You can show solidarity with Gaza in the shopping aisle by shunning Israeli goods
‘Israeli fruit and veg are sold in most big chains, from SuperValu to Dunnes to Tesco. Oranges, grapefruit, peppers, avocados, grapes and even new potatoes may all be imported from Israel. It’s worth taking the time at the shelves to check’
Do you feel helpless watching the mounting death toll – more than 40,000 to date – since war erupted in Gaza? I know I do. I keep waiting for sanctions to be imposed on Israel, but the months slip by and the EU continues to trade with a country deliberately targeting civilians. In fact, the EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, meaning Ireland also has commercial ties there because Europe negotiates member states’ trade deals.
So that’s that, you might think. Except it’s not. If people feel it’s abhorrent that our country has a more or less business-as-usual arrangement with the current Israeli regime, there’s something we can do about it.
Individuals needn’t wait for governments to deliver change – we can make it happen ourselves. Indeed, the thousands pouring on to the streets in Israel are making their own feelings plain to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for its failure to do more on a ceasefire and securing the release of hostages.
The Irish should know about people power better than anyone, thanks to Dunnes Stores workers and their trailblazing campaign against handling produce from Apartheid-era South Africa. Forty years ago, a group of people, who probably considered themselves ordinary, did something quite extraordinary. It took almost three years, but those trade unionists, nearly all women, managed to move officialdom’s tectonic plates.
The pressure they exerted with their pickets and publicity led to Ireland becoming the first Western country to boycott goods from apartheid South Africa. And they did it in the face of opposition from pillars of the State.
They taught us that leadership from the ground up can make a difference; that direct action by individuals can be a formidable tool. We know it, too, from the collaborative civilsociety campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment on Abortion in 2018.
Which brings me back to the horror of what’s happening in Gaza. What’s to stop us adopting principled, personal decisions about our behaviour as consumers?
It may feel like a small step in the context of families inside their homes, hospital staff, aid workers and journalists slaughtered indiscriminately. But we are not powerless. We can show our repugnance at the killings by the choices we make at the till.
How we spend our money is in our own hands. No need to wait for the Irish Government to act – we can decide for ourselves.
Additional vigilance when we make purchases will be necessary, because it’s not always obvious when a company is Israeli.
But the effort is worthwhile. And let me emphasise here: this is not anti-Jewish behaviour by consumers, it’s anti-war.
The need to pay attention to a product’s origins came home to me this week when I started researching how to make my website simpler to update regularly, and someone recommended a website builder and host called Wix as user-friendly. I had a look and liked what I saw – until I realised Wix is an Israeli software company. So that’s a no-sale.
At that point I started to wonder if I have been an inadvertent customer of other Israeli brands.
Moroccanoil hair products are popular, for instance. Despite the name, which suggests North Africa, it’s an Israeli cosmetics company.
Who doesn’t have some Sudocrem in the bathroom cabinet? I fell off my bike yesterday and went looking for it to rub on the scrapes. But a few taps on a keyboard showed me it’s no longer Irish – it was bought by an Israeli company. How about sports company Puma? That’s the main sponsor of the Israeli soccer team. The list goes on.
Israeli fruit and vegetables are sold in most big chains, from SuperValu to Dunnes to Tesco. Oranges, grapefruit, peppers, avocados, grapes, figs, passionfruit, herbs and even new potatoes (in springtime when Irish potatoes are unavailable) may all be imported from Israel. It’s worth taking the time at the shelves to check for their point of origin.
Often we’re in a rush when shopping, but we can pause and inform ourselves. It makes shopping a little harder, but it’s a way for individuals to show solidarity with Gaza.
Here’s another group of individuals showing that something can be done.
Members of the Kinvara Palestine Solidarity Group have collaborated on an informative booklet, The Palestine A-Z, written by award-winning author Kate Thompson and now available in selected bookshops. This is a concise explainer of terms associated with the conflict, from administrative detention (Palestinians can be held without trial on alleged security grounds) to Zion (an Israeli homeland).
It was compiled in response to the oftenheard assertion that the Israeli-Palestine issue is complicated. While some of the terminology might be, there is nothing complex about innocents being massacred.
Let’s be clear. Backing the rights of Palestinians is not the same as supporting Hamas, which started this appalling conflict by murdering 1,200 Israelis last October 7 and taking about 250 hostages. Ordinary Israeli citizens are staging anti-government protests aimed at securing the release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Occupied Territories Bill has passed the Oireachtas, but the Government resists enacting it on the advice of several attorneys general. This week, a group of civil-society organisations, trade unions, academics and politicians (including senator Frances Black, who first tabled the bill) launched a joint campaign for it to become legislation.
The group presented legal opinion from two EU law specialists that conflicts with the recommendation the Government is acting on. If enacted, the legislation would ban Irish trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
Taoiseach Simon Harris, who says what’s happening in Gaza is “unconscionable” and “the world must be ashamed”, has asked the Attorney General to review his advice. But there is no indication it will differ – this gives the appearance of action without the reality.
Back to those Dunnes Stores strikers. When they met Nelson Mandela in later years, he said they showed South Africans that “ordinary people far away from the crucible of apartheid cared for our freedom”.
We must believe that individuals can deliver change. For proof, next time you’re in Dublin’s Henry Street, stop and take a look at the plaque outside Dunnes Stores commemorating the workers’ strike.