Boycott, divestment, sanctions

Page last updated 28 Mar 2016

Introduction

JfJfP gives targeted support to the movement to pressurise Israel via BDS.

That means we consider issues to support and campaign on, on a case-by-case basis, focusing on those that have specific targets and specific outcomes we want to work for. We have termed this a ‘smart’ boycott approach. You can find a developed statement of our position here.

Our campaigns have encompassed those calling for the boycott of settlement goods; divestment from companies that operate in the occupied territories or sell equipment that is used in the occupation (specifically campaigning against Caterpillar, G4S and Veolia); boycotting arms sales to Israel; opposing trade fairs where settlement property is marketed; and campaigning for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement until Israel respects the agreement’s human rights provisions.

Cultural boycott calls have traditionally been very contentious and we have not been predisposed to give support for a blanket boycott of cultural activities. It is a matter of specificities. The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra visited Britain in 2012 and support for a boycott call was justified by the fact that the IPO proudly announces its partnership with the IDF under a scheme whereby special concerts for Israeli soldiers are organised at their army outposts. Support for ‘Showing Israeli Football the Red Card’ is justified by the day-to-day obstruction of travel, tournaments and the development of facilities for Palestinian footballers as a direct outcome of the occupation.

The accusation is often heard that BDS calls single out Israel, demonising it and discriminating against Jews. In other words that the call itself is antisemitic. These arguments are dealt with in a separate section BDS and antisemitism as part of our Is criticism of Israel antisemitic? discussion.

Not many people have tried to think through exactly what BDS is supposed to do and how it is intended to achieve its aims. An exemplary exploration of these issues is provided by Lee Jones in his article Sanctioning Apartheid: Comparing the South African and Palestinian Campaigns for Boycotts, Disinvestment and Sanctions.

Recent years have seen an enormous expansion of BDS activity and, after a brief early history of BDS calls, we provide information about some of these campaigns:

A: Some early history
B: Settlement goods and institutions
C: Arms boycott
D: Boycott of companies profiting from the occupation (often expressed in divestment campaigns)
E: Academic and cultural boycott
F: Sanctions: the EU and Israel-Palestine

Our previous website had a  large number of links to debates and discussions about the early years of the BDS campaigns, particularly those relating to the debate about an academic boycott which raged in Britain’s university and college unions (Natfhe and the AUT, then amalgamated into the UCU). Large numbers of the original urls no longer work and we have not attempted to reconstruct the history here. Rather, we link to a few very early contributions to the boycott campaign, but mainly to issues that are current today.

For a full listing of UK campaigns on BDS, see the Boycott Israel Network website.

A: Some early history

1. Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel – Lebanon,
PSC conference, London, 30 Nov 2002

CBSI-Lebanon was a very early group active in the field. It was particularly thoughtful about the modes and meanings of an economic boycott. Kirsten Scheid’s presentation on behalf of the Campaign to the “What Future for Palestine?” conference, 30 Nov, 2002, London and the Campaign’s “Frequently Asked Questions” are included here.

“Our boycott works by making a declaration of what we find objectionable in each company’s practices. We classify the companies by their practices, explain the impact of such practices, and offer this information to our audience for them to evaluate. In this way, we both call on fellow boycotters to know exactly what and why they are boycotting, and we offer boycotted corporations a chance to recuperate themselves. In this way, also, we insist upon a rational, if passionate, character for our boycotting.”

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2. PSC – Early boycott call, 2002

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3. Sanctions against the Israeli occupation: it’s time
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Jan 2005

An analysis of various forms of sanctions and boycott calls against Israel.

