My BDS shame

[Rizla]

I generally keep an eye on where the food I buy comes from, particularly when it comes to fruit and veg, but my concern is mainly with food miles. I don't have a soda stream and I hate dates so I don't usually give much thought to stuff produced in Israel, but I've just spotted that the grapefruit I've been buying a fair bit of from Asda recently are grown in that apartheid state and I've probably paid for enough bullets to maim several Palestinian teenagers (I make an incredible salad of grapefruit, fennel, rocket and mint, with red wine vinegar, olive oil and salt and pepper topped with crushed roasted almonds, TRY IT).

How strict are you with BDS? Or do you not give a shit where stuff comes from? You monster.

[Buelligan]

I have tried that but with white balsamic instead of red wine and no roquette.  Yes, it's good.  Buying stuff from Israel is not though.  I don't know what to say really.  I hope you find a poo in your salad bowl just when you've finished eating.  You deserve it.

[honeychile]

It's good to try to avoid this stuff obviously, but realistically the D and the S are always going to be the most effective elements of BDS.

[JamesTC]

Not really into dressing up.

[Marner and Me]

Couldn't give a shit on most parts you avoid paying for one unethical company and give to another.

[touchingcloth]

Bums, dookies, shits?

[shiftwork2]

Rizla's been doing backstreet root canals again.

[Kankurette]

Don't do it, but will buy Palestinian products if available. They do some lovely herbs.

[Captain Z]

I forgive you, 'Dynamite' is a very catchy single.

[Uncle TechTip]

When my wife goes shopping, I'm lucky if she even checks it's the right flavour.

[Menu]

Sainsburys do a Palestinian organic olive oil which is really nice. The thing about it is it's cold-pressed. According to the blog below: "The best olive oil is what is known as 'cold pressed' 'extra virgin' olive oil. This unprocessed, non-heat-treated oil from the first pressing of olives is believed to have the most health-giving properties."

https://www.drbriffa.com/2001/03/13/olive-oil-disease-protective-properties-or-marketing-hype/

Trouble is it costs over £10. Fuck me! The Palestinians raking it in again, eh!

[flotemysost]

Apparently quite a lot of UK supermarket-sold avocados are grown in Israel. Bet those brunch-guzzling snowflake millennials didn't think of that, eh?

Not sure where sells it over here, but I rather like Taybeh beer (founded in the West Bank village of the same name).

[pcsjwgm]

Bought medjool dates a few times before realising some brands have "Product of Israel" on the packaging. Now only buy medjool dates from Mexico/US. We have a few old HP and Puma products, bought (mostly by family members) long before I knew they were on the boycott list.

Haven't found any Palestinian products where I live, unfortunately.

[H-O-W-L]

I try and avoid Israeli produce and Nestle products, yes. Nestle is much harder to avoid unfortunately, but I still make a point of it.

[Johnny Yesno]

How strict are you with BDS?

I won't remove the buttplug until they've finished cleaning my flat.

[GMTV]

There's a walmart in Palestine, texas. I'm not sure how you should factor that into your calculations.

[canadagoose]

I don't do BDS nowadays unless it's a product from a settlement. I even used to buy Warburtons bread even though it's owned by a Tory. Not sure if I'm dooming myself.

[Buelligan]

Maybe not yourself that you're dooming goosie.

[canadagoose]

Maybe not yourself that you're dooming goosie.

Literally dooming millions of Palestinians to death by eating Schar pretzels, I know. I must be worse than Kim Jong-il.

[Buelligan]

No, of course you're not, you're lovely, but nevertheless, you're making a choice.

[Sin Agog]

Got shouted out of the room yesterday when I brought up the Netinyahu/U.S. Secretary of State thing as my coeliac sister was ordering Tivali hotdog sausages online.  Sometimes I even roll my own eyes in exasperation at myself from way up on my soapbox.

[canadagoose]

Got shouted out of the room yesterday when I brought up the Netinyahu/U.S. Secretary of State thing as my coeliac sister was ordering Tivali hotdog sausages online.  Sometimes I even roll my own eyes in exasperation at myself from way up on my soapbox.

Vegetarian and coeliac must be a hard combination. For some reason, some companies love shoving wheat products in vegan/vegetarian equivalents of meat products. I would suggest Quorn but that can react badly for some people, so maybe not.

[bgmnts]

Is it possible to just live off local - or at least British - produce and maintain a healthy meat vegan? Is there enough variety?

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Big Dicky Style?

[H-O-W-L]

Is it anti-semitism if I hear Siouxsie & The Banshees in my head whenever I see Israel on a product origin tag?

[evilcommiedictator]

The barcode is your friend, mostly, 729 means Product of Israel.

[Blinder Data]

My medjool dates from ALDI do not have any country of origin listed. Is that allowed? I'll check the barcode.

[phantom_power]

How much does boycotting make any difference politically as opposed to harming the possibly innocent inhabitants of that country? I am sure that is a well-worn topic

[Zetetic]

Broadly:
1) Israel is a reasonably democratic country from a particular perspective, insofar as if a sufficiently large number of Israeli citizens were sufficiently motivated to do something about the Occupation and treatment of Palestinians, then their governmentwould respond to this. (This is in contrast to sanctions against non-democratic countries.) Note the relationship of BDS to attempts to isolate Apartheid South Africa.

2) On the issue of the Occupied Territories specifically, boycotting aims to make running (Israeli) commerce out of those territories less and thereby disincentivise the continued occupation. (That it's often not possible to discriminate exactly where a product comes from within Israel, takes us back to 1, and the extent to which other Israelis might be brought to break further from those living and working in the Occupied Territories, and so oppose continued support from their government.)

[dissolute ocelot]

My medjool dates from ALDI do not have any country of origin listed. Is that allowed? I'll check the barcode.

It's probably on the shelf edge if it's in the fruit and veg aisle. A lot of medjool dates are Israeli but you sometimes see them from the USA (or elsewhere).