Sainsbury\’s is a chain of grocery stores in the UK. Some (possibly all) of its stores have a kosher section for Jews who observe dietary laws (and, I am betting, more than a few Muslims, whose dietary laws are very similar).
But not any more – at least not in the Sainsbury store which services the Holburn section of London.
Why not? Read this excerpt from Brendan O\’Neill\’s article in London\’s Daily Telegraph and find out:
Whena mob of anti-Israel protesters gathered outside the store, themanager took the extraordinary decision to takeall kosher products off the shelves lest the protesters target themand smash them up. Kosher foods, of course, are Jewish notIsraeli; they are part of the Jewish dietary requirement, not part ofany kind of Israeli food corporatism. To shamefacedly hide away suchfoodstuffs in order to appease a gang of hot-headed Israel-haters isan attack on a religious people and their rights, not on the Israelistate. That in Britain in 2014 we have store managers taking kosherfoods off public display should be of concern to anyone who hatesprejudice and racism.
Sodoes this mean Sainsbury\’s is anti-Semitic? No. It doesn\’t even showthat anyone at the Sainsbury\’s in Holborn is anti-Semitic. But itdoes shine a light on the modern phenomenon of acquiescence toanti-Semitism, the rank unwillingness of influential people andinstitutions to face up to anti-Semitic sentiment and theirpreference for moulding the world around it rather than challengingit. Imagine if a Sainsbury\’s manager suggested that the best way todeal with a racist in his store was to remove the black employees whowere offending him. There would be outrage. Yet this weekend, incentral, apparently civilised London, a manager decided that the bestway to deal with people possessed of a possibly anti-Semitic outlookwas to hide away the Jew stuff, lest they see it and feel disgustedby it.
As I have pointed out – for years (not just in the past couple of weeks, as some, but nowhere near all, mainstream media have suddenly decided to do) – the hamas charter calls for the death of all Jews, not just Israelis. So it is no surprise that, during the Israel/Gaza conflict, the Israel haters would go after Jewish life that is nowhere near Israel. Hey, you\’ve seen one Jew you\’ve seen \’em all, right?
This, therefore, is a win for hamas. Because it projects disagreement with Israel to Jews who are nowhere near Israel and, for all the protesters know, do not agree with how the country has attacked Gaza.
I congratulate hamas on its great victory: keeping kosher foods off the shelves of a supermarket.
I also await either a forceful statement by Sainsbury\’s that this should not have been done, accompanied by a return of the kosher section in that store…..or, if not, the decision of every Jew with self-esteem to find another supermarket besides Sainsbury\’s.
