Why are the Palestinians calling for BDS against Israel?
Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. It is maintaining a military regime of occupation, apartheid and settler-colonialism over the Palestinian people. Israel is only able to maintain this illegal regime because of international support and complicity. Rather than holding Israel to account, many governments provide Israel with tacit and explicit political cover as well as diplomatic, military, and financial support. Businesses compete to profit from Israel’s violations of international law. When those in power refuse to act to stop this injustice, what is needed is a global citizens’ response.
What does BDS aim to achieve? Does it call for a one state or a two state solution?
The BDS Movement aims to pressure Israel to respect international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall. International law recognizes the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights as occupied by Israel.
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
These are three basic rights without which the Palestinian people cannot exercise their inalienable right to self-determination, guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The BDS Movement does not advocate for a particular political solution to the conflict and does not call for either a “one state solution” or a “two state solution”. Instead, BDS focuses on the attainment of legitimate civil rights and the implementation of international law.
How does BDS help the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality?
- The BDS Movement aims to end international complicity with the Israeli regime of occupation, apartheid and settler colonialisMany companies such as Orange, Veolia and CRH have pulled out of Israel as a result of BDS campaigns giving them bad publicity.
- Many eminent scholars and musicians have rejected lucrative invitations to perform or teach in Israeli Universities.
- As Israeli corporations, institutions and organizations become isolated or suffer economic setbacks due to international BDS campaigns, Israeli businesses and society will find it more difficult to maintain, and even grow, oppression of Palestinians.
- Each BDS success generates media attention and creates heightened public consciousness about the just Palestinian struggle for liberation and equal rights. The BDS Movement is leading a tidal wave of change in perceptions and approaches to Israel’s regime of oppression.
- The growth and success of the BDS Movement send a clear message of hope and inspiration to Palestinians and others that public opinion is increasingly supportive of the Palestinian people. The Israeli government now recognizes the potential of the BDS Movement as a “strategic threat” to its system of injustice.
How can I support the BDS Movement? Is there a list of products to boycott?
- The first simple step that people can take is to personally boycott products of companies that are complicit in Israel's violations of Palestinian rights. A list of companies to boycott can be found at BDSmovement.net in the “Get Involved” section.
- One of the most useful things you can do is to get actively involved in a BDS campaign near you that targets a particular product, company or institution.
- There are BDS campaigns in dozens of countries around the world, and hundreds of organisations actively participate in the BDS Movement. It’s ideal and easy to get involved with a campaign near you that matches your interests. Better yet, start your own!Check out the BDS Movement’s “Get Involved” section for more information.
What has the BDS Movement achieved so far?
Thanks to the strategic campaigning of people and organisations all over the world, the global BDS Movement is having a real impact. For example:
- BDS was a major factor behind the 46% drop in foreign direct investment in Israel in 2014, according to a UN report. A Rand Corporation study predicts BDS could reduce Israel’s GDP “by 1 to 2 percent” annually over the next 10 years, while a World Bank report reveals that Israel’s exports to the Palestinian economy have dropped by 24% in the first quarter of 2015
- French multinational corporation Veolia has completely withdrawn from Israel after a successful BDS protest campaign over its role in Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land cost it billions of dollars in lost contracts.
- Top Israeli weapons manufacturers complain of a plummeting exports “crisis,” partly due to “less desire for Israeli-made products.”
- Major international companies including Orange, Microsoft, G4S, Veolia and Unilever have announced steps to end their participation in Israel’s crimes
- Thousands of recording artists have refused to play in Israel, including Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Faithless, Lauryn Hill, Brian Eno and Elvis Costello. Many academic associations,student unions, authors, and filmmakers, most notably in the US, Canada, South Africa, and the UK now support BDS. There are also protests by the Indian Art fraternity, and the Palestinian Academy for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). French West Indians and Caribbeans have also expressed disapproval of the Israeli attacks on Gaza. A number of mainline churches have divested from companies profiting from Israel’s human rights abuses.
- Israel regards BDS as a “strategic threat” so some Israelis are calling for modest changes to Israeli policy to reduce the efficacy of BDS.
How widely supported is the BDS Movement internationally?
- The 2005 Palestinian call for BDS against Israel has triggered a massive response from people of conscience and civil society organisations around the world.
- BDS campaigns are supported by scores of unions, churches, NGOs and movements representing millions across every continent. Progressive Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, Boycott from Within, Women’s Coalition for Peace, and If Not Now as well as conscientious Jewish-Israeli groups, play an important role in the movement.
- The European Federation of Public Services Unions, representing eight million public service workers, have called for suspending the EU-Israel association agreement. The UK’s Trades Union Congress, representing 48 unions and six million people, voted for ending arms trade with Israel that violates Palestinian rights, and to pressure corporations to end complicity in violations of Palestinian rights.
- Public figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Klein, Roger Waters, Angela Davis and Judith Butler back BDS.
- Corporations, banks and investment funds now adopt the logic of BDS and corporate responsibility, with some starting to divest their funds from Israel’s occupation.
- BDS leads major news headlines and is shaping how the Palestinian cause is perceived in public. BDS is leading a tidal wave change in support of justice for Palestinians.
Does BDS call for a boycott of the whole of Israel or just the illegal settlements?
