Indigo Says Israel Funding a Myth as Bookstores Come Under Coordinated Attack

An Indigo bookstore is seen Wednesday, November 4, 2020, in Laval, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Canadian bookstore Indigo says allegations that the company or its founder privately fund Israel’s national army are false, following a series of coordinated attacks by protesters who have damaged stores and harassed customers.

For the past year, Indigo stores have been the target of vandalism, violence, and antisemitism, Indigo said in a Sept. 27 news release. Protesters have claimed the company or its founder, Heather Reisman, privately fund the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Indigo said.

Protesters have damaged shops and storefronts, harassed customers, and defaced books with stickers containing false allegations of murder and genocide, the company said. After a coordinated campaign targeting dozens of stores across Canada last week, Indigo responded to the allegations, calling them “categorically untrue.”

“Indigo is a proud Canadian-owned and operated business that employs 4,200 people from coast-to-coast-to-coast and is deeply committed to readers, authors and the entire Canadian publishing industry,” said the company.

“Indigo is in the business of giving voice to diverse people and perspectives, and to being an oasis in each community we serve.”

Indigo is the largest book retailer in Canada.

Heather Reisman, the company’s founder, was born in Montreal into a Jewish family. Together with her husband Gerry Schwartz, she founded in 2005 the HESEG Foundation, a charitable organization that provides post-secondary scholarships to soldiers who have completed their service in the IDF but have no close family in Israel.

The foundation helps lone discharged soldiers acquire academic training as a way of repaying them for their contribution to Israel, according to the foundation’s website.

The call to boycott Indigo is part of a social campaign called “Indigo Kills Kids.” Its organizers say Reisman’s foundation motivates people to join the Israeli army, which in turn “commits genocide against innocent children,” according to the campaign’s website.

The group encourages participants to stop shopping at Indigo, saying its CEO is involved in the “oppression of Palestinians” and is complicit in “Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

Palestinian advocates have been calling for a boycott of Indigo since 2006, but the movement recently gained traction as war erupted in the Middle East following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

Liberal MP Marco Medicino, former minister of public safety, said attacking Indigo is “un-Canadian,” and that the claim that Reisman funds military activities in Israel “is a lie.”

“Ms. Reisman, her family, and employees have been defamed as supporters of genocide and apartheid,” Medicino wrote in a Sept. 30 comment published in the National Post. “Her customers have been exposed to threats and harassment“ while protesters have ”swarmed and impeded access to outlets, while shouting epithets and fear mongering.”

He said, “A boycott of this nature is discriminatory and often dangerous to public safety.”

In its announcement, Indigo expressed concern for what it calls “the rise of hateful intolerance” across Canada.

“We call on elected officials to stand in solidarity supporting Canada’s shared values of peace, order, truth and open and honest dialogue,” the company said.