In recent days we have seen a spike in shop protests, store invasions and boycotts of Israeli or kosher products at major retail stores in various cities across the UK. Synagogues have been daubed, cultural events disrupted and members of the Jewish community have faced abuse.
Readers of The Grocer will be concerned about the ransacking of Tesco stores, part-closure of Sainsbury’s stores, and retailers being brought under pressure to stop sourcing goods from Israeli companies. In one incident, the Holborn Sainsbury’s temporarily withdrew kosher products. In another, in West Belfast, the goods tampered with had very little association with Israel at all.
What does this mean for the Jewish community in the UK? The sight of gangs noisily entering stores singling out Israeli products for trashing conjures up images of previous boycotts and intimidation, such as Germany in the 1930s. According to the Community Security Trust, the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in the UK is running at well over double what might be expected at this time of year.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council in the UK are on record as saying the protestors have no interest in securing peace for Israel and Palestinians. Through their actions they risk importing the Middle East conflict to the UK and provoking division between communities here.
”Importing conflict will neither serve us nor prospects for peace”
It is the ugly side of the boycott and divestment campaign, the polemic of which is often nihilistic and can move into threatening behaviour. Instead of supporting projects such as the Portland Trust, which invests in economic regeneration in the West Bank, and the Peres Centre for Peace, which builds cooperation between Jews and Arabs, protesters are too often focused on point scoring and demonising the other side. This is closed-minded and destructive.
The leadership of the Jewish community condemns the violence in retail stores and are backing individual store managers to call the police if there is disruption to peaceful business and intimidation of staff. The community calls on retailers not to discriminate against or boycott any goods, products or suppliers, which would give the message that intimidation works.
The distress every decent person feels for loss of innocent life in conflicts wherever they are being fought, be it in Israel and Gaza, throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, should not act as cover for extremism, threats and violence. The Board’s chief executive, Gillian Merron, says: “Our shops are no place for a political battleground. As a society we should be bringing communities together. Importing conflict through produce on the shelves will neither serve us, nor the prospects for peace for the Israelis or Palestinians.”
The Board of Deputies calls on all individuals and groups in the UK to export peace rather than to import conflict. We hope and pray for a lasting ceasefire and an end to the cycle of violence; moreover we call for peace, prosperity, security and equality for all Israelis and Palestinians and for the wider Middle East.
Jonathan Arkush is vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
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