PORT TOWNSEND — One of the Israeli products that was singled out for boycott last year over Israel’s politics will no longer be carried by the Port Townsend Food Co-op.
But the reason is all business, not political.
Olive Branch Enterprises, which supplied the product to the co-op has announced its intention to go out of business, making the most recent delivery of the product, a cooking oil branded as Peace Oil, the last.
As of Monday afternoon, eight bottles were on the shelf, each selling for $15.69.
Peace Oil was one of seven products singled out for an unsuccessful boycott because of actions in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
A group last July petitioned the co-op board to yank the products, contending that Israel’s political policies ignore Palestinian human rights.
Such a boycott, they said, would send Israel a message.
“The goals of the boycott are to draw attention to the Palestinian-Israeli situation and specifically to educate people about U.S. complicity with it,” the petition said at the time.
Opponents of the boycott argued that the Food Co-op is no place for politics, and if Israel is the target of a boycott over human rights, China should be, too.
The co-op board voted against the boycott at a Sept. 21 meeting, stating its bylaws don’t allow the boycotting of a country’s product and that such action was restricted toward specific companies.
Prior to the vote, opponents of the boycott said Peace Oil should not have been included in the list of products because it was jointly manufactured by Israelis and Palestinians.
Boycott supporter Liz Rivera Goldstein said Monday that her group suspected that Peace Oil was not actually a joint product, but that assertion could not be proven.
Peace Oil was removed from the boycott list but was still flagged as an Israeli product on the co-op’s shelves as part of an agreement to be more forthcoming about the origin of products “and let people decide for themselves what they want to buy” Goldstein said.
While the co-op board voted down the boycott, several board members expressed the desire to keep the discussion about peace in the Middle East open and provide education about the topic.
Goldstein said “very little” had been done to address the topic at that time other than the more conscientious efforts in providing information about the origin of products.
“If we are no longer offering Peace Oil, maybe that gives us the opportunity to offer a product manufactured in Palestine,” she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
