Co-op members have called on the supermarket chain’s board to boycott Israeli products, comparing their proposal to similar action taken over Russian goods.
An advisory motion officially submitted for the organisations next annual general meeting demands “consistency in ethical decision-making” and a complete prohibition on Israeli produce.
It stated: “By July 2024, it was estimated that at least 186,000 Gazans – mainly women and children – had died as a result of the bombing, destruction of health facilities, and denial of essential aid.”
The figures cited are provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health and have long been accused of being manipulated.
Indeed, in an op-ed for the JC, Lewi Stone and Gregory Rose, who have co-authored a new report on the topic, stated: “Across the war so far, women and children comprise about half of all casualties despite comprising three quarters of the Gazan population.”
They added: “Surprisingly, we found that in some battlespaces, women and child casualty rates were down to about 35 per cent, such as during the armed conflict in Khan Yunis during the first four months of 2024, where casualty rates for men of combat age were over-represented nearly fivefold.”
The Co-op motion also cited a ruling by the International Court of Justice that Israel has a “plausible case to answer” over allegations of genocide against the Palestinians – a decision Israel is still disputing.
It went on: “We urge the board to show moral courage and leadership, apply the same ethical principles and values it did to Russia, and take all Israeli products off the shelves.”
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the supermarket did remove a large number of Russian products from its shelves, but emphasised that a total boycott would not have been practical.
Russia is also the subject of sanctions from the UK government which prohibits businesses from acquiring certain goods from the country or providing financial assistance to sanctioned businesses there.
No such sanctions are in force against Israel, with only measures targeting illegal settlements in the West Bank adopted. The Co-op insisted it has not sourced any goods from Gaza or the West Bank since 2007.
A spokesperson for the Co-op board said: “[We are] currently reviewing our sourcing policies to ensure that they reflect our values and principles and the views of our members, taking into consideration developments in the geopolitical situation and international food supply chains.
"We intend to confirm any changes to our sourcing policies in the summer, following that review.
"The nature of international food supply chains means that it is very often impossible, impractical or unsafe to stop sourcing products entirely from specific countries.
"Following the invasion of Ukraine, we stopped ranging products which were self-evidently from Russia...We did not stop sourcing all products from Russia and would not have been able to do so.”
