I write in response to Benjamin Weiner’s guest column complaining about a local business taking a public stand for Palestinian rights [“Store’s apartheid-free pledge alienates instead of unites,” Gazette, Nov. 25]. The writer introduces himself as “one of a small number of Jewish residents of Franklin County.” I am also a Jewish resident of Franklin County. I am part of a robust Jewish community here that opposes Israeli apartheid and seeks justice, understanding that Jewish safety, dignity, healing and joy is entwined with Palestinian freedom.

I am also a longtime staff member of the recently renamed Long River Produce Market- formerly Atlas Farm Store — the business that Weiner criticizes in his piece. I asked the store’s owner to take the Apartheid Free Communities Pledge, because I believe that we must build consensus that what is happening in Israel/Palestine is apartheid, it is wrong, and it needs to change. In doing so we join 25-plus local businesses taking a stand for a free Palestine.

Weiner’s column does not engage one way or the other with the claim that Israel is an apartheid state. Every major human rights organization focused on the region has concluded that Israel’s government creates and maintains apartheid. This includes Israel’s most prestigious human rights group, B’Tselem (A Regime of Jewish Supremacy From the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This Is Apartheid, 2021); as well as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Confusingly, Standing Together — the group that Weiner holds up as an example of how to oppose Israeli occupation “correctly,” also names and calls for an end to Israeli apartheid. Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green, of Standing Together, who recently spoke in Northampton, made this point clearly.

When I go to work everyday I see Jewish staff members proud to work in a place taking a stand for justice, Jewish customers who appreciate us being aligned with their values, and community members of all backgrounds who understand that our participation in the Apartheid Free Communities movement is a natural extension of being a community engaged business that opposes exploitation and injustice. Let us keep organizing to end apartheid in Israel/Palestine, just as we organized to end apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s and 90s. I know we are on the right side of history.

Molly Merrett

Greenfield