- As in the boycott against apartheid South Africa, the BDS Movement calls for a boycott of Israel’s entire regime of oppression, including all of the Israeli companies and institutions that are involved in violations of international law. BDS does not target identity. It strictly targets companies and institutions based on complicity in denying Palestinian rights.
- For example, we call for a boycott of all Israeli fruit and vegetables, regardless of whether they are within Israel or in an illegal Israeli settlement, because all Israeli agricultural businesses are involved in human rights violations. We also call for a boycott of all Israeli universities, because they are implicated, to various degrees, in the design, implementation, justification, or whitewash of Israel's crimes against Palestinians
- Just like South Africa under apartheid, Israel as a state is responsible for the occupation, colonization and apartheid policies that it implements
- Some of the biggest BDS campaigns are limited in scope against companies that operate outside Israel in illegal Israeli settlements in The West Bank, which Israel has already renamed. (The West Bank does not appear on Israeli maps). . However, support for a full across-the-board boycott of Israel's regime of oppression is widespread. Academic associations and groups of academics, writers and artists in the US, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and across Europe have come out in support of an academic and/or cultural boycott of Israel
- As the movement grows, so do skills, ambitions and ability to achieve tangible, strategic and sustainable results. And targets are regularly reassessed as the BDS Movement grows
Can BDS realistically end the West’s unconditional support for Israel?
- The BDS Movement is leading a change in public opinion in Western societies in regards to Israel. The rapidly growing widespread support by grassrootsmovements for Palestinian rights is making it harder for governments to maintain their unconditional support for Israel.
- In the US, where the pro-Israel lobby has had a strong hold on Congress for decades, polls indicate an unprecedented and definitive shift in the so-called “bipartisan” support for Israel in the country.
- A 2015 Luntz poll of “opinion elites” shows that 76% of Democratic opinion shapers say Israel has too much influence in the US, with 47% of Democrats agreeing that Israel is a “racist” country. Close to 31% of those leading Democrats, the poll shows, are ready to support BDS.
- Another poll from 2015 shows that 49% of Democrats favor “sanctions or more serious action” against on Israel.
- Americans are increasingly critical of Israel, “with a growing sense that the Israeli government has ‘too much influence’ on U.S. politics and policies.”
- Support for Israel remains deeply entrenched, but the BDS Movement is showing that it can become a hugely powerful tool in ending Western support for Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism
- In Europe governments are taking steps compatible with the movement’s general approach, such as measures that enforce the EU’s non-recognition of Israel’s claim of sovereignty in the occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Syrian territories.
- These include warning businesses to stay away from illegal Israeli settlements, excluding Israeli entities operating in the OPT (including East Jerusalem) from funding and recognition, and considering cutting all financial transactions and ending business deals with Israeli banks that fund the occupation, as well as a call for clear labeling of Israeli settlement products
Is BDS Legal?
- The BDS Movement adopts a legal and analytical framework based on international law. The goal of the movement is to pressure Israel to comply with international law and recognize Palestinian rights. The legitimacy of BDS pressure tactics is time-honored and guaranteed under democratic principles and the principle of freedom of expression.
- Boycott for political, economic and social change is regarded by the US Supreme Court as speech that is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. However, Israeli officials and pro-Israel lobby organizations in the US are hard at work to outlaw BDS and to undermine the right to protest Israel’s crimes using the nonviolent tactics of BDS.
- Because boycotts are protected as “free speech” under the US Constitution, anti-BDS lawsuits have repeatedly failed and been overturned in US courts.
- While most of the legal warfare or law fare efforts by Israel have fallen flat, there are worrying trends in some countries.
- Read more about Israel’s efforts to criminalize BDS and the legal analysis of why BDS is legal and should be protected as a form of free speech at BDSmovement.net under “Right to Boycott”.
Isn’t a boycott of Israel antisemitic?
- The BDS Movement stands for freedom, justice and equality
- Anchored in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the BDS Movement, led by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, is inclusive and categorically opposes as a matter of principle all forms of racism, including Islamophobia and antisemitism.
- BDS campaigns target the Israeli state for serious violations of international law, and the companies and institutions that participate in and are complicit with Israeli in these violations. The BDS Movement does not boycott or campaign against any individual or group simply because they are Israeli or Jewish. The BDS tactics are activated against the system of oppression and against violations, as opposed to the identity of the violators.
- The world is growing increasingly weary of Israel's attempts to conflate criticism of its violations of international law with antisemitism, and its attempts to conflate Zionism with Judaism. Israel is a state, not a person. Everyone has the right to criticize the unjust actions of a state.
- Zionism is a political ideology of a nation and Judaism is a religion; they are not the same thing. Many Jews never accepted Zionism, and many who did are now turning away from it. Jewish Voice for Peace in the US had taken an anti-Zionist position. (see JVP.org/zionism)
- Many Jewish students, academics, intellectuals, LGBTQ+ advocates and a growing number of Jewish-Israelis support and advocate for BDS.
As the US organization Jewish Voice for Peace has explained, Israel claims to be acting in the name of all Jewish people but a rapidly increasing number of Jewish people of conscience feel compelled to make sure the world knows that many Jews are opposed to Israel's actions.