The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement is working and winning the global battle for hearts and minds.

I am proud to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ( BDS) movement, that enables  people around the world to contribute to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and for freedom, justice and equality. BDS calls for the international community to put nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international human rights laws, such as the Geneva Conventions and UN Resolution 242.

Founded in 2005, BDS is a global movement which takes inspiration from the campaign that targeted South Africa’s apartheid regime, focusing on non-violent methods to accomplish its goals. Its basic principle is that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity, and it seeks to mount international political and economic pressure on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

According to the official website “The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies.”It is the broadest Palestinian civil society coalition.

It says “BDS is an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that is opposed on principle to all forms of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia.”

BDS calls for “nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands”: The end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syrian Golan Heights) and the dismantling of Israel’s illegal separation wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank, full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated  by international laws and regulations.

There is significant support for the Palestinian BDS movement in South Africa. The African National Congress supports BDS, as does the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

BDS stated “Both the South Africa and BDS boycotts were called by those impacted by the state in question, rather than imposed by consumers or civil society abroad.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. He supports BDS and stated "I have witnessed the systematic humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the security forces of the apartheid government."

When Israel is compared with Apartheid South Africa, the comparison sticks regardless of however convincingly the accusation is refuted. Whatever the Zionist answer, the BDS movement essentially wins just by raising the question.

According to the Red Cross the Geneva Conventions “form the core of international humanitarian law, which regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects. They protect people not taking part in hostilities”.

A 2017 UN General Assembly Resolution stated that Israel was in breach of several provisions of the Geneva Convention. It called for Israel to “comply strictly with its obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law”. It has adopted several similar resolutions historically, for example in 2015 and 2016.

The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) states “The United Nations has stated on many occasions that the 53-year-old Israeli occupation is the source of profound human rights violations against the Palestinian people. These violations include land confiscation, settler violence, discriminatory planning laws, the confiscation of natural resources, home demolitions, forcible population transfer, excessive use of force and torture, labour exploitation, extensive infringements of privacy rights, restrictions on the media and freedom of expression, the targeting of women activists and journalists, the detention of children, poisoning by exposure to toxic wastes, forced evictions and displacement, economic deprivation and extreme poverty, arbitrary detention, lack of freedom of movement, food insecurity, discriminatory law enforcement and the imposition of a two-tier system of disparate political, legal, social, cultural and economic rights based on ethnicity and nationality.

Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders, who peacefully bring public attention to these violations, are slandered, criminalised or labeled as terrorists. Above all, the Israeli occupation has meant the denial of the right of Palestinian self-determination.”

In addition to the violations of international human rights laws posed by settlements and annexation, the Israeli government is accused of violating the right of refugees to return to their homeland and is accused of discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Estimates indicate that nearly 50% of Palestinians live outside of Palestine.

According to the Oxford Human Rights Hub, Palestinian refugees and their descendents “constitute one of the largest and longest-standing unresolved refugee crises in the world, with 7.54 million refugees in addition to 720,000 internally displaced persons”.

UN Resolution 194, which was passed in 1948, states that Palestinian refugees should have the right to return to their homes, but this right has been denied.

Oxford Human Rights Hub continues, “Palestinian refugees, who were forcibly displaced as a result of 1948 and 1967 wars, are stripped of their UN-mandated Right of Return [...] Like never before in the history of the UN, Resolution 194’s consistency with international laws and instruments was reaffirmed by the UN more than 135 times.” 

Ten former presidents, and more than 700 members of parliament, mayors, cultural figures and academics from Latin America, Asia and Africa, called on the UN to recognize Israel as an apartheid State and to impose sanctions on it. 

BDS uses  the following methods: .

Boycotts

The BDS website states “Boycotts involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and from all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.”

Divestment campaigns

“Divestment campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.”

Calls for sanctions

“Sanctions campaigns pressure governments to fulfil their legal obligations to end Israeli apartheid, and not aid or assist its maintenance, by banning business with illegal Israeli settlements, ending military trade and free-trade agreements, as well as suspending Israel's membership in international forums such as UN bodies and FIFA.”

