Brooklyn, NY — Tonight, in a historic victory, members of the storied Park Slope Food Coop passed a measure for the cooperative grocery store to boycott Israeli goods. The vote passed by a margin of 4,551 in favor, to 2,083 opposed. The win means that one of the oldest and largest member-owned food cooperatives in the United States will now join a growing surge of cooperatives and institutions moving to put pressure on the Israeli state for continued crimes against humanity being perpetrated against Palestinians, echoing the demands of the nonviolent, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. "Tonight's win is proof that cooperative movements are powerful models for exercising solidarity and participatory democracy," said Coop board candidate, Taylor Pate. "I am so proud to be a member of the world's 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."

This boycott recommits the Coop to its history of standing up for social justice, with previous boycotts of goods from apartheid South Africa, Chile under the Pinochet regime, Colorado over gay rights, as well as companies like Coca-Cola and Citibank. It also joins several local organizations that have cut ties to Israeli companies and companies complicit in the genocide, including the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Greene Hill Food Co-op, and NYC Health + Hospitals. The boycott vote, organized by Park Slope Food Coop Members for Palestine, was endorsed by over 30 organizations including the American Council for Judaism, Jewish Voice For Peace - New York, the Olympia Food Co-op (the first grocery store in the U.S. to boycott Israeli products), PAL-Awda NY/NJ, Palestinian Youth Movement - NYC, and Shoresh, as well as elected officials Alexa Avilés and Emily Gallagher.

Getting to this moment came after more than 17 years of organizing by Coop members, who faced procedural blocks as well as escalating threats and intimidation from far-right Zionist opponents. This included violence at a Coop meeting on the boycott in 2015, when Zionist Coop members rushed the stage to silence a pro-boycott speaker. Additionally, threats to several Brooklyn venues were called in to prevent meetings from taking place. In recent weeks, anti-boycott members have harassed pro-boycott members as they canvassed outside the Coop. Coop leaders were also subject to intimidation for allowing the vote to move forward, including hundreds of threats and the mailing of a suspicious substance. In light of these actions, Coop leadership made the vote entirely virtual to ensure participants' safety.

Some grocery stores have long been sites of activism. From 1985 to 1987, a small grocery store in Ireland staged a three-year strike against apartheid South Africa that eventually led to the Irish government banning South African imports. The 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's victory will reverberate out in a similar way. "My heart is full because tonight I saw a Coop that I joined 48 years ago and it's still alive. This historic win will have repercussions far beyond our store," said longtime Coop member and boycott organizer Alyce Barr. In voting to answer the call from Palestinian people to boycott Israeli goods, members of the PSFC are carrying out the founding principles and mission of the Coop.

For more about PSFC Members for Palestine, visit psfc4palestine.org or @psfc4palestine on Instagram.