What’s the BDS Movement & How is Israel trying to Stop it?
What’s the BDS Movement & How is Israel trying to Stop it?
The global movement for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights was initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005, and is coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), established in 2007. BDS is a strategy that allows people of conscience to play an effective role in the Palestinian struggle for justice.
For decades, Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through ethnic cleansing, colonization, racial discrimination, and military occupation. Despite abundant condemnation of Israeli policies by the UN, other international bodies, and preeminent human rights organisations, the world community has failed to hold Israel accountable and enforce compliance with basic principles of law. Israel’s crimes have continued with impunity.
In view of this continued failure, Palestinian civil society called for a global citizens’ response. On July 9 2005, a year after the International Court of Justice’s historic advisory opinion on the illegality of Israel’s Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), a clear majority of Palestinian civil society called upon their counterparts and people of conscience all over the world to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel, until Palestinian rights are recognised in full compliance with international law.
The campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is shaped by a rights-based approach and highlights the three broad sections of the Palestinian people: the refugees, those under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Israel. The call urges various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:
- Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
- Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
- Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
The BDS call was endorsed by over 170 Palestinian political parties, organizations, trade unions and movements. The signatories represent the refugees, Palestinians in the OPT, and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Boycotts target products and companies (Israeli and international) that profit from the violation of Palestinian rights, as well as Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions. Anyone can boycott Israeli goods, simply by making sure that they don’t buy produce made in Israel or by Israeli companies. Campaigners and groups call on consumers not to buy Israeli goods and on businesses not to buy or sell them.
Israeli cultural and academic institutions directly contribute to maintaining, defending or whitewashing the oppression of Palestinians, as Israel deliberately tries to boost its image internationally through academic and cultural collaborations. As part of the boycott, academics, artists and consumers are campaigning against such collaboration and ‘rebranding’. A growing number of artists have refused to exhibit or play in Israel.
Divestment means targeting corporations complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights and ensuring that the likes of university investment portfolios and pension funds are not used to finance such companies. These efforts raise awareness about the reality of Israel’s policies and encourage companies to use their economic influence to pressure Israel to end its systematic denial of Palestinian rights.
Sanctions are an essential part of demonstrating disapproval for a country’s actions. Israel’s membership of various diplomatic and economic forums provides both an unmerited veneer of respectability and material support for its crimes. By calling for sanctions against Israel, campaigners educate society about violations of international law and seek to end the complicity of other nations in these violations.
The BDS National Committee
The efforts to coordinate the BDS campaign, that began to grow rapidly as soon as/once the 2005 Call was made public, culminated in the first Palestinian BDS Conference held in Ramallah in November 2007. Out of this conference emerged the BDS National Committee (BNC) as the Palestinian coordinating body for the BDS campaign worldwide. See the BNC page for more details.
See more information at the source here: BDS Movement
Following are recent BDS related articles from: Mondoweiss
About Mondoweiss
Mondoweiss is an independent website devoted to informing readers about developments in Israel/Palestine and related US foreign policy. We provide news and analysis unavailable through the mainstream media regarding the struggle for Palestinian human rights.
Founded in 2006 as a personal blog of journalist Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss grew inside the progressive Jewish community and has become a critical resource for the movement for justice for Palestinians. We continue to follow debates over the role of Israel and nationalism in Jewish American life while seeking to reflect a diverse community of views on issues of international importance. We recognize that Jewish voices are often prioritized in discussions of Israel and seek to challenge that dynamic by bringing a universalist focus to an issue that is commonly dominated by narrow points of view.
We publish original on-the-ground reporting, analysis by scholars and personal stories. As the site has grown, we have developed a large group of regular contributors who are committed to high journalistic standards of documentable evidence and reliable sourcing.
Mondoweiss editors select content for the site on the basis of our shared commitment to news professionalism as well as justice for Palestinians. We do not have a single editorial position on specific issues, but aim to build a diverse online community, with special focus on viewpoints generally ignored by large media outlets. Writing published on Mondoweiss represents the views of its authors and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site or its editors.
How will Sheldon save Israel?