None of these should be controversial – yet large swathes of the British political establishment seemingly align with Johnson’s disapproval on the matter.  Johnson's government continues to push for anti-BDS legislation. The December 2019 Queen’s speech announced the proposal of a new law essentially criminalising the BDS movement. It stated that (if the law passes) public institutions such as universities and local councils would be prohibited from “imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries”. Eric Pickles, former Conservative Party chairman and House of Lords Parliamentary Chairman of the pro-Israel lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel, has dubbed the campaign a ‘thin disguise for anti-Semitism.

The Labour Party, too, has been consistently weak on the cause, despite a new poll showing that 61 percent of its members support BDS.

In summer 2020, when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to extend Israel’s annexation to make way for more settlers—an endeavour in flagrant violation of international law—Lisa Nandy called for an import ban on settlement goods, but has since been at pains to say that she has ‘never’ supported BDS. In her view, ‘BDS pushes people away instead of bringing people together.’

Labour leader Keir Starmer apparently subscribes to the same theory. He recently pulled out of a Ramadan virtual fast-breaking event after he was made aware that its organiser supported the boycott of Israeli dates. The move was fiercely criticised, with over 2,000 people signing a petition condemning Starmer’s ‘selective disengagement’ and his discrimination against Muslims.

The challenge for those involved in the BDS movement is that the attempt to neutralise it is a multi-pronged one. Even before the government’s proposed bill, universities across the country had a history of muzzling pro-Palestinian activism on campus.

In cracking down further, Britain is starting to sing from the same repressive hymn sheet as the United States and Israel. The former has seen at least 28 states pass laws that either restrict or ban individuals or companies dealing in state contracts from boycotting Israel, while the latter has form for blacklisting charities and human rights organisations from entering the country because they endorse the BDS movement. In 2017, Israel’s government approved a $72 million plan to combat BDS’s influence.

More than half of US states have passed laws that combat the BDS movement. Donald Trump pursued legislation that would effectively prohibit support for boycotts of the Israeli state on campus. 

There has been proposed anti-BDS legislation at various levels of government from state to councils in Canada, France, Germany, Austria,Czech Republic and the Balearic Islands.

Repression of BDS is hardly surprising, as successful examples of direct democracy and people power fly in the face of efforts to cow and silence activists and movements.

These frantic attempts to gag BDS and its supporters is testament to its growth and prominence. Indeed, the list of success stories in recent years is a considerable one

In 2019, major international companies including Australia’s Macquarie, Canada’s Bombardier, France’s Alstom, and Germany’s Siemens withdrew from bidding to build Israel’s illegal settlement railway on stolen Palestinian land as the movement’s pressure mounted.

The UN has also released a list of 112 companies that are complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, a move widely considered a robust step towards holding international corporations accountable for facilitating Israel’s oppression. The list includes familiar names like JCB, Motorola, Airbnb, and TripAdvisor.

2021 has seen fantastic momentum for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement from Ben & Jerry's ending sales in Israel's illegal settlements, to the UK-wide Boycott Puma Day of Action. The “friendly” football match between FC Barcelona and racist Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem, known for its fans’ “death to Arabs” chants, was cancelled. Premier league Qatar Sports Club pledge not to renew with PUMA amid local and international calls for boycott due to its compliance with the Israeli occupation.

Lothian Pension Fund, Scotland’s second largest local authority pension fund, with 84,000 members and £8 billion in assets, divested from Israeli Bank Hapoalim.

The Irish government became the first EU country to declare Israel’s building of illegal settlements on Palestinian land a ‘de facto annexation.'

 Over 350 academic departments, centres, unions, and societies, along with 23,000 academics, students, and university staff, signed statements in support of Palestinian rights with many calling for BDS!

Chilean parliament introduces a bill to ban import of Israeli goods from illegal settlements.39 labour organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of workers across Canada, signed an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging his government to immediately suspend bilateral military trade with Israel.

The Canadian Labour Congress endorsed a ban on settlement goods, promoting divestment from Israeli military and security companies, and calling on Canada to impose a #MilitaryEmbargo on Israel.

The University of Brasilia and the University of Costa Rica passed historic resolutions declaring they will have no ties with companies complicit in Israel’s regime of military occupation, colonialism, and apartheid. The Student Association of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva became the first student association in Switzerland to endorse BDS and to declare itself an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ).

