“The Co-op was one of the very first retailers to boycott Russian products… Yet, it has refused to take similar action during the 580 days (and counting) of Israel’s bombardment and total destruction of Gaza.”
By Paul Neill, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
There have been ongoing campaigns over many years aimed at persuading supermarket shoppers to stop buying Israeli products. These have had limited success, and you will still find plenty of Israeli avocados, hummus, and even potatoes and carrots on the shelves of your local Tesco or Sainsbury’s.
I am one of a small group of Palestine solidarity activists in West Yorkshire, who want to go further and have led a campaign to get a supermarket – the Co-op – to boycott Israeli products. We have submitted Motion 13, an individual members’ motion signed by Co-op members across the UK, to the Co-op’s 2025 AGM, asking them “to demonstrate fairness and consistency in its ethical decision-making, and cease all trading with Israel.”
The Co-op was one of the very first retailers to boycott Russian products, exactly seven days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, stating that “In response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces and as a sign of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, we have taken the decision to remove from sale Russian-made vodka.” Yet, it has refused to take similar action during the 580 days (and counting) of Israel’s bombardment and total destruction of Gaza.
Three of the most respected human rights organisations – Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières – have produced reports that conclude that Israel has committed genocide. The International Criminal Court has issued international arrest warrants for the Prime Minister and Former Defence Minister of Israel for ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’. We can add forced starvation and ethnic cleansing in Gaza to the list of war crimes committed by Israel since we submitted our motion to the Co-op in early March.
To their credit, the Co-op no longer sources products that are believed to come from the illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. We would argue, however, that to continue to buy products from the country that created the settlements and continues to expand them makes no sense from an ethical point of view. This is a permanent occupation. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s laws in the occupied territories are “tantamount to apartheid”.
- There are now 700,000 illegal settlers on Palestinian land and Israel has announced plans to build nearly 1200 more settler homes in 2025;
- There are two systems of law – Israeli settlers are subject to civilian law, Palestinians to military law;
- Israel controls all water supplies in the West Bank. Only 36% of Palestinians receive running water every day, and settlers use 3 times more water per person than Palestinians. Many Palestinian communities have to buy water to make up for the shortfall in supply or because Israel nearly always refuses requests to drill water wells or connect to the mains supply;
- Armed settlers, protected by the Israeli military, are free to roam outside their settlements:
- to graze their flocks on Palestinian farmland;
- to burn swathes of Palestinian agricultural land and, to date, destroy 800,000 olive trees;
- routinely attack Palestinian communities, killing and injuring civilians, and burning down homes. These attacks have increased by 30% in the first 3 months of 2025;
Israel has pursued a long-term policy of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories. In 2024, nearly 1800 Palestinian-owned buildings were demolished and, since January 2025, 40,000 Palestinians have been forcibly expelled from three refugee camps in the West Bank, with the army instructed to stay in the camps for the next year “to prevent the return of residents”.
The Co-op, as part of the wider co-operative movement, has a proud history as an ethical organisation. It is, to use the business jargon, one of its ‘unique selling points’ as a high street supermarket and why many of its 5.5 million members joined the Co-op. It clearly felt there was a moral imperative that required them to stop trading with Russia. We can think of no greater moral imperative than to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its military occupation and apartheid regime in the Occupied Territories.
The Co-op states that “We’re run by our members. And when you’re owned by the people, you can do right by the people.” It has an opportunity to do right by its members and be on the right side of history by, as our motion states, showing “moral courage and leadership” on this issue.
Any Co-op member who spent more than £100 in 2024 is eligible to vote at the AGM, and should have received an email or postal pack in the past 2-3 weeks inviting them to vote online by noon on 12th May 2025 or in person at the AGM on 17th May 2025. Motion 13, along with the Co-op Board’s response to it, can be found here.
A simple majority is required to pass the motion. A decisive vote in favour of Motion 13 could lead to the Co-op being the first high street supermarket to stop selling Israeli goods, which would be a huge victory for the wider Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
- Paul Neill is one of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists involved in getting the motion tabled at the Co-op’s AGM.
- The Palestine Solidarity Campaign are holding a National Demo on the 77th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, to demand that the Government take action to end the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The demo is assembling at Embankment Tube, London on 17th May from 12PM.
- You can follow the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and Bluesky.
