Call to Action: Please write to Sainsbury's and Tesco about resisting the boycotters

Dear Renaud,

I am sure most of you will be aware of the significant victory against boycotts achieved by Tricycle Theatre being persuaded to drop its objection to hosting the UK Jewish Film Festival: http://www.thejlc.org/2014/08/statement-from-the-uk-jewish-film-festival-regarding-its-relationship-with-the-tricycle-theatre/. Well done to everyone involved in securing this u-turn.
 
Unfortunately this weekend saw two very disturbing boycott-related incidents involving major supermarket chains.
 
A Tesco store in Birmingham was subject to an incident in which anti-Israel protestors threw stock around that they thought was connected to Israel (including Coca-Cola) and attacked police who attended the scene:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11039210/Tesco-store-trashed-by-Gaza-protesters.html.
 
Sainsbury’s in Holborn, central London, removed refrigerated Kosher produce from its shelves. A Sainsbury employee said to a concerned member of the public this was because they “Support Free Gaza”. Sainsbury’s Customer Services call centre said that the refrigerated foods had actually been removed as a “protective measure” against an anti-Israel protest planned at the shop that afternoon. A common tactic of the protesters is to fill shopping trolleys with the goods they are boycotting, and then leave them around the supermarket, break them, or hold them for an hour or more until they warm up so the supermarket can't re-shelve them safely. We assume this is what Sainsbury was trying to prevent. This would explain why they didn't move any dry Kosher goods. Further calls made it clear that this was a decision of the shop's manager and not corporate policy. There was extensive press coverage, including here:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727266/Sainsbury-s-strips-kosher-food-shelves-fear-attacks-anti-Israeli-protesters.html. The conflation of Israeli goods and non-Israeli Kosher goods is something the protesters are known to do, rather than being something Sainsbury’s have come up with.
 
It is disappointing that Sainsbury’s in Holborn gave in to thuggery and intimidation, as nationally the chain has refused to give into the boycotters' demands and has generally been quite positive.
 
Please write to both Sainsbury’s and Tesco and make the following points:
 
 

• You are distressed about news of anti-Israel campaigners targeting Israeli and Kosher produce in supermarkets.
• You want them to robustly stand up to this thuggery and intimidation.
• You feel an affinity with Israel so actively want to buy Israeli produce, you appreciate the quality of Israeli produce, and if Jewish you may want to refer to Kosher products supplied by Israeli and other producers.

 
 
Messages to Tesco should be submitted here:https://www.tescohelp.com/tesco/forms/cs_form.html
 
Messages to Sainsbury’s should be submitted here:
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/contact_us/contact_us.jsp#
 
You may also want to visit local branches of these stores and ask for and buy Israeli and/or Kosher produce – make the points above to the store manager and ask them to relay this to head office.

Best wishes,


Luke Akehurst
Director, We Believe in Israel