Palestine campaign petitions for new Dunnes Stores boycott

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Monday July 12, 2010 13:35

by Freda H and Harry Browne - IPSC

Shoppers across Ireland are getting the chance to sign a petition demanding that branches of Dunnes Stores take Israeli products off their shelves.

Collecting signatures in Sligo

The two-week petition drive, launched last weekend by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), will seek to enlist Dunnes customers in Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Limerick, Galway, Newry, Wexford, Waterford, Bantry, Enniscorthy, and Sligo -- just for a start, as the IPSC hopes to spread the campaign to other locations.

It comes a quarter-century after Dunnes was at the centre of a bitter two-year campaign of boycott and pickets, when it sacked a group of workers who refused to handle South African goods.

"Dunnes was on the wrong side of history, siding with the South African apartheid regime against its own workers," Freda Hughes, IPSC chairperson, said. "This is a chance for it to put itself on the right side of history."

The petition campaign is part of a coordinated international effort for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which have seen actions take place in dozens of countries this weekend, including Israel and South Africa. Many South African organisations, and figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have endorsed the BDS campaign.

"The Dunnes strike in the 1980s was internationally inspirational for the anti-apartheid movement," David Landy, IPSC regional coordinator, said. "Today, Irish trade unions are supporting the boycott of Israeli goods."

Israeli products for sale in Ireland are mainly food items, including the Jaffa and Carmel brands, and range from dates and avocados to strawberries, peppers and lemons.

A move by Dunnes to remove Israeli goods would not be unprecented. "Some Dunnes branches removed items from the shelves during and immediately after the Gaza massacre a year-and-a-half ago, and they did the same after the flotilla massacre several weeks ago," Freda Hughes said. "Our message is that boycott is not just for massacres. Israel should be boycotted until its stops oppressing Palestinians and complies fully with its obligations under international law."

Last weekend marked the fifth anniversary of the launch of the international movement for BDS, which aims to make Israeli pay for its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and its violence and oppression against Palestinian people.

Some "Israeli" produce is grown on illegal settlements in the West Bank, where Palestinian workers toil for as little as five cents per hour, are subject to arbitrary dismissal and receive no pensions, sick pay or compensation for injury, the IPSC said.

Israeli Barcode 729

Collecting signatures in Sligo

Make your town an Apartheid Free Zone

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Comments (10 of 10)

Very impressed

by Passer By

Mon Jul 12, 2010 16:59

After the massacre of Gaza last year and the killing of aid activists, i was dumbfounded as to what i could do as an individual. I think boycotting Israeli produce is something very practical that everyone can do which will help raise the issue of Israeli human rights abuses before the world.

hmmm

by Concerned

Tue Jul 13, 2010 02:58

I'm not sure that I agree with this.

The bulk of money you pay for imported Israeli produce does not find its way back to the Israeli government but rather forms the livelihoods of ordinary Israelis.

Why should they pay with their jobs for decisions taken by their government over which they have little influence? Or do all Israelis actively engage in ruining Palestine?

@ concerned

by Citizen

Tue Jul 13, 2010 05:28

well apparently the bulk of israelis support their policies in regard to the palestinians. If the boycott bothers them then they can urge their government to change it's policies. Israelis are much better off than the poor palestinians who are prevented from having access to markets and a proper economy by the Israeli blockade.

Plus, concerned...

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party

Tue Jul 13, 2010 15:21

many of those ordinary Israeli's are producing these goods from land confiscated from Palestinian long-term former residents. In so far as they identify with an Israeli state that denies the existence of Palestine they are collaborating with the ethnic cleansing program.The bulldozers are operating in East Jerusalem as we converse.

None so blind as those who will not see

by Frank Adam - private citizen

Tue Aug 17, 2010 13:26

Pity that you do not boycott the egregious Palestine Arabs for rejecting UN 181 two state resolution and policy since 1947.

Jerusalem has been a town with a Jewish majority since the 1840's and if the Arab citizens who could have voted in the council elections since 1967 continue to refuse to elect councillors it is not surprising they do not get as full a hearing as due.

Again it is a pity you never protested the Turkish and British refusals to appoint a Jewish mayor in their time - then current ly you would not be "protesting too much," given the PA wants a Palestinie without any Jews.

MY opia?

Tue Aug 17, 2010 13:55

Are you condoning Cast Lead, the flotilla barbarity, the killing of Rachel Corrie, the current bulldozing of villages in the Negev, the continuing expansion of settlements(Israel sets no conditions?), daily harassment and the racist segregation of previously mixed populations who co-habited for generations before the escalation of the Zionist influx at the behest of the victors of the last great argument over the imperial divisions of the resources of the planet?And, of course, that escalation was sanctioned by the same UN you quote and support but fail to mention that Israel is in breach of more of its resolutions than the rest of the nations combined, and that Israel will quote as smoothly and sanctimoniously as yourself when it suits, but will flout with contempt when it fails to fit its predetermined agenda.

Great job folks...

by V for vendetta

Sun Sep 12, 2010 18:41

Let's see that barcode picture EVERYWHERE. Especially printed and stuck everywhere outside the big multiples with large buying power such as TESCO, LIDL, ALDI. If any of them fold then it will really hurt Israel.

You fold first!

Sun Sep 12, 2010 20:37

Tesco's turnover isprobably more than Ireland's GDP and the Israeli slice of the business of any of the superstore chains is hardly enough to damage them fatally.

Now of course if you want to assist poor old Uncle Sam's suppliers by giving them an entry, it rather blows your pretensions to be for the "wretched of the Earth" against big bad capitalists... but does consistency matter when you can feel good cheering on the petro-bullies ?

frank...

Sun Sep 12, 2010 20:51

My other interests are off topic here. The point of this thread (which you try to derail) is finding an effective way for people to practically register their protest against the actions of Israel. Boycotting Israeli produce in the large chains is one such approach.

Personally I may have a wider agenda against capital and factory farming etc and pro the preservation of local agriculture and supply, but that does not preclude supporting a narrow boycott like this for ethical reasons, which is more limited in scope but is in harmony with my other protests.

Why are you so bothered about this boycott if it is likely to be as ineffective as you say frank?? Are the hasbara worried?

our resident hasbara seem worried about this thread

by Shopper

Tue Sep 14, 2010 02:50

Good action.
Looks like hasbara are really shitting it that this form of practical boycott might take off.
Lets all show them. SAY NO TO ISRAELI PRODUCE.

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Palestine campaign petitions for new Dunnes Stores boycott

Comments (10 of 10)