Jews around the world have fought heroically against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, a movement meant to undermine the legitimacy and survival of Israel. In this battle, we have had some wonderful non-Jewish allies, including London Mayor Boris Johnson, who scoffed that, “the supporters of this so-called boycott are really just corduroy-jacketed academics that have no real standing on the matter and I think are highly unlikely to be influential on Britain,” as well as some politicians in the United States who have promoted legislation to make BDS illegal.
Now, the European Union (EU) has decided to label products produced in the West Bank, the Golan and east Jerusalem, on the basis that Europeans should be informed about products that come from what has been deemed “illegally occupied” land. Israel has been singled out despite the fact that many other places in the world having seriously egregious issues with true illegal occupation.
The EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, a Danish diplomat, claims the decision is not political, but merely a “technical” matter. He seemed almost insulted that some Israelis might equate or see a connection to the Holocaust experience of Jewish “labelling.” To add massive insult to economic and political injury, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom recently stated that the recent ISIS attacks on Paris were partially fuelled by Palestinian frustration. “To counteract the radicalization,” she told a TV audience, “we must go back to the situation such as the one in the Middle East of which not the least the Palestinians see that there is no future: we must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence.”
So, what can Canadian Jews do about all this?
Maybe the time has come for us to alter our collective buying habits. Perhaps we might consider eschewing products from those EU countries which believe labelling products as coming from the “illegal settlements” is merely a “technical issue.” We could let all the retail providers of such EU-produced products know that we will not buy them because of the policy of their corporate and political masters – lobbying, in essence, one customer at a time. Sending letters to corporate headquarters informing them of our plans will do as well.
There are, for example, many carmakers that produce products as good as – and a lot cheaper than – Sweden’s Volvo. Likewise, there are many furniture outlets that provide quality and relatively inexpensive furniture other than Ikea. There are many cheeses to chose from other than Danish blue and havarti. And there is lox to top bagels and cream cheese other than Norwegian. We might consider replacing these products with first-class Canadian items made by quality manufacturers from British Columbia to Nova Scotia and everywhere in between.
Of course, it will be important to determine which of the EU countries will follow through with this labelling decision before deciding on which products and which countries to avoid purchasing from. At present, Germany has declined to participate, as has Hungary. Of course, in the face of the Paris attacks, one might think that labelling the source of hummus might take a back seat in the grand scheme of priorities.
Maybe that is wishful thinking, but imagine the look on the Volvo dealer’s face when a previous customer drives up in a Toyota and says, “I will not ever buy a Volvo again, nor will anyone in my family because of the comments of the Swedish foreign minister about the root of the Paris ISIS attack.”
We have power in numbers, creativity and determination. Let’s use it.
