Very troubling news. But it looks like Whole Foods stopped supporting KPFK and its “Radio Intifada” (see the last update at the bottom). Am I missing something?

Well dayum! I had planned to go there today just to show my support (and I don’t usually shop there). And Mohican, I don’t care if they’ve stopped - that they ever did is enough for me.

Besides, Trader Joes is a lot closer!

Well, in their defense, they may have just blindly donated to public radio without really thinking about the fact that they were supporting this ugly “radio intifada.” Maybe they stopped shortly after they were told what they were doing.

On the other hand, they continue to support scholarships to a Hamas-controlled university, even though they must know by now what that is all about. That’s not cool at all.

re: #3 Last Mohican

You also have to ask yourself why they refused to sell the Israeli product. It may be for very benign business reasons - cost, for example - but mebbe not. You’d have to be living under a rock to implicitly trust the Palis. Which is probably ok with them, as rocks are, um, organic.

I like Sunflower Market better.

re: #5 marwan’s daughter

I like Sunflower Market better.

I live in Israel. I mentioned Trader Joe’s because it’s the only one of these stores I’ve ever seen in the flesh (there’s one in Boston right near where my Dad lives) and because the Pali supporters tried to boycott them two months ago.

re: #4 wahabicorridor

I’m not sure how much to make of their not carrying the Israeli olive oil. My local Whole Foods does carry other Israeli products (and I buy them frequently). Nevertheless, this isn’t really about equal product representation. I wouldn’t mind if they carried products made by peaceful, apolitical “Palestinian” farmers who were trying to do something with their lives other than blowing up innocent civilians.

One has to ask oneself whether Canaan Fair Trade can really be blamed for paying for scholarships to Al-Najah University. I mean, it’s likely that all of the schools in the West Bank are mostly sympathetic to terrorists. Even plenty of American universities have large blocs that are highly sympathetic to Palestinian terrorists. Would it be wrong to pay for a poor American’s scholarship to, say, Columbia University, where pro-terrorist professors dominate? And if pro-terrorist universities are the only places where Arabs in the West Bank can get an education, then is it wrong to pay for scholarships to them?

Here is a good source for finding answers to those questions. It’s a book about Hamas, much of which can be read at Google Books. I did a search for Al-Najah, and found quite a bit of information. I am strongly leaning toward the conclusion that Al-Najah’s support for genocidal terrorism is so strong that it cannot be considered a legitimate educational institution, and that therefore Whole Foods is wrong for carrying Canaan Fair Trade products.

Carl, I followed one of your links and found the following:

“BETRAYED! Trader Joe’s Again on the KPFK Supporters List:

Trader Joe’s has betrayed friends of Israel, by again allowing its name to be posted as a supporter of the anti-semitic and extremist anti-Israel KPFK - this, after Trader Joe’s claimed its name was removed. Please do not shop at Trader Joe’s and write to them to protest their support of KPFK - see sample. Join the Boycott thanks you all for your support. 6/15/09”

I made a special effort to shop at Trader Joe’s after hearing about the boycott of TJ’s by those hoping to get them to discontinue carrying Israeli products. It’s all pretty confusing!

re: #8 rw in san diego

Carl, I followed one of your links and found the following:

“BETRAYED! Trader Joe’s Again on the KPFK Supporters List:

Trader Joe’s has betrayed friends of Israel, by again allowing its name to be posted as a supporter of the anti-semitic and extremist anti-Israel KPFK - this, after Trader Joe’s claimed its name was removed. Please do not shop at Trader Joe’s and write to them to protest their support of KPFK - see sample. Join the Boycott thanks you all for your support. 6/15/09”

I made a special effort to shop at Trader Joe’s after hearing about the boycott of TJ’s by those hoping to get them to discontinue carrying Israeli products. It’s all pretty confusing!

Which link? That’s a week before the boycott day flopped.

re: #8 rw in san diego

Carl, I followed one of your links and found the following:

“BETRAYED! Trader Joe’s Again on the KPFK Supporters List:

Trader Joe’s has betrayed friends of Israel, by again allowing its name to be posted as a supporter of the anti-semitic and extremist anti-Israel KPFK - this, after Trader Joe’s claimed its name was removed. Please do not shop at Trader Joe’s and write to them to protest their support of KPFK - see sample. Join the Boycott thanks you all for your support. 6/15/09”

I made a special effort to shop at Trader Joe’s after hearing about the boycott of TJ’s by those hoping to get them to discontinue carrying Israeli products. It’s all pretty confusing!

I emailed your question to Debbie Schlussel (who was my source for this story). Here’s her response:

Trader Joe’s actually backed down and stopped funding that program. The organizers of the boycott against Trader Joe’s specifically e-mailed me to tell me that, so they have stopped the boycott. Whole Foods won’t budge.

YIKES! Shopping hasn’t been this politicized since the grape boycotts of the late sixties!

re: #10 Carl in Jerusalem

Thanks for the information!

re: #12 rw in san diego

Thanks for the information!

RW,

Debbie Schlussel checked again and she says you are right about Trader Joe’s and they are sponsoring that terror radio show. I will update my post.

It seems that Whole Foods does sell olive oil from Israel.

I went to two Whole Foods markets in the last hour to check this out. The largest store had a huge display of olive oil. It did not have Canaan oil. But it did have Halutza brand, which is made in Israel. The shelf space was one bottle wide.

The other store had a much smaller display. They had Canaan but not Halutza. The Canaan shelf space was also one bottle wide.

Here’s a shot of the Canaan oil. I noticed the word Palestine before I saw Canaan.

Just to toss this in, the Supersol here in NYC doesn’t even carry Israeli olive oil and it’s a kosher supermarket.

See also this thread.