The Park Slope Food Co-op voted Tuesday night to boycott products from Israel, with 67% of members backing the measure at the Brooklyn institution. The decision follows years of debate inside the co-op and comes as the group faces a sharper divide over how its buying choices connect to the war in Gaza.

Members said calls within the co-op to boycott Israeli products began in 2009, but the movement gained new momentum in 2023 after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza. The co-op, which has been around since 1973, has more than 17,000 members who work there in exchange for shopping access.

The vote gives formal weight to a campaign that some members argued was overdue. Sarah Wellington said she supported what she described as nonviolent resistance toward Palestinian liberation through boycotting Israeli products. Gabriel Young said he was disturbed to see Israeli goods on the shelves, even if he was not buying them, because he believed his labor and money were going toward goods from a country he described as committing genocide and overseeing apartheid. He also said the co-op, though only one block in central Brooklyn, could serve as an example for other cooperatives, universities and labor unions.

For supporters, the measure fit a long co-op tradition. The group has boycotted goods from places such as apartheid South Africa and Chile in the past. Chase Madar said supporting Israel right now was a no-brainer thing not to do.

But the vote also exposed the limits of consensus in a place where members shop and work side by side. A representative for the co-op said the debate had been contentious and emotionally charged, and the organization hired security because of concerns about staff and member safety. The co-op said it currently carries only a few products from Israel, including ecoLove shampoo and conditioner and Al Arz tahini.

Not every member saw the vote as consequential. One member called it a little performative and a little ridiculous, questioning whether the world would change because people buy hummus from a co-op. Patrick McMulty said he did not understand how boycotting Israeli products would move forward the group’s agenda. Greg Selig said supporters were in people’s faces and made clear where they stood, while he was just trying to shop.

For the Park Slope Food Co-op, the question was not whether the argument would spill beyond Brooklyn. The vote showed that it already had. The measure passed, and the co-op that has spent years living with the argument has now chosen a side.