The Olympia Food Co-op Boycott: Brokerage, Networks, and Local Culture

Abstract

Board members from the Olympia Food Co-op (OFC) in Washington state voted on July 15, 2010 to boycott Israeli-made products in their two grocery stores, and with that action became the first US grocery store to deshelve Israeli goods (OFC 2010b). Although the co-op is a small store in a small city, and only nine products were deshelved, the boycott hit the international airwaves, spurred conversations in the Israeli Knesset, and even led to a lawsuit against the board members (Abunimah 2011a; Silverstein 2012). The worldwide response that this case received, which far exceeded the scale of the OFC’s action, raises the question, why did this boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign cause so much controversy and generate so much attention? The controversy is particularly interesting given that this small BDS “success” was seen by both local and international opponents simultaneously as a threat with larger intentions, and a “failure” at impacting the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rival interpretations of the case’s “success” or “failure” reflect different paradigms toward peace and conflict resolution that impact how actors envision “peace” and how to reach it. Boycott supporters point to the rights-based approach of the 2005 Palestinian civil society call for BDS aimed at ending the Israeli occupation and highlight the time-tested credentials of boycott as a nonviolent tactic used in movements for justice and equality.