NEW YORK — The anti-Israel boycott passed by New York City’s Park Slope Food Coop this week targeted companies involved in Israeli-Palestinian coexistence initiatives, pro-LGBTQ programs and family-owned firms employing diverse workforces.

The co-op’s membership voted to boycott Israeli products on Tuesday, after a years-long campaign that rocked the progressive community of 17,000.

The co-op is a major institution in the Brooklyn neighborhood and the boycott became a citywide issue, drawing in elected officials, rabbis, street activists and leading Jewish groups.

The boycott campaigners said the effort was meant to “stop genocide,” while opponents said the boycott was discriminatory, divisive and punished independent food producers for the actions of their government.

The pro-boycott effort, led by a group called Park Slope Food Coop Members in Solidarity with Palestine, listed eight companies connected to Israel that sell products at the co-op and would be subject to boycott.

The products were removed from the store’s shelves the morning after the vote, a co-op member told The Times of Israel.

Of those eight companies listed by the boycott campaign, half are run by Arab Israelis or sell products from Arab-owned factories.

One of the companies, Al Arz tahini, is owned by Arab Israelis in Nazareth and supports LGBTQ causes.

Conservative Arab Israelis called to boycott Al Arz in 2020 after the company donated funds to an LGBTQ support line.

In response, Arab and Jewish Israelis, and Israeli diplomats, pushed back by buying the company’s tahini, driving up its market share.

“We in the Al Arz Tahini family love people without differentiation between religion, sex, gender or color. Food connects people,” the company said at the time.

Another firm targeted by the boycotters, Equal Exchange, sells olive oil from a non-profit run by Arab and Jewish women in Israel whose mission includes........

© The Times of Israel