BY JEREMY PAWLOSKI | Staff writer Modified November 02, 2011
OLYMPIA ? Lawyers have moved to strike a lawsuit that alleges the Olympia Food Co-op?s boycott of Israeli goods was unfair and violated the co-op?s rules and bylaws.
A motion filed by attorneys with Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle and by attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights asserts that the lawsuit is a ?Strategic Lawsuit Against Pubic Participation.? So-called SLAPP lawsuits are illegal under Washington statute.
?We hope the court will strike down this effort to silence the co-op?s principled stand on Israel?s human rights violations,? said Maria LaHood, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, in a news release. ?Allegations that the co-op?s board acted beyond its power are a thinly veiled attempt to stop concerned citizens from using a nonviolent and historical tool for social change.?
The lawsuit, filed in September, is aimed at nullifying the co-op?s July 2010 boycott of Israeli goods and ordering ?the OFC board to follow OFC?s governing rules, procedures and principles in the future,? according to the suit.
Robert Sulkin, one of the attorneys who filed the suit, said Wednesday it is ?absolutely, positively not? a SLAPP suit. A hearing on the motion to strike the lawsuit is tentatively set for Jan. 13 before Thurston County Superior Court Judge Paula Casey.
Gov. Chris Gregoire signed an enhanced anti-SLAPP statute in 2010, according to a news release from Davis Wright Tremaine. Attorneys at Davis Wright Tremaine drafted the bill she signed.
The law now provides ?important procedural safeguards against unwarranted defamation suits and similar claims based on news content and other speech,? according to Davis Wright Tremaine. It also protects ?any lawful conduct in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right to free speech.?
Olympia Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or Olympia BDS, opposes the lawsuit. According to a news release from that group, SLAPP lawsuits are ?a form of legal and financial intimidation, popularly dubbed ?lawfare,? which has long been used to undermine social and environmental justice movements by penalizing political participation and free speech.?
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are five people who are or were co-op members at the time the boycott was enacted: Kent and Linda Davis; Jeffrey and Susan Trinin; and Susan Mayer.
Three of the five ran for election to become co-op board members in November 2010. Those three ?lost by large margins in what was a record voter turnout? against candidates who support the boycott, David Langstaff, Olympia BDS and Olympia Food Co-op member, said Wednesday.
According to Olympia BDS?s news release, the lawsuit aimed at nullifying the boycott is part of a ?fierce response? to the BDS movement.
?This backlash is coming from pro-Israel groups as well as directly from the Israeli government, which recently passed a law that criminalizes advocating for boycotts of Israel,? the news release states.
The release cites StandWithUs Northwest, ?an international pro-Israel and anti-boycott lobby group,? as being affiliated with the lawsuit. It also alleges that in March, Akiva Tor, the Israeli Consul General for the Pacific Northwest, met with the plaintiffs? attorney, along with a StandWithUs official, and ?unnamed Olympia residents.?
Langstaff said Wednesday that the participation of national pro-Israel groups and the Israeli Consul General for the Pacific Northwest in the lawsuit is significant in that it shows that the suit is part of a broader global attempt to curb the growing strength of the BDS movement.
Sulkin said Wednesday that neither StandWithUs nor the Israeli Consul General for the Pacific Northwest is part of the suit.
?My clients are the people named in the complaint,? Sulkin said. ?They are not StandWithUs and they?re not the government of Israel. We have no problem with the co-op taking positions, as long as it follows its own policies. Here the board ignored its own policies, and it wishes to use the co-op in a way that violates its own bylaws.?
The BDS movement seeks to support boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel ?until its ends its occupation of Palestine, respects the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and gives equal rights to Palestinians living inside of Israel.?
Jeremy Pawloski: 360-754-5445
jpawloski@theolympian.com
Source: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/11/02/1861745/more-legal-action-in-olympia-food.html
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