British Battle Israel Boycott With Holiday Food Giveaway
British man delivers food to soup kitchen. Some pro-Israel activists are using the holiday to dent the BDS movement at the same time as they help the needy. Image by getty images
More than 1,000 people in Great Britain donated food and other goods made in Israel to homeless shelters.
IsrAction Day, which was held Sunday, called on shoppers to purchase food and goods made in Israel to counter boycott initiatives, and then to donate them.
The initiative was organized by Sussex Friends of Israel in Brighton and North West Friends of Israel in Manchester, the London-based Jewish Chronicle reported.
Organizers told the newspaper that the food would feed hundreds via three homeless shelters and a soup kitchen.
Non-Jews also participated in the effort, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
“People who were childish enough to suggest all we would be donating were hummus and (the Israeli snack food) Bamba can eat their words,” Raphi Bloom, co-chair of North West Friends of Israel, told the Jewish Chronicle. “We were inundated with the most sensible long-lasting products that are going to support and feed large numbers of people.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
