A pro-Israel professor has filed a discrimination complaint against the Park Slope Food Coop for voting to boycott products from the Jewish state.
CUNY Professor of Law and founder of the group SAFE Campus Jeffrey Lax accused the woke coop of hypocrisy, saying it’s refused to ban items from other countries – China, Russia and Turkey – despite human rights violations.
“This Israel-only discrimination [based] on national origin clearly and blatantly violates NY Exec Law §296(13),” Lax said in a statement Wednesday on X, referring to state law thatbars businesses from boycotting or blacklisting anyone based on characteristics such as national origin, race, color and sex.
Lax has previously called out alleged acts of antisemitism at the City University of New York’s campuses.
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“Both I and S.A.F.E. Campus condemn this bigotry, racism, and antisemitism, and we have today filed a discrimination complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights. We will hold them accountable,” he wrote.
The 15,000-member market on Union Street in Brooklyn voted 67% in favor to boycott, with 31% against and 2% abstaining, at a chaotic Zoom meeting Tuesday night.
Other Jewish civil rights groups are closely monitoring the Israel boycott controversy at the Park Slope Food Coop, including the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.
Meanwhile, the Brandeis Center blasted the boycott as discrimination and is considering legal action.
“The Park Slope Food Coop’s vote to adopt a BDS boycott is a deeply disappointing and dangerous outcome. BDS is an inherently anti-Semitic and discriminatory campaign whose purpose is the isolation and ultimate elimination of the Jewish state – and as we have seen time and again, it does not stay contained to Israel,” said Brandies chairman and CEO Kenneth Marcus.
“It metastasizes into open hostility toward Jewish people everywhere, even those with no connection to Israel. This is the kind of hostility the Coop’s own leadership has acknowledged was already happening within its walls. A grocery store should never become a springboard for extremist political campaigns.”