“Sanctions, divestment and boycotts are absolutely legitimate means at everyone’s disposal for effectively opposing injustice. As penalties, protest, pressure and resistance to policies that violate fundamental human rights, international law and UN resolutions, they are directed at ending a situation of intolerable conflict, suffering and moral wrong-doing, not against a particular people or country. When the injustice ends, the sanctions end…”

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4. The Case for Selective Sanctions
Henry Picciotto, Jewish Voice for Peace

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5. The case for sanctions against Israel
Gerald Kaufman, Guardian, 12 Jul 2004

B: Settlement goods and institutions

A call for the boycott of settlement goods was made early on by Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc. It produced a detailed list of all goods available in the shops that originated in the settlements, no small feat in that most such goods were not labeled in any way so as to recognise their origins as anything but Israeli.

This work was continued by Who Profits from the Occupation, “a research center dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international companies in the continued Israeli control over Palestinian and Syrian land. Currently, we focus on three main areas of corporate involvement in the occupation: the settlement industry, economic exploitation and control over population”.

The work of ensuring settlement goods are labeled as such has had its greatest effect not at the consumer boycott but at the EU level where it has been recognised that the concessions made to Israel in the EU-Israel Association Agreement (see The EU and Israel-Palestine) do not extend to produce from the occupied territories which need to be clearly labeled and not passed off as Israeli. A 2013 Al Haq report Feasting on the Occupation: Illegality of Settlement Produce and the Responsibility of EU Member States under International Law stressed the importance of EU trade to the settlement enterprise.

In 2016 Gush Shalom launched a Settlement Products Wiki. “It’s goal is to organize and make available to the public, in the most systematic and up to date manner possible, information about the factories and businesses that operate in settlements beyond the Green Line (pre-1967 border) and the products that they produce.”

C: Arms boycott

1. Five reasons to stop US military aid to Israel

The Stop US Military Aid to Israel petition, early 2007, which was endorsed at the time by: Gush Shalom, International Solidarity Movement, Jews Against the Occupation, Nilemedia, Academics for Justice, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Golshan Society, Matzpen, Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, Palestine Right to Return Coalition, All About Palestine, Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel, Not in My Name, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, News from Babylon, Boycott Israeli Goods, Jewish Friends of Palestine, Citizens for Fair Legislation…

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2. Nobel peace laureates call for Israel military boycott over Gaza assault
Chris McGreal, Guardian, 28 Nov 2011

McGreal reports on the call for an international military boycott of Israel, following its assault on the Gaza Strip earlier that month, by a group of Nobel peace prize-winners, prominent artists and activists and their denouncing US and EU complicity through weapons sales.

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3. Boycott Israel Network

The Boycott Israel Network has a page devoted to arms-related issues.

D: Boycott of companies profiting from the occupation

Who Profits from the Occupation mentioned above, is the go-to resource for information about companies complicit in Israel’s occupation.

Currently there are major campaigns, against G4S,Veolia, Ahava and Sodastream among others. The former are international companies, the latter Israeli. All profit from the occupation. Campaigns tend to take the form of boycotting their produce or services and calling on academic institutions and others not to hold their shares in their investment portfolios.

E: Academic and Cultural Boycott

1. Call for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, 6 Jul 2004

A small but vital adjustment to the statement was made on 28 Jan 2006 and is discussed in  The Palestinian Call for Academic Boycott Revised: Adjusting the Parameters of the Debate. It related to whether the original statement could be read as condoning a boycott of individuals or supporting “black-listing” or “political tests”, both of which are entirely incompatible with PACBI’s position.

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2. The Engage website

This website was set up in opposition to the academic boycott campaign in British universities from 2004 onwards, campaigning as it sees it “against antisemitism and the demonization of Israel” in the belief “that most decent people don’t want to be involved with something that smells of antisemitism”. Quite why they claim the academic boycott is tinged with antisemitism can be followed up on their site. A lengthy, side-ranging and very helpful exchange between Martin Shaw (also opposed to an academic boycott but not on the grounds of its alleged antisemitism) and David Hirsh ranged widely over the contested issues and can be read in Antisemitism and the Boycott: An Exchange between Martin Shaw and David Hirsh.

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3. Why Boycott Israeli universities?
British Campaign for Universities in Palestine (Bricup), Apr 2007