Rabba Fine Foods, a Palestinian-owned grocery chain in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), is selling Israeli produce in at least one of its locations.
Last week, I received a tip that a Rabba location in downtown Toronto was selling grapefruits marked “Product of Israel.”
I headed to the location in question to confirm the tip, and after doing so, asked an employee if the location typically sells Israeli produce. The employee told me that the source of produce depends on the time of year, and that the store had sold both Israeli grapefruits and tangerines in the past.
I returned to the store later in the week when the manager was on duty to formally ask about the produce, and after identifying myself as a journalist, the manager told me to reach out to Rabba’s head office, which I had already done.
I also visited a dozen other Rabba locations in Toronto to check where their produce was sourced from, and found grapefruits were all from the United States or South Africa.
It’s unclear if this is simply because of the time of year, as Israeli grapefruit is typically exported from mid-September until May, according to the Israeli Agriculture International Portal. South African and U.S. grapefruits, meanwhile, are typically exported from April to October and November to May, respectively.
Israeli produce is listed as a “priority boycott target” on the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s website, which states, “Beyond being part of a trade that fuels Israel’s apartheid economy, Israeli fruits, vegetables, and wines misleadingly labeled as ‘Product of Israel’ often include products of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land, and most Israeli companies exporting these products are complicit in the illegal occupation and apartheid regime.”
The Canadian BDS Coalition website, meanwhile, states, “The citrus industry, like the whole of the agricultural sector in Israel, is deeply entwined with the oppression of Palestinians.” It adds, “By purchasing Israeli citrus fruits, consumers unknowingly support an industry that: steals Palestinian land [...] exploits Palestinian labor [...] funds the occupation.” The organization calls on consumers to boycott Israeli citrus fruits and to “pressure supermarkets [...] to drop Israeli goods.”
I was not able to find any information about where exactly the grapefruits in Rabba were sourced from, including if they came from an illegal settlement.
I emailed Rabba to ask if the chain has a policy against purchasing and selling Israeli products given the Palestinian-led BDS campaign’s demand for stores and consumers alike to boycott them. I also mentioned what the employee had told me about Israeli produce at the location, and asked if Rabba has taken any measures to ensure the produce is not coming from an illegal Israeli settlement.
Rabba did not reply.
Jack Rabba, the founder of Rabba, was “born in Beit Jala, just outside of Jerusalem, and grew up in Nazareth, Tiberias and Tel Aviv,” according to a 2021 Mississauga News article. Rabba described moving to Canada as winning the “lottery of life,” and referred to Canadians as the “greatest people in the world.”
In 2021, Canada Convenience Store News reported, “[Rabba president Rick Rabba’s] family were Palestinian immigrants who came to Canada in 1966 with little money. His mother worked at the University of Toronto library and his father [Jack Rabba] got a job at a restaurant, then a hotel and a convenience store. ‘It’s the classic immigrant story,’ says Rabba.”
The chain, which was founded in 1967, now boasts of 37 locations.
I reached out to the Palestinian BDS National Committee and the Canadian BDS Coalition to ask if Rabba may be violating BDS guidelines.
The BDS National Committee did not reply.
The Canadian BDS Coalition stated, “The produce may not be from [a] settlement, but still would be consider[ed] apartheid, and should be boycotted.”