The City University of New York (CUNY) staff congress, representing 30,000 members, passed a resolution condemning Israel as a settler-colonial and apartheid state.

More than 130 Mexican civil rights organizations demand CEMEX end complicity with Israeli apartheid. 

East Sussex Pension Fund divested from Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer.

In a year marred by Israeli apartheid and massacres, Palestinian hope and unity shine through as do these victories, BDS is working and winning the global battle for hearts and mind, whilst delivering justice to the Palestinian people. 

The most common self-satisfied arguments against BDS highlights how BDS supporters single out Israel while ignoring other notorious human rights violators, such as Turkey, China, or Russia. While supposedly exposing some form of hypocrisy and insincerity, this in fact concedes that Israel is comparably guilty, grouping Israel along with murderous, oppressive, and tyrannical regimes.

If like me you I believe in a world with equal rights for all and not privileges for some and are against all forms of oppression and discrimination and want to stop corporate complicity in human rights violations. If you support the rights of all Indigenous peoples, including Palestinians, over their ancestral lands, cultural heritage and natural resources and support the global struggle against racism in all its forms, and believe that no state, including Israel, should be granted impunity for violating international law and human rights. And if you subscribe to Martin Luther King’s words that ethically-consistent boycotts entail “withdrawing our cooperation from an evil system," supporting BDS is a moral imperative.

 Boycotts work. The power of boycotts past and present is that they refuse to confine the movements they represent to the realm of humanitarian relief, they also demand accountability.

 Ultimately  BDS empowers individuals to do better than their governments, and can be a way to pressure governments to act. While governments fail to take a stand against war crimes committed by the Israeli state, we can condemn these actions through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions. BDS is a prime example of peoples power in action.

It is used as a key tactic of solidarity with the Palestinian people,creating a pressure that cannot simply be ignored. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. 

Thousands of organisations are working on BDS campaigns globally.UK organisations that have expressed support for BDS include NUS, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, National Union of Teachers, Union of Students in Ireland, Unite the Union, War on Want, and 25 student unions, including the University of Manchester, SOAS, Goldsmiths, UCL and Kings College London.

Individuals who have expressed support for BDS include Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Arundhati Roy, Benjamin Zephaniah, Eduardo Galeano, Gideon Levy, Ilhan Omar, Judith Butler, Ken Loach, Lauryn Hill, Mandla Mandela, Naomi Klein, Roger Waters and Stephen Hawking.

Several governments have spoken out in defense of the right for citizens to support BDS, including the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland.

A groundbreaking report by Human Rights Watch, titled ‘A Threshold Crossed’, detailed how Israel’s policies against millions of Palestinians amounts to persecution and apartheid and crimes againsst humanity. It’s long past time to hold Israel accountable. BDS is a movement to disempower and defund such crimes — and that is a movement worth supporting.

BDS  exerts economic pressure on powerful companies or governments so they change their ways. Boycotts have seen countless sucesses and played an important role in the ethical consumer movement since it began.From the boycott of South African products during the Apartheid in the 1980s, to the Alabama bus boycotts, it is clear they can contribute to real change.

Author and activist Naomi Klein has stated “The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.”

   

Here are ways to Support BDS

 

Boycott complicit companies

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls for the boycott of several companies operating globally. These are:

Puma who sponsor the Israel Football Association, which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Hewlett Packard that help run the ID system that Israel uses to restrict Palestinian movement.

Sabra hummus is a joint venture between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that provides financial support to the Israel Defense Forces.

Caterpillar bulldozers are regularly used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and farms and in Israel’s massacres in Gaza.

SodaStream home drinks machines are one of Israel’s best known exports.

Ahava cosmetics are another of Israel’s best known export companies.

BDS also says that it targets “all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights”. Local BDS groups and campaigns have named many specific companies complicit in Israeli apartheid: BDS members can campaign against any company that meets the above definition, meaning that they can focus on those that suit their local context with autonomy. 

Search online to find a local group and check out their campaigns for boycott calls near you. A list of global BDS groups is available  on the BDS website  (though there are many more that have not egistered on this list). :https://bdsmovement.net/