Boycott Divestment and Sanctions
Israel ignores UN resolutions and international law.
The Road Map is going nowhere – while tying up the so-called Peace Process in meaningless discussions, Israel continues its project to create a Zionist state in Palestine while confining the Palestinians to bantustans – it continues settlement building and expansion on the West Bank, construction of the apartheid wall and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem. Creating facts on the ground, making a two state solution impossible, Israel continues to maintain an apartheid system within Israel itself, discriminating against its Palestinian population.
It has committed war crimes in Gaza, and is trying to starve the Palestinians in Gaza into submission and force them to reject their democratically elected government.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) are the only means left to force Israel to comply with international law.
Over 100 groups within Palestinian civil society have called for BDS against Israel. Read more about the Palestinians’ call for BDS at:
Here are some things we do — please join us!
- Do not buy Israeli produce or goods manufactured in Israel.
- Protest at shops and supermarkets that stock Israeli goods.
- Write to the head office of supermarket chains objecting to their stocking Israeli goods.
- Israel considers Israeli performers, artists and sports teams as cultural ambassadors, promoting a positive image of Israel. (Join our protests at their events — we recently disrupted a performance of the Jerusalem Quartet in London and had them taken off air.)
- Join the campaigns to persuade high profile UK artists not to perform in Israel or to support Israeli events in the UK. We joined the letter-writing campaign to Elvis Costello who subsequently cancelled his concert in Israel.
- Do not visit Israel on holiday.
- Join the campaign against Israel’s promotion of itself as a desirable tourist destination.
- Most Israeli academic institutions actively and materially support the occupation — support the boycott of academic conferences, events, tours etc. involving these institutions.
- Many organisations in the UK and elsewhere have stopped investing with Israel, including church groups and local councils. Make sure you know that your money is ethically invested, and that your pension fund is not invested in Israel.
- Make sure that you do not deal with any banks or companies that profit from the occupation e.g. Ahava, an Israeli company which imports Dead Sea cosmetics from occupied Palestine.
- Campaign for your local council not to have contracts with companies profiting from the occupation, e.g. Veolia, and Eden Springs.
- If you are a student get involved in the boycott Israel campaign on your campus, or set one up if it is not currently active.
- If you are a union member get your branch to pass a boycott motion.
- Open the debate about sanctions on Israel.
- Raise awareness of Israel’s breaches of international law. A strong advocacy campaign can open up the issue to a wide audience and raise awareness of the Palestinian cause.
- Highlight international complicity with Israeli breaches of even the most basic norms of international law and Human Rights.
For more information see:
www.brightonpalestine.org — for latest eyewitness accounts from occupied Jordan Valley