BDS Stories from Palestine

Story 1

I stumbled on the PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel) website in 2009. I was feeling helpless, witnessing Israel’s bombing of Gaza. I’m Israeli. I found the documents inspiring, clear, and precise. My immediate action was to add a link to the website at the top of my blog. A couple of months later I was invited to join Boycott from Within, the first Israeli group to support BDS. I work with this group to this day. My understanding of the call as an Israeli is that it provides guidelines to a course of action that anyone, from any walk of life, anywhere in the world can take in order to right a grave and prolonged injustice. It spoke in a non-partisan and inclusive way about the violent mechanics of our world, and the practical actions we can take to stop this violence.

I have been a BDS activist for a decade, and take part in and support campaigns worldwide, every day. The biggest accomplishment we have seen is raising awareness on a global scale. There is a difference in the way international media speaks about Palestinians and Israel: what voices are heard and what stories are told. Increasingly, Israel is no longer a charity darling for Americans and Europeans and it creates an uncomfortable context for corporations… Our work in the cultural sphere and music media has, for an unlikely audience, put Palestinians and BDS in a very favorable light, and this is an accomplishment of which we have been a significant part.

Because I am Israeli, I feel it is impossible to address other issues that are important to me (animal rights, LGBTQIA, women’s rights, minority rights, poverty, climate, etc.) without addressing Israel’s colonialism. All these issues sit atop the indigenous issue.

Within the Israeli context there is mostly hostility towards BDS, even within the more left-leaning parts of the population. As time passes, however, and more Israelis are exposed to what BDS actually is, rather than all the disinformation they acquire through the media and politicians. Like most awareness raising work, the most effective thing is to listen to the misgivings people have and try to dispel them with facts, personal experience and a lot of patience. That said, it is somewhat of a losing battle within Israeli society and opportunities for meaningful awareness raising are scant to begin with.

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story 2

I was involved in initiatives prior to the Palestinian call for BDS in 2005. In the 1980’s, the woman’s movement of over 150 organizations promoted the use of only Palestinian products. As a YWCA staff member, I personally took women from the refugee camps to Hebron and Nablus factories to get acquainted with the existing alternatives to expensive Israeli products.

The YWCA in Jerusalem organized a one-day exhibit of all products and goods largely made by women and women’s organizations. Right before the BDS manifesto was published in 2005, Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, published the document, “A Morally Responsible Investment,” that addressed churches and religious organizations worldwide to look into their investments and move away from injustice. For example: “How can churches support the building of settlements?” We understood this document to be an ultimate, just, nonviolent call that that could lead to a solution when all international and humanitarian efforts were rejected or neglected by the occupying power. Since people become aware when their pocketbooks hurt, we felt this could very well work.

At a personal level, the application of such a call within the family circle was easily and immediately adopted. We were committed to buy necessary and available Palestinian products (not easy in Jerusalem then), and in my work my responsibility was to educate the local community about the concept of the demands of the BDS call. It was an awareness building process, built on moral values and a new way of simple life by abstaining from unnecessary, frivolous extras as well as nonviolently trying to rectify the violation of all ethical norms and international laws as well.

Locally, in the past 14 years, there have been ups and downs in the commercial boycott movement, especially in Jerusalem where there are cheaper products in Israeli-run stores and supermarkets. Yet at the same time a communal awareness and a sense of belonging has increased as well as that for the cultural, educational and sports boycott.

The most significant local response has to do with increased regular exhibitions and bazaars of Palestinian products and goods throughout the country. There have been added efforts to start new factories and raise the quality of goods to replace Israeli products.

We are at a time when empire/extremism/Christian Zionism are trying to stifle all that is pure and good. Despite the threats and dangers, different religious bodies can rally to stand by each other, seek common ground and principles even among those on opposite sides. We should not underestimate the power of organized movements.

from story 2...

Despite the threats and dangers, different religious bodies can rally to stand by each other, seek common ground and principles even among those on opposite sides. We should not underestimate the power of organized movements.

story 3

I have been engaged since the beginning of the writing of the BDS call. To me, it meant taking all the economic, cultural, academic, and sport boycott measures we could against the Israeli system of oppression, as well as against the businesses that are complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people. Included in that are any programs of normalization between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

In our Palestinian context people welcomed the call to BDS as a creative tool of resistance in spite of some reservations from people who believed it hard to pursue an economic boycott when Palestinian and Israeli economies are so connected. Over time, this view has changed and is changing. In every Palestinian district there is a BDS group that works with people in promoting the economic boycott and fighting normalization activities. Through my own contacts I know that there is progress in promoting BDS at the civil society level, as well as among ecumenical bodies. Locally, many youth groups and students are engaged in promoting BDS.

From my own faith perspective, Christians must stand by the oppressed, poor, displaced and dispossessed. We must help create the kingdom on earth where Love, Justice and Peace prevail. Christians believe that human beings are all equal in their humanity and dignity because all are created in the image of God. Faith communities need to work jointly with civil society groups who share similar values to use their influential power within their own networks and communities to ask people to engage in ethical and prophetic positions and actions.

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