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Pro-Israel groups in the United States are urging supporters to buy Israeli goods on 30 March in order to counter a global anti-Israel boycott called for that day. "We are telling people to go to their local stores, request the exact Israeli products being targeted, and buy them out,” Roz Rothstein, co-founder and national director of Stand With Us, which is spearheading the ‘Buy Israel Goods’ (BIG) project together with the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce, told JTA. She pointed out: “Let store managers know they should keep Israeli products well stocked on the shelves."
The date 30 March 2011 has been declared the fifth annual Global Day of Action by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, an international initiative that seeks to undermine support for Israel using these three methods. The movement is asking its supporters to protest outside stores that stock Israeli products, and speak out for academic and cultural boycotts of Israeli individuals and institutions. A similar counter-protest was mounted last November, calling on shoppers to buy Israeli-made products at stores targeted by the BDS movement. A list of US stores carrying Israeli products is available here.
Stand With Us is dedicated to bringing peace to the Middle East by educating about Israel and challenging misinformation that surrounds the conflict in that region. Stand With Us has 12 offices and chapters around the world. According to the organizers, BIG now covers markets that include over 75 percent of the Jewish population of the United States.