Sheldon Adelson is devoted to fighting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions to preserve the Jewish state. Katie Miranda has some ideas for his new tactics
The Peter Beinart Double Standard: Why is this boycott different from all other boycotts?
Peter Beinart’s criticism of the BDS movement displays a shocking ignorance of how a boycott – any boycott – actually works. If he truly is willing to acknowledge that the state of Israel is running an apartheid system – even if he believes that it is only in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – then he has a responsibility to endorse the nonviolent solution which actually targets the responsible party: boycotting, divesting from, and bringing sanctions to bear on Israel itself.
Netanyahu government ramps up effort to combat BDS
Ynet reports: Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with several officials over the weekend regarding the possible plans of action to combat BDS. The talks included Strategic Affairs and Information Minister Gilad Erdan, whose office’s purview includes fighting BDS, as well as other officials from relevant ministries. Netanyahu and Erdan agreed that his office will receive at least NIS 100 million, most of which will go to fighting BDS. Erdan’s office will also receive 10 new positions for employees who will deal solely with the boycott and de-legitimization activities against Israel. The minister mentioned that he is flooded with calls from Jewish leaders from across the globe, who want to join the effort against BDS.
Levy says BDS may undo Israeli denial and propaganda– even as Lapid calls it Hamas’s ‘puppet’
Further signs of the crisis in Israel’s international reputation. Yair Lapid is the former Israeli finance minister and the head of a centrist party called There is a Future (Yesh Atid) and is supposedly sophisticated, in the Israeli frame anyway. Yair Lapid says BDS movement is “A puppet operated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad” — […]
Human rights organizations condemn Sheldon Adelson-led anti-BDS meeting
Sheldon Adelson is mounting an attack on BDS campaign this weekend in Las Vegas. Attacks from opponents will not succeed in intimidating BDS advocates, or in denying Palestinians their freedom.
In June, three more U.S. churches to consider ending financial support for Israeli occupation
This June, three more U.S. churches—the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ (UCC), and the Mennonite Church USA (MCUSA)—will join the growing list of those considering resolutions to end financial support for the Israeli occupation.
A banner day for BDS — though you’d have to read the Jewish press to know it
Divestment activists face attempts to silence Palestinian students at Marquette University
On April 27th, Students for Justice in Palestine and the #MUDivest coalition presented their recommendation for socially responsible investment and divestment to the Marquette University Student Government (MUSG) at the last meeting of the year. The resolution targeted the following major companies: Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard , G4S, and United Technologies. The supporters making up the coalition expected an uphill battle during the months leading up to the divestment vote, but they did not expect to encounter the unjust proceedings set forth by MUSG and attempts by student senators to remove the Palestinian voice entirely.
Saban and Adelson put aside presidential differences to save Israel in Las Vegas this weekend
Billionaires Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson oppose one another as “mega-donors” in the presidential process, but they’re teaming up to host desperate pro-Israel groups trying to save the country from growing international isolation.
Israeli President: Academic boycott of Israel is ‘strategic threat of the first order’
Haaretz reports: President Reuven Rivlin yesterday described academic boycotts against Israel as a “strategic threat of the first order.” During a discussion of the issue at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, the chairman of the Council of Presidents of Israeli Universities, Technion president Prof. Peretz Lavie, said it was still possible to stop the snowball effect of the movement, but warned that “we are at the 90th minute.”
‘Peace Now’ and ‘Breaking the Silence’ leader call on Americans to oppose peace talks (Netanyahu is ‘anathema to peace’)
The new Israeli government is deadset against a two-state solution– as Allison Deger and the Institute for Middle East Understanding have both documented. And yet the other day the New York Times promoted a fantasy: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu wants to enter into negotiations. Two voices from the liberal Zionist camp are saying flatly that […]
StandWithUs invests nearly half a million dollars in ongoing anti-BDS lawsuit against Olympia Food Co-Op
On May 28, 2015, the Washington State Supreme Court struck down the state’s anti-SLAPP law, following an appeal filed by five individuals who are suing the Olympia Food Co-op for boycotting Israeli products. The Israeli advocacy organization StandWithUs immediately hailed the decision as a “BDS Defeat,” “a major setback to the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) campaign,” and an “overwhelming victory.” But in reality the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the plaintiffs’ case, much less on BDS.
