By Ana Susin In the wake of Israel’s continuous carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip, boycott activists have called for global consumer boycott campaigns targeted at several companies and institutions they claim to be complicit in Israel’s apartheid policies towards Palestinian people. Human rights organizations have previously concluded that Israel’s administration of the Gaza Strip and illegal settlements in the West Bank break international law and force Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to a living in the “largest open-air prison” in the world. Calls for targeted consumer boycotts are organized primarily by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), a Palestinian-led movement against Israel. BDS is encouraging activist pressure of Domino’s Pizza, McDonalds, Papa John’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Starbucks and calling for targeted consumer boycotts in the most complicit companies and brands HP, Siemens, Axa, Puma, SodaStream, Ahava, and Israeli fruits and vegetables. They emphasize consumer boycotts focused on a small number of companies for maximum impact. They argue the most impactful consumer boycotts are those that are targeted, strategic and have the potential to inflict the most tangible (economic) impact. However, what makes boycotts effective? And most importantly, do they actually work? A boycott is defined as an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product or organization as an expression of protest for moral, social, political or environmental reasons. The main purpose is to inflict economic loss on the target, compelling them to alter behavior deemed objectionable. In the case of the Israeli carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip, HP is accused of helping run the biometric ID system that Israel is using to restrict Palestinian movement within the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Siemens is complicit through its EuroAsia Interconnector project, which links Israel’s electricity grid with Europe’s, allowing illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land to benefit from the Israel-EU trade of electricity produced from fossil gas. The petroleum refineries company Chevron is one of the main extractors of fossil gas in Israel, implicated in transferring the gas to Egypt through a pipeline illegally crossing the Palestinian Exclusive Economic Zone in Gaza. This deprives Palestinian people of its sovereignty over natural resources in territories of occupied Palestine. Carrefour, a France-based multinational retailer, announced a franchise agreement with two Israeli companies, namely Electra Consumer Products and Yenot BItan, which both operate in illegal Israeli settlements, thus making Carrefour complicit in Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. Furthermore, several other Palestinian social media activists have called for a boycott of McDonalds and Starbucks. McDonald pledged to offer free meals for Israeli soldiers, whereas Starbucks sued its labor union over their statement in support of Palestine. The union represents over 8000 workers in at least 40 states in America and is being accused by Starbucks for trademark infringement by speaking in the company’s name and damaging its reputation. While many have expressed doubt at the success of these boycotts, it must be emphasized that historically, boycotts have been proven to be one of the most effective ways of collective civil action, if executed efficiently in a targeted and strategic manner. For example, the year-long Montgomery bus boycott started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama as a political and social protest campaign against racial segregation on public transportation systems in Alabama. It started with Rosa Parks, an African-American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man on the bus and became one of the key events surrounding the civil rights movement in the United States. Parks was fined and the black community in Montgomery vowed to boycott public transit citywide, demanding that black people would be treated politely by bus operators, the allocation of bus seats would be based on a first-come, first-served basis, and routes predominantly taken by black people would be operated by black bus drivers. As the black community in Montgomery frequently used the bus, their boycott caused serious economic damage as they organized a collective system of carpooling and black churches raised money to support those who had to walk everywhere by buying them better quality shoes. While boycott leaders and carpool drivers were arrested for conspiring to inference with a business and fined, victory was eventually reached when the federal district court ruled that Alabama’s racial segregation for public transit was unconstitutional, a decision later upheld by the Supreme Court as well.
Secondly, the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organization at the center of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system. Starting as a consumer boycott campaign of South African goods, it expanded into a non-binding economic sanctions campaign spearheaded by the United Nations General Assembly, which was opposed by the West, particularly the UK government. The UN Security Council passed a mandatory UN arms embargo as well as a voluntary international oil embargo. South Africa was also suspended from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The Anti-Apartheid Movement was successful as the negotiations to end apartheid system began in February 1990 after the release from prison of one of the most prominent anti-apartheid activists, Nelson Mandela. More recent examples of successful boycotts include consumer pressure of Johnson & Johnson company in 2014 due to presence of two harmful chemicals , after which they pledged to remove formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane from its baby products, such as baby shampoo. J&J eventually pledged to replace the potentially harmful products from their shelves with an improved batch of baby products. In 2018, following pressure from human rights campaigners, HSBC, the London international bank, announced its withdrawal from the Israeli defense contractor Elbit, the developers of Israel’s most advanced drones. While these boycotts operated in different dimensions, such as economic, political and sports, they all shared one characteristic: a defined goal and purpose at their core. Either organized by the Montgomery Improvement Association representing the black community within Montgomery, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the UN Security Council or human rights campaigners, they were specifically targeted to cause maximum impact on a small number of companies, or, in the case of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, managed by different organizations in different dimensions as part of a larger boycott movement. Thus, boycotts are effective when they are strategic and targeted, with a small area of focus to cause maximum impact, such as economic loss. This is exactly the type of boycott BDS is campaigning for. A lot of multinational companies have expressed financial or other types of support for Israel’s genocidal campaign over Palestinian people. However, it is easy to get overwhelmed in trying to answer “what to do,” especially when you’re a student of National Taiwan University and not a prominent political figure. The answer to that lies in historical evidence and knowing where you stand. While it’s hard to boycott Siemens kitchen appliances because an oven is not something you buy every week, going to PxMart, MOS Burger and Louisa Coffee instead of Carrefour, McDonalds and Starbucks can cause substantial financial impact. And most importantly, spreading awareness of the BDS’ instructions and demands ensures the boycott is targeted and strategic to the fullest extent. It comes back to the number. Power is always in the numbers. For future reference: https://bdsmovement.net/siemens-and-chevron-stop-fueling-apartheid-and-climate-disaster https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/what-to-boycott https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-carrefour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_bus_boycott https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/free-meals-israeli-soldiers-divide-mcdonalds-franchises-over-israel-hamas-war-2023-10-17/ https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-workers-united-union-lawsuit-israel-palestinian-f212a994fef67f122854a4df7e5d13f5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Apartheid_Movement#Economic_sanctions_campaign https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/hsbc-bank-decides-to-divest-from-israeli-defense-contractor-elbit-575632 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/business/johnson-johnson-takes-first-step-in-removal-of-questionable-chemicals-from-products.html a
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May 2024
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