Pleasing the Clients

Protest against Israeli food products sold in Sainsbury's supermarket Photograph: Guy Corbishley/Alamy

A branch of the British supermarket chain Sainsbury's on Saturday responded to the din of protesters assembled outside the store insisting that kosher foods be removed from the store shelves. This was another one of those boycott divestment sanctions of Palestinians and their sympathetic supporters urging, demanding, shrilly insisting that retailers purge their shelves of products from Israel in solidarity with Palestinians, to teach the 'occupying' Israelis a lesson in civility.

All kosher food was speedily removed from the shelves; food products produced in Britain and Europe alike. The only thing they had in common with foods produced in Israel is that they too were 'kosher', meant to serve the dietary stipulations of Judaic orthodoxy. And just incidentally, 'kosher' for Muslims as well, when there is a scarcity of halal foods represent a dietarily acceptable alternative. And that's an odd thing in fact, come to think of it.

Anger: Kosher goods were removed yesterday from a Sainsbury's Local in Holborn, central London, allegedly over fears that protesters would damage them. But a passer-by claimed staff said: 'We support Free Gaza
Islamists berserk with hatred for other Muslims whom they consider to be insufficiently Muslim in their observance and practise, are being slaughtered left, right and centre, in Syria, in Iraq, in Libya, Mali, Somalia and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, a stupendous death toll through sectarian violence and hatred, and refugee numbers overwhelming the capacity of the United Nations to manage in humanitarian aid and resettlement.

It has escaped the notice of civil society somehow that no pro-Israel groups have formed protest movements to blacklist the supporters of these Islamist fundamentalist movements so destabilizing to the Middle East, North Africa and the Western democracies where their supporters also live, and where new recruits stream to the new battlefields in Syria and Iraq. Countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar which fund, arm, train and incite the murderous actions of the jihadi mujahedeen.

But Israel, attempting to protect its citizens from ongoing rocket bombardments, from suicide missions and attacks both within Israel and abroad on its people, facing a quasi-government held to be a terrorist organization in Gaza, is damned by sympathizers of Palestinians who are complicit in demonizing Israeli Jews and their country in support of the fanatics who they feel represent their best interests in promising to annihile Israel and return the geography to Arab possession.

A spokesperson for Sainsbury's stated the company was "an absolutely non-political organization", describing the removal of all Jewish food products as a reaction by the store to fear that the protests would turn violent. "It was an isolated decision made in a very challenging situation". A store staff member expressed the opinion that has gained such great popularity: "We support Free Gaza", but not, obviously, Safe Israel.

Controversy: The incident yesterday happened at this Sainsbury's Local branch in Holborn, central London. A spokesman insisted it was 'not company policy at all' and had only been done to stop food being damaged

The week before, a Labour MP, Shabana Mahmoud, praised an earlier protest against a Sainsbury's branch in Birmingham, forced to close as the police restored order. She addressed marchers in Hyde Park, telling them that such direct action against any company doing business with Israel was the moral thing to do: "Just as powerful as our passion is the practical action we can all take to make our Government sit up and take notice. We lay down in Sainsbury's in Birmingham and closed down a store for five-and-a-half hours at peak time on a Saturday."

As Al-Jazeera is not political, so too is Sainsbury's not political. And strangely enough, the oil-rich Middle East country that supports Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas also funds Al-Jazeera, and just incidentally owns the majority share of Sainsbury's. Qatar, of course, is entirely neutral in all of this; it too is non-political, but it does like to throw its riches around here and there, to support the Palestinian cause; in fact, the terrorist cause of destroying Israel.

Not political, just another facet of Islam.