From the WSJ:

After three years of heated debate, the Park Slope Food Coop is at last ready for a vote.

That is, a vote on if, in fact, there should be a vote at all.

Next month, the 15,500-plus member cooperative will decide whether to hold a referendum on what may be the most controversial issue in its nearly 40-year history: a boycott of products made in Israel. [...]

An artist and filmmaker who goes by the name Hima B began the push for the co-op to join the global Israeli boycott movement known as BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). She and others in support of BDS believe economic pressure will lead to an end to what they view as an apartheid system against Palestinians.

Lobbying against a referendum is a group that has coined itself "More Hummus Please." To them, the BDS movement is misguided, discriminatory and smacks of anti-Semitism.

"I oppose BDS in general but I particularly oppose it for the food co-op because they are trying to impose a political point of view on an entire population that didn't get together for the sake of supporting political causes, but got together to save on food," said "More Hummus Please" founder Barbara Mazor, a 23-year member of the co-op and Orthodox Jew.

Ms. Mazor thinks even having a referendum on the issue would legitimize a position that itself is discriminatory.

I'm not personally a member of the co-op, so my opinions on the matter will probably hold little sway on the debate. I would posit, however, that an effort that smacks all too closely of Deutsche, kauft nicht beim Juden really has no place in Gotham. It's all very well and good to be critical of the Israeli government's at times deeply misguided and unfair policies towards that country's Arab minority, not to mention the Arab population of the occupied Cisjordanian territories; that's what freedom of speech is all about, which we have here and most places in this world do not.

But if we entertain, for the sake of argument, the idea of the co-op de-shelving Israeli products - presumably including those from Israel proper - consumer speech, which is what purchasing decisions at the end of the day amount to, will be curtailed. If Ms. Mazor wants to buy, say, Sabra hummus (actually made in Queens, but no matter) at the co-op where she invests her time and her dollars, that should be her choice. Equally, Ms. Hima B has the right to choose not to buy Israeli products, if that is what she wishes. Anything else strikes this blogger at least as deeply illiberal.

Illiberality aside, it's certainly not the case that the boycott advocates are themselves unfamiliar with having their choices and actions curtailed. I'm referring specifically to the decision by the New York City Gay and Lesbian Community Center to decline to host a 2011 event for something called, a trifle disingenuously as far as I'm concerned, 'Israeli Apartheid Week'. The Center argued, to simplify somewhat, that this event did not cohere with its stated mission,

"The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center provides a home for the birth, nurture and celebration of our organizations, institutions and culture; cares for our individuals and groups in need; educates the public and our community; and empowers our individuals and groups to achieve their fullest potential."

The event organizers (affiliated with the same "BDS" movement arguing for the Park Slope Israel boycott), needless to say, were none too pleased at what they regarded as an infringement of, wait for it, their freedom of speech.

Precisely what they would very much like to take away from Ms. Mazor and the members of the Park Slope co-op. Funny how that works, isn't it?