Why some BDS activists are buying stock in Boeing
While companies like Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard have taken the center stage of the BDS movement, activism against Boeing has also been making its way to the front over the past year.
‘Oglethorpe stands with Palestine’: BDS comes to the American south (Updated)
On April 30, Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia became the first university in the southeastern United States to successfully pass an Israeli divestment resolution, a huge victory for supporters of the BDS movement as adversaries have shown renewed vigor in pushing for anti-BDS legislation in an attempt to stop the tactic.
Now there’s a ‘Birthright’ for those over 26 and intermarried — ‘Honeymoon Israel’
Birthright Israel is limited to those under 26. Now you can get a free-ish trip to Israel if you’re 25-40, called “Honeymoon Israel,” aimed at getting intermarried couples to raise their children Jewish…
Tell Congress Now: Israeli military detention is no way to treat a child
Abed was only 15 years old when he was awoken late one night by a masked Israeli soldier standing over his bed pointing a rifle at him. “Wake up Habibti (my darling),” the soldier said, shortly before he blindfolded and handcuffed Abed tightly behind his back. This was the start of an ordeal that this child and his family endured when he was arrested in the middle of the night, taken to an undisclosed location, harshly interrogated and imprisoned on the suspicion of stone throwing. This grim scenario is played out in hundreds of homes each year across the West Bank. To bring attention to this horrific aspect of the Israeli occupation, the No Way to Treat a Child Campaign and the American Friends Service Committee will hold a Congressional Briefing on June 2.
Losing public opinion on BDS, activists turn to ‘lawfare’
A bill to penalize those who boycott Israel that passed both houses of the Illinois General Assembly May 18th places the economic welfare of Israel before U.S. interests, tacitly endorses the full annexation of the West Bank into Israel, and violates our country’s First Amendment rights.
Letter from Baltimore
Having covered two wars, and nearly three years of reporting from the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel, Allison Deger decided to visit the Baltimore projects last week in the wake of the National Guard’s deployment. Although it bears little resemblance to the Middle Eastern conflicts she has seen, the televised images of the National Guard and tear gas, and public art works on walls that captures politics and death drew a superficial parallel she wanted to investigate further.
Understanding the ‘S’ in BDS: It’s time to demand sanctions on Israel
To date, the tactics of boycott and divestment have produced successes after only a few years of the official BDS Campaign’s existence. Amjad Alqasis writes that after ten years of successful struggle, the most urgent issue that needs to be raised today is the “S” in the BDS acronym, or the campaigning for sanctions against Israel.
Civil Rights Groups Tell Gov. Pence: Don’t stifle free speech — Support for BDS is not Anti-Semitism
A broad coalition of national civil rights organizations are asking Indiana Governor Mike Pence to repudiate a non-binding Indiana legislative resolution that BDS tactics to achieve equality and justice for Palestinians are “anti-Jewish.”
Why Ship to Gaza is sailing again
On May 9th, the trawler Marianne of Gothenburg departed from its home port heading for the Eastern Mediterranean and Gaza. Ship to Gaza Sweden and Norway have joined forces with the international Freedom Flotilla to once again to attempt to peacefully break the inhumane, illegal blockade of the besieged Palestinian population on that narrow coastal strip between Israel and Egypt.
International calls rise for FIFA to suspend Israel
Israeli military attacks Nakba Day protests with live fire
On Nakba day, Palestinian civil society in besieged Gaza decries collective failure to ensure accountability for Israeli massacre
As Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, the catastrophe in 1948 when more than 700,000 indigenous Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes by Zionist militias and later the State of Israel, life in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip is reaching a fatal tipping point, as the UN has warned. Given the human catastrophe that Gaza is facing and Israel’s threats of more atrocities, a coalition of Palestinian NGOs calls on governments and international bodies to take immediate action.
The Palestinian Nakba: A time to remember global indigenous struggles
The importance of remembering the Palestinian Nakba is not only about historical narrative; but most importantly it is about realizing and understanding the indigeneity of the Palestinian struggle.
– See more at: Mondoweiss
