Dear Costco Purchasing Department

The current military campaign in Gaza has resulted in over 30,000 fatalities and a million people injured, missing, or displaced.  

We are appealing to the values of the Costco Wholesale Corporation and its commitment to ‘quality goods and services.’  Currently Costco stocks dates produced in the state of Israel, which yields these harvests from occupied land and stolen resources, and uses the financial gains to fund genocide against the indigenous people.  As such these products are akin to ‘blood’ diamonds mined under conditions of war and predation in countries such as Sierra Leone and Angola.  Just as the Clean Diamond Trade act prohibits the "importation into, or exportation from, the U.S.” of these gems, Costco should only sell conflict-free items.  

The Islamic month of Ramadan is here, and dates are a cultural cornerstone of this time, eaten by millions of Muslims daily upon breaking their fasts.  A petition for a similar request was raised in 2014[1], during another military campaign against Gaza.  Unfortunately, Costco did not change its practice at that time, and now we are seeing genocide on a much larger scale.  The Muslim community is greatly affected by this unfolding tragedy and will not enable it by purchasing these “blood dates.”  

Many of the undersigned of this letter are Costco Club members.  We request that Costco donate their current stock of mehadrin and other Israeli dates to local food banks and heretofore desist from any new bulk purchases of these products for sale in Costco stores.

Sincerely,
 
[1] https://www.change.org/p/costco-mathieu-legros-stop-selling-mehadrin-medjool-dates-made-in-israel