Boycotting Israeli Products: a Moral Imperative?

In response to Greg Manahan’s photo (above; © aforesaid) on facebook yesterday, I posted the following update:

Irish Tesco ONLY as far as I know - but it's a start. Perhaps Waitrose & Abel & Cole you two could also follow suit, please?

I boycott Israeli products in the same way that I have been boycotting Australian goods for the way they treat those who are not "one of them". Waitrose by economically supporting the Isreali state is culpable of supporting potential acts of genocide and at the very least war crimes. But then so is UK which is more than happy to sell arms or products that can be used against people to Israel. It is very difficult too to boycott because some products that say Israel are actually made/produced in occupied land and others in the defined State of Israel. Quakers have produced guidance as we wish to avoid purchasing products from these illegally occupied Palestinian/Syrian territories: http://www.quaker.org.uk/settlement-produce. We support the right of Israel to exist; but not Israeli war crimes and occupation.

I heard nothing from Waitrose about my concerns; so I thought I would peruse what facebookers had been writing on the supermarket's eponymous page. This from 27th July at 16.04:

Waitrose will always grow produce in Britain where possible - we will only source from overseas if we can't get the right quality in this country or if it is out of the British season.

Our sourcing decisions aren't politically motivated. Instead our priority is to make sure our food is fully traceable, and produced with the highest standards of worker and animal welfare and respect for the environment. We clearly label all produce so that customers can act on their own beliefs.

Any Israeli Waitrose produce comes from internationally recognised (pre-1967) borders. We know this because we have absolute traceability for all our food and we only source from known farms.

In response, I submitted the following comment

Good to know you are in line with Quaker guidance: http://www.quaker.org.uk/settlement-produce. However, I buy mainly organic and at times your produce comes from Israel when there is perfectly tasty produce available in Spain. I know because Abel & Cole or Riverford manage to source. There may be alternatives to purchasing from Israel and thus by-passing Israel. You could always try to seek out Jewish farmers elsewhere, so that you cannot be tarnished with the anti-semitic brush. %)

That was some eight hours ago, but again Waitrose have not as yet responded.

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For years now the Israeli state has badly treated Arabs residing within its boundaries as well as committing heinous acts against Palestinians, this is despite many Jews both in Israel and within the wider diaspora vociferously objecting to this renegade state's behaviours. In the UK, the US, France, and so on, none of our countries can take a stand because they are similarly guilty of dreadful misdeeds, warmongering and profiteering on the backs of misery and death. It is for this reason that we as citizens must take the moral stand and hit states where it hurts - economically. I ask you to now boycott Israeli produce and services. Write to your MP, your MEP (as Europe gives Israel lots of economic benefits) and the main-stream media: let them all know how much you actually care.

Israel will only be at peace when it learns to love its neighbours.

My prayers!

Gay Marriage

I have just found that the famous (and lovely by the by) author, Armistead Maupin (Armistead Maupin on facebook), has posted a link to an advertisement for marriage equality for gays & lesbians. It speaks for itself, so here it is: "beautiful-british-gay-marriage-commercial" .

Some folk believe that the Bible interdicts homosexuality. Well, as the word was only created at the end of the C19th (1897 to be precise) that would seem a tad rich. There are only four (yes four) passages that are supposedly anti-homosexual and Jesus himself never even mentioned the topic. That's right, Jesus the Christ, the basis of Christianity, did not have a single word to say on the matter. However, selective fundamentalists pick and choose which bits of the Bible they are going to follow.

If one reads Deuteronomy chapter 22 verses 13 to 21, one discovers that under the old covenant a marriage was only to be considered valid if the wife (note not the husband!) was a virgin. If it transpired she was not a virgin, the marriage was invalid and the wife was supposed to be executed. Well apart from the sexism and hypocrisy involved, that would make a hell of a lot of marriages invalid and we should have to kill a heck of a lot of womenfolk!

Well, even if we ignore what the Bible might or might not say on the subject, there is the thorny issue of Church tradition. We are told by Roman Catholics and Anglicans (Episcopalians) that traditionally the Church is anti-homosexuality and that marriage is just for one man and one woman. Ahem, actually that is not quite true. There is quite some evidence to demonstrate that the Church from at least the C6th to C18th was blessing same-sex unions (mainly male, but there are some female rites).

For Church precedence see inter alia:

Kontakion to Saints Serge & Bacchus, C6th, Greek
Office of Same-Sex Union, C10th, Greek
Office of Same-Sex Union, C11th, Greek
Prayer for Same-Sex Union, C11th, Greek
The Order for Uniting Two Men, C11-12th, Slavonic
Office of Same-Gender Union, C12th, Italo-Greek
Order for Solemnization of Same-Sex Union, C13th, Greek
Office of Same Sex (sic) Union, C14th, Serbian Slavonic
Agreement of "Brotherhood", C15th, Latin
Office for Same-Gender Union, C16th?, Greek
Office of Same-sex (sic) Union, C16th, Greek
The Order of Celebrating the Union of Two Men, <C18th, Serbian Slavonic

The Vatican purged its library of Latin texts, but omitted to destroy documents in other languages: hence the apparent lack of Latin evidence. Yes, it's probably now dawning upon one that there has been a mass cover-up. It's political of course. The Church in times of trouble has often needed a scapegoat: witches, Jews, homosexuals, etc. Now what is the major issue at the moment - pædophile priests. So the Church needs to go on the attack to deflect attention. It has acted thus for centuries.

I happen to be a pantheist and a Quaker. Quakers would actually like to marry same-sex couples in their places of worship, as would other smaller Christian denominations along with some Jewish groups.

If you would like to support equal marriage, then please sign AVAAZ's petition (Support gay marriage in the UK)

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