Sainsbury’s End trade with Israel
Call for monthly protests on first Saturday of the month:
Call for protest at the Sainsbury AGM: Wednesday 10th July
The campaign calling on Sainsbury’s to end trade with Israel was launched on February 9th as part of the ‘Farming Injustice’ international day of action. We were responding to the call for action from Palestinian agricultural organisations and civil society networks, calling for an end to international trade with Israeli agricultural companies. On Feburary 9th actions targetting Sainsbury’s took place in over 50 different towns and cities up and down the country. In the weeks preceding the day of action Corporate Watch had written to Sainsbury’s providing evidence of how Israeli agricultural companies are complicit in the Israeli occupation and the dispossession. Despite issuing a statement to the press on February 9th claiming to take the allegations of Corporate Watch ‘very seriously’, Sainsbury’s has failed to respond in any way to Corporate Watch’s letter.
On April 21st, a strategy day took place in Sheffield took place to review the campaign launch, to discuss and agree on the goals of the campaign and to develop an action plan. A full report on the strategy day will soon be available, including the goals of the campaign and the development of a pledge aimed at building the widest possible support for the campaign. In the meantime we are sharing two very clear calls for action that were agreed upon by all those attending the day.
Firstly, we are calling on groups to hold monthly days of action, aimed at Sainsbury’s local stores, on the first Saturday of each month. We will be developing a range of campaign material over the coming weeks. In the meantime, a leaflet is available for downloading at http://www.boycottisraelnetwork.net/?p=2185. There is also a template online letter available at http://coordin8.org.uk/app/index.php/generic/ind/ind57
Secondly, we are planning a major demonstration at Sainsbury’s AGM which will take place on Wednesday 10th July in central London. We are calling on groups throughout the UK to support the demonstration. As the AGM is likely to start at 11 a.m. campaigners from outside London will need to think about their travel plans as soon as possible, either to sort out cheaper travel to London early on the 10th July or to arrange to travel to London on the preceding evening. We hope that London activists will be able to help by offering accommodation on Tuesday 9th July where needed.
Since the AGM is scheduled to start in the morning, it might be possible for us to hold a campaign meeting later in the day, perhaps late afternoon, since it will be a good opportunity for campaigners from different parts of the country to meet up. So for those from outside London, if you’re fixing travel plans soon, then it would be helpful for people to plan to stay in London until early evening, in order to leave time for a meeting to take place.
Please start talking in your branches and networks urgently about how you can support the campaign. Palestinian farming communities are fighting every day for the right to their land and the freedom to farm, to produce food and to sustain their local environment. They are calling on us, the international community, to support them by calling for an end to agricultural trade with Israel.
