Anti-Israel Boycott Backfires in Canada

Anti-Israel Boycott Backfires in Canada

by Hillel Fendel
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(IsraelNN.com) Another anti-Zionist attempted boycott in Canada has backfired, with Israeli products enjoying sales rates much higher than usual.

Anti-Israel groups had threatened MEC – Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op - with a boycott because of its inclusion of Israeli products in its inventory. But barely anyone showed up for the boycott, and instead, large crowds of Israel supporters came to buy Israeli products.

The Canada Jewish Tribune reports that several MEC stores across Canada experienced unusually high sales for its Israeli products on Sunday of last week. Shelves with Israeli-made products – numerous styles of seamless underwear and hydration systems products – had to be re-stocked a couple of times each day.

What had been planned as giant demonstrations against Israel in Toronto and Vancouver resulted in tiny-to-small groups of protestors who were dwarfed by crowds of Zionists purchasing Israeli items. B’nai Brith and the Canada-Israel Committee joined forces to organize a “buy-cott” in response to the boycott.

Salomon Rayek of B’nai Brith Canada in Vancouver reported total success, saying that only three anti-Israel demonstrators showed up at the MEC store in Calgary on Saturday, while the next day, “a large number of Jews and Israel’s supporters showed up at the stores and spent a good chunk of money buying Israeli products... I understand that in Toronto about 20 protesters showed up to protest, and on the next day there was a very large Jewish and pro-Israel presence [coming] to buy Israeli goods."

Shades of April 2009
The story appears to be a repeat of what occurred in April of this year at a Toronto liquor store.

After a Jewish non-Zionist group tried to organize an anti-Israel protest in front of the store, asking Passover celebrants to mark their holiday without Israeli-made wines, hundreds of pro-Israeli consumers took the opportunity to hold a pro-Israel festival and bought up the store’s entire stock of Israeli wine.

Brands such as Carmel, Barkan, Golan Heights, Gush Etzion (Efrat), Binyamina, Baron, Segal Dalton and others were sold out within a matter of hours.