IPSC pickett : Boycott Israeli Potatoes : TESCO Drumcondra
dublin |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Thursday August 30, 2007 14:03
by Garry - IPSC
IPSC activists continued their boycott Israeli potatoes campaign with a picket outside TESCO Drumcondra, who continue to stock Israeli potatoes and other goods.
10 activists from the IPSC staged a two hour picket outside SuperValu on Aston Quay. They distributed 500 leaflets informing consumers about the presence of Israeli spuds on Irish shelves and asked shoppers to consider boycotting these potatoes and other Israeli produce in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people and as a method of exerting pressure on the Israeli State to end its human rights abuses in, and brutal occupation of, the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
We think of the common potato as being part of Irish history. We may imagine that all potatoes sold in Irish shops are grown in Ireland. However, many Irish shops and supermarkets, including Dunnes Stores, Tesco and Marks & Spencer sell Israeli Potatoes, rather than Irish spuds. The profits from, and taxes imposed on, these goods help Israel to maintain and expand its 40-year old illegal occupation of Palestine. For example, the largest exporter of fruit and veg, Carmel-Agrexco, is half owned by the Israeli State.
On top of this, often the potatoes are grown by illegal settlers using stolen Palestinian water - many precious West Bank water aquifers are under Israeli military control with Israel deciding who gets the water, and when. Israeli settlements in the West Bank never face water shortages while it is an all too common feature for Palestinains despite water coming from exactly the same sources.
To add insult to injury - along with orchards and olive groves - Palestinian arable agricultural lands are often targets of destruction by both the Israeli military and illegal settlers. In addition those Palestinians trying to export perishable good regularly face obstacles and/or the destruction of their produce by the occupation forces.
Almost all 'organic potatoes' on sale in Irish supermarkets at this time of year are from Israel and the IPSC asks you - as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people - not to purchase them and to complain to the management about their continued presence on Irish shelves. You should also be on the look out for out of season New Potatoes which are also usually of Israeli origin.
In South Africa, an international boycott played a significant role in ending apartheid. You can help defeat the brutal apartheid system that Israel is imposing on the Palestinians.
If there's a store in your area stocking Israeli goods, and you'd like to organise an action in your local area, email supportpalestine@ireland.com, and we can bring the boycott to your area. IPSC activists are willing to come and help out, providing placards, leaflets and volunteers.
Check your spuds, especially organic ones.. most come from Israel
Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Well done IPSC - heartening to see people of conscience not prepared to stand idly by and doing something. Well done again.
I am really grateful to the ISPC for using this site to point out that Israeli potatoes are available in Irish supermarkets. Something I didn't know before.
The other day I bought a bag in my local shopping centre, and they were of excellent quality. I really got value for my money here, and no doubt I will buy Israeli potatoes again. Thank you so much ISPC for pointing me in the right direction.
Please people, do not sell out jewish people to terrorists. Buy Israeli products and help supporting that great little nation that fights in the front line against reliigiously motivated fascist terror.
Michael, your reference to ''Jewish people' suggests that you don't know much about Israel. Only 77% of Israelis are Jewish so if you want to support Jews exclusively as you seem to then you should spread your cash around a bit further, perhaps moving to NYC where you easily spend all your money in strictly jewish owned businesses, there are also parts of London or one or two neighborhoods in Tehran that could satisfy your bizarre fetish. Buying your spuds in Tesco in no way guarantees that the cash is getting into the pockets of Israeli jews as fully 15% of Israelis are muslims (excluding those millions of Israeli subjects in the colonies) and there are a handful of christians and non aligned wierdos who have no religion.
Good aul Michael - proof that coming from a nation thats been historically oppressed and colonised is no barrier to being a one dimenesional flag waver for a bunch of arseholes doing the same to somebody else.
I feel ashamed of those of my fellow Irishmen and women who have fallen for this absurdity that boycotting Israeli goods will lead to greater human rights in the Middle East. It has never been a secret that human rights are observed in Israel to an extent that might make even the UK blush. I have spent over forty years studying the Middle East, and I defy the boycotters to come up with even one other country in the region that offers rights and freedoms that are a tenth of Israel's. This is verifiable, and obvious to anyone who has ever actually viisted the place. No Arab country (nor Iran) gives full rights to women. No Arab country nor Iran gives any rights at all to gay men and women. No Arab country nor Iran gives more than a fraction of rights to religious minorities, and some actively persecute groups like the Ahmadis or Baha'is. There are virtually no Jews left in the Arab world, because they have all been expelled. Arabs in Israel have exactly the same rights as Jews.
The point here is simple. Israel abides by all the demands of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but no Muslim country does so, and many come very far short of doing so. So if this is about human rights, why not condemn Saudi Arabia or Iran, who are famous abusers of rights, and give praise where praise is due. Or perhaps the boycotters, as I suspect, don't actually know a thing about the Middle East or Israel, and prefer to act on myth and propaganda. They should as soon boycott Ireland for not permitting abortion than Israel, which permits it.
I recommend the following. Some of the women boycotters should spend six months in Saudi Arabia, then six months in Israel. I would suggest that gay members do the same, but they would be too dead to make it to Israel.
You'll find that the UN disagrees with your assesment of Israels human rights records, as does Amnesty, HRW and the Red Cross. You might explain why this is so. While you're at it, you might explain what the abysmal record of the Arab countries has to do with Israels record one way or another, and how many US vetos have been used to prevent them being sanctioned - Syria in Lebanon, for instance.......
Thanks for taking the time to protest against the Criminal state of Israel. Don't mind the apogists for Israel. They are probably off now writing another cut-and paste story about Iran and why Israel/US should bomb it.
Thanks!
Denis, by your logic we should fully support the invasion of Iraq (or any other mid East country) by more advanced civilisations like the USA, The UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan or 'the most moral' of them all, Israel. Indeed the more savage societies should be remade in the wests own image. Can we extend the logic by lets say, encouraging the UK to invade Poland on the grounds that Poland is clearly less democratic than the UK as evidenced by its institutional hatred of gays. A few hundred thousand tommies would sort that out in a few decades! Where does it end Denis? Do you think stamping on palestinians for a few generations makes the elevated rights of Israelis more or less attractive? How about the rights for women and gays in Belgium, are they more or less legitimate and attractive given that they were established with the proceeds of the slave trade and the genocidal rubber trade? Or are these awkward contexts, like the Palestinians, just footnotes on the road to democracy?
Anyone can say that the middle east is an appalling place to be gay or be a woman or be poor. But if that makes the crimes of the Israelis against the Palestinians somehow more palatable then they speak with blood coming out of their mouth.
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.