College students of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s rocked the nation with anti-authoritarian protests against the Vietnam war, nuclear war, racism, sexism, Watergate, and plenty of other things.
Today, college students in Chicago are getting upset about … hummus. Sabra hummus, to be precise.
According to the DePaul University group Students for Justice in Palestine, Sabra’s majority owners, the Strauss Group, “sends financial support to two Israeli military units accused of human rights abuses,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported. PepsiCo, by the way, owns the other 49%.
So the group’s members went to the student government offices and got them to agree to put the Sabra issue on a ballot. The vote was taken and 1,127 were in favor of getting rid of Sabra hummus in the cafeteria while 332 wanted to keep the chickpea dip around.
With a vote like that, it seems like the Students for Justice in Palestine should have been partying in like it was 1999. Unfortunately, the vote fell 41 short of the required 1,500 in order to have it pass. There are more than 20,000 students on the campus, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Michael C. Kotzin, EVP of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, said the attempt to remove the hummus was “one more salvo in the global assault on Israel’s right to exist,” according to that organization’s website.
The Sun-Times reports that “the Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Committee applauded the decision to keep Sabra hummus on DePaul’s campuses.”
The school actually stopped serving the hummus in November when the students complained, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency adds. “Strauss has publicly supported the Israel Defense Forces troops, and provides care packages and sports equipment to Israel's Golani and Givati brigades,” JTA notes.
"While we recognize the original complaint made by DePaul students arose from genuine concerns surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in the judgment of the Fair Business Practices Committee there do not appear to be sufficient grounds for a boycott of Sabra Hummus, primarily because the committee did not find evidence that the Strauss Group provides direct military support for units within the Israeli Defense Forces," the university’s Fair Business Practices Committee concluded, JTA reports.
The Students for Justice in Palestine not surprisingly said they will continue the fight against Sabra hummus. Meanwhile, Sabra’s website notes that the brand “believes in a richer life lived through expanded horizons.” Expanded horizons? Isn’t that what college is all about?
Sabra may have another battle on its hands. An eagle-eyed fan of the brand named Guy Navidi posted this graphic on its Facebook page, wondering why their containers of babaganoush are now 20% smaller, but offering "20% free."
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