East End Food Co-op’s board rejects boycott of Israeli-sourced products

At a June 15 meeting, the East End Food Co-op’s Board of Directors voted 7-0 against a boycott of Israeli-sourced products, with one abstention.

The vote followed a protracted campaign by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 667, which represents the store’s employees, urging the store to divest from any entity associated with Israel. The campaign resulted from the union’s July 2024 decision to endorse the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

In order to have the boycott considered by the board, the union had to gather signatures of 500 member-owners. It spent more than a year garnering the signatures before finally submitting its petition in November 2025.
During that time, a steady flow of Jewish members left the co-op, some complaining of anti-Israeli messaging by the store’s employees.

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After receiving the petition, verifying the signatures and consulting with lawyers, the board took two votes in February. The first was for a binding resolution that, if passed, would have been presented to members. It failed in a 6-2 vote. A second vote, for a non-binding resolution, passed with a 5-3 vote.

A member-wide vote — which closed at the end of May — was taken following the board’s February vote on the non-binding resolution. Of the co-op’s more than 17,000 member-owners, only 611 votes were cast, less than 4% of the total membership. There were 308 votes cast in favor of the non-binding resolution, 298 against it, and five members who said they were unsure. The results of the member-wide vote were announced in early June.

Following its June 15 vote rejecting a boycott of Israeli products, the board released a statement saying, in part, that “a boycott would not be consistent with our responsibility to steward the Co-op as a shared institution that serves all members equally and remains focused on its core mission.”

In further explaining its decision to reject the boycott, the board pointed to the measure’s narrow approval by member-owners and the relatively low level of voter participation.

In a June 12 Instagram and Facebook post titled “We won, now what,” penned by Co-ops Against Genocide — and posted on the union’s social media pages — the group attempted to explain away the lack of participation and closeness of the earlier member-wide vote, saying the advisory resolution was “our victory.” It called on the board to remove Israeli products from the co-op’s shelves.

Co-ops Against Genocide said in the post that it would make a statement after the board’s June 15 vote “outlining our coalition’s next steps.” To date, the group has not made any public statements about the East End Food Co-op rejecting the BDS attempt.

Despite the significant time and effort devoted to the boycott issue, the co-op only stocks six Israeli products: Field Day Tahini; Soom Chocolate Tahini; Manischewitz Gefilte Fish; Equal Exchange Extra Peaceful Olive Oil; Let’s Do Organic Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cones; and Four Season bell pepper varieties.

Ironically, and contrary to accusations of apartheid levied by the union, Extra Peaceful Olive Oil is produced by a nonprofit organization of Arab and Jewish women in Israel that “uses fair trade to foster educational and economic opportunities and model mutual respect and collaboration between Jews and Arabs,” according to the company’s website.

Julie Paris, Mid-Atlantic regional director of StandWithUs, said the co-op board was right in rejecting the attempts at BDS.

“Food co-ops are meant to be spaces of cooperation, diversity and teamwork, open to everyone who walks through the door. We are grateful that this community-owned grocery store will not be co-opted by an extremist political agenda that fuels hatred and conflict, rather than building understanding and peace,” Paris said.

David Knoll, the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s vice president of public affairs, agreed that the board made the correct decision.

“Pittsburgh is not about division,” he said. “It’s about coming together and working on our differences. Dialogue and collaboration will always prevail over division.”

Hope Anne Nathan is a former employee of the co-op, a former board member and a member-owner. She spoke out against the boycott at a recent board meeting. She’s glad the board voted against the ban, she said, especially considering the low member-owner voter turnout in the spring.

“I think doing anything based on the majority of 4% of the membership is insane,” Nathan said.

Especially given the low number of people who voted, she said, she would like the board to adopt a broad boycott policy for any attempt to ban a product. Such a policy might even include a sign next to the product explaining that members are trying to have it banned, and why.

Nathan, who lived in New York from 2010 to 2020, said she was a member of the Park Slope Food Coop, which recently voted to divest from Israeli products.

“The BDS issue was brought up about a decade ago,” she said. “I thought it was done, that it had been handled — and they just voted the other way.”

The effort by UE Local 667 to force the East End Food Co-op to divest from Israel is the latest BDS attempt in Pittsburgh.

The group No Appetite for Apartheid — endorsed and promoted by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Palestine Solidarity Working Group — has recruited an anemic number of eateries, tattoo parlors and bookstores, mostly located in the city’s East End, to boycott food products produced in Israel.

Previously, two referendums were defeated in court that would have attempted to force the city of Pittsburgh to divest from Israel. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.