Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
On bds from the UK
I heard about the BDS call following Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009/10 when discussions about how Palestinians could respond to the conflict became more prevalent in the wake of Israeli aggression. I became much more familiar with it when I began working for Kairos Britain in 2014 as the Kairos call endorses the BDS call.
In the UK we are seeing progress in areas like divestment where the Churches are beginning to engage with divestment on other issues (i.e. fossil fuels). The boycott campaigns tend to be strong amongst non-religious civil society (i.e. universities, young people, etc.) but not in the churches and certainly not endorsed by the hierarchy of the church. In the last 2-3 years BDS campaigning has been challenging in civil society due to moves to make it illegal and the precedent set in this way by other countries, as in the USA. We try as much as possible to ensure that people know it is not illegal in the UK to campaign in this way.
Our Investing for Peace campaign focuses on the issue of Church funds being invested in companies profiting from occupation, and the campaign calls for each denomination to implement an effective screening process to avoid this happening, and for Churches to divest from any companies in their investment portfolio that are profiting from occupation. We are in the early stages of this campaign but have seen good successes so far. The Quakers in Britain have adopted our policy/screen process and we have seen over 800 Methodists voting favour of it this year too. Other groups are raising awareness and campaigning within the Church of England, URC, Baptist, Churches in Scotland and Catholic denominations but we have a long way to go.
Quote:
In the last 2-3 years BDS campaigning has been challenging in civil society due to moves to make it illegal and the precedent set in this way by other countries, as in the USA. We try as much as possible to ensure that people know it is not illegal in the UK to campaign in this way.