk of liability here,\u2019 they\u2019re being imprudent,\u201d Gurian told the Forward.<\/p>\n But legal advocacy groups including the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal have argued boycotts<\/a> are protected under the First Amendment because they target the policies of the Israeli government, not Jews or Israelis because of their religion or nationality.<\/p>\n A food coop in Olympia, Washington, successfully fought off a lawsuit<\/a> after it approved an Israeli products ban in 2010.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, U.S. food companies that import products from Israel are waiting to hear what happens next.<\/p>\n One is Seed + Mill, a Manhattan-based sesame and halva brand. Australian co-founder Rachel Simons said she hasn\u2019t heard from the coop, but she assumed after yesterday\u2019s vote that the company\u2019s products would no longer be stocked.<\/p>\n The Park Slope Food Coop has been one of the company\u2019s largest, most high-profile retail outlets, Simons said, accounting for thousands of dollars in sales. She said that the company works with a tahini factory in Israel owned by Arab Israelis, and that her team in New York employs people of many different nationalities and religions.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel a tremendous responsibility to humanize the entire business, the supply chain, the people who are being hurt and harmed by this decision,\u201d Simons told the Forward. \u201cThe people who voted against our products, I don\u2019t know how much they really know about who they\u2019re hurting.\u201d<\/p>\n Park Slope Food Coop for Palestine responded with a statement: \u201cOur Coop\u2019s boycott policy is a response to genocide and apartheid, consistent with our values and past boycotts including apartheid South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n Fresh Traction<\/p>\n The Park Slope Food Coop ban comes as the larger BDS movement is finding fresh traction following the Gaza War.<\/p>\n Bestselling Irish author Sally Rooney, who long refused to work with Israeli publishing houses in compliance with the boycott, recently announced plans to publish her latest novel<\/a> in Hebrew through an Israeli publisher that now complies with specific tenets of BDS by accepting the movement\u2019s central three demands \u2014 \u201can end to Israel\u2019s occupation of territories captured in 1967, full civil equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the implementation of the Palestinian right of return\u201d \u2014 and not doing business in West Bank settlements or receiving money from the Israeli state.<\/p>\n In the U.S., opposition to Israel boycotts attracted bipartisan consensus even relatively recently. In 2019, Congress passed a resolution condemning the boycott, divest and sanction movement by an overwhelming margin of 398-17, and nearly two dozen states have their own restrictions.<\/p>\n But that consensus is breaking down as the conflict in Gaza and war with Iran has brought the movement to boycott Israel to the fore, such as when BDS advocates last October claimed victory<\/a> for the closure of a popular Israeli restaurant chain in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n BDS activists are also renewing efforts to repeal legislation or executive orders aimed at limiting boycotts against Israel. Illinois was one of the first states to pass legislation banning the state\u2019s public pension funds from investing in foreign companies that boycott Israel in 2010. The law passed unanimously.<\/p>\n Now, State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid has introduced legislation to repeal the law. He has found support from Daniel Biss, the Jewish mayor of Evanston, Ill., who is now a Democratic nominee\u00a0 running for Congress.<\/p>\n Biss voted for the anti-BDS law when he was a state senator in 2015, but now he says he\u2019s changed his mind.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should all be able to agree that our government must not be wielded to stop people from using their economic agency to advocate for their values,\u201d Biss wrote in a Substack post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Similar efforts to repeal laws or executive orders that bar state transactions with companies that boycott Israel are ongoing in Maryland<\/a>, Minnesota<\/a> and Wisconsin<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in other states have reached out to us,\u201d Rebekah Levin, a Jewish Voice for Peace member in Illinois, told the anti-Zionist news site Mondoweiss<\/a>. \u201cThey want to know what we did and how we did it. If we overturn this it would be a boost to other states. It\u2019s a powerful message. This is why pro-Israel groups are afraid of this passing. It\u2019s about more than just Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters of the Park Slope Food Coop boycott also see their effort as the beginning of a broader fight.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Park Slope Food Coop has inspired and facilitated the growth of co-ops in New York City and around the world, and organizers hope that tonight\u2019s victory will resonate in a similar way,\u201d Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n Sarah Diaz contributed research.<\/p>\n Hannah Feuer joined the Forward as a general assignment reporter in May 2025 after two years as a culture reporter at Seven Days, an independent weekly in Burlington, Vermont. Originally from the Washington, D.C., area, she is a 2023 graduate of Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism.<\/p>\n Mira Fox is a reporter and critic at the Forward covering religion, culture and the internet, including stories on Christian nationalism, online extremist subcultures and, of course, TV and movies of all kinds. Her work has been recognized by the Religion News Association, the Deadline Club and the American Jewish Press Association, and spans many forms including deeply reported features, news analysis and cultural criticism.<\/p>\n You are surely a friend of the Forward if you\u2019re reading this. And so it\u2019s with excitement and awe \u2014 of all that the Forward is, was, and will be \u2014 that I introduce myself to you as the Forward\u2019s newest editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I\u2019m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward\u2019s courageous, unflinching journalism \u2014 not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.<\/p>\n Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.<\/p>\n
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