WHAT IS BDS?

OVERVIEW

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches, and grassroots movements across the world. Since its launch in 2005, BDS has had a significant impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.

Ongoing injustice

Since 1948, Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights and has refused to comply with international law.

Israel maintains a regime of settler colonialism, apartheid, and occupation over the Palestinian people. This is only possible because of international support. Governments fail to hold Israel to account, while corporations and institutions across the world help Israel to oppress Palestinians.

Because those in power refuse to act to stop this injustice, Palestinian civil society has called for a global citizens’ response of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality.

 

What are Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions?

BOYCOTTS

Involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural, and academic institutions, and all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.

DIVESTMENT

DIVESTMENT campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds, and universities to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.

SANCTIONS

SANCTIONS campaigns pressure governments to fulfill their legal obligations to end Israeli apartheid and not aid or assist its maintenance by banning business with illegal Israeli settlements, ending military trade and free-trade agreements, as well as suspending Israel's membership in international forums such as UN bodies and FIFA.

The call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

In 2005, Palestinian civil society organisations called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel.

The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, women’s organizations, professional associations, popular resistance committees, and other Palestinian civil society bodies.

Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the Palestinian BDS call urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands:

checkpoint

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall

Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall International law recognises the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights as occupied by Israel. As part of its military occupation, Israel steals land and forces Palestinians into ghettos surrounded by checkpoints, settlements, watchtowers, and an illegal apartheid Wall. Israel imposed a medieval siege on Gaza and turned it into the largest open-air prison in the world. Israel also regularly carried out large-scale assaults on Gaza that are widely condemned as constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity.
arrest

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality

One-fifth of Israel’s citizens are Palestinians who remained inside the armistice lines after 1948. They are subjected to a system of racial discrimination enshrined in more than 50 laws that impact every aspect of their lives. The Israeli government continues to forcibly displace Palestinian communities in Israel from their land. Israeli leaders routinely and openly incite racial violence against them.
right of return

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194

Since its violent establishment in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing of more than half of the indigenous people of Palestine, Israel has set out to control as much land and uproot as many Palestinians as it can. As a result of this systematic forced displacement, there are now more than 7.25 million Palestinian refugees. They are denied their right to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish.

BDS is an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that is opposed on principle to all forms of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia.

A global movement

The BDS movement is supported by unions, churches, NGOs, and movements representing millions across every continent. There are vibrant BDS campaigns in communities worldwide, and progressive Jewish groups play an important role in the movement.

Public figures back BDS, including the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Klein, Roger Waters, Angela Davis, and Judith Butler. The slider below features just a small selection of the movement's supporters.

tutu
Just as we said during apartheid that it was inappropriate for international artists to perform in South Africa in a society founded on discriminatory laws and racial exclusivity, so it would be wrong for Cape Town Opera to perform in Israel.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
ANGELA-DAVIS
Speaking following a delegation to Palestine she was part of: "Each and every one of us—including those members of our delegation who grew up in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid South Africa, and on Indian reservations in the U.S.—was shocked by what we saw. We issue an urgent call to others who share our commitment to racial justice, equality, and freedom [and] we unequivocally endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Campaign"
Angela Davis, activist and academic
Ken-Loach
I support the call by Palestinian filmmakers, artists, and others to boycott state-sponsored Israeli cultural institutions and urge others to join their campaign.
Ken Loach, Palme d'Or winning film director
Image
"Google 'Montgomery Bus Boycott', if you don’t know about civil rights history already. We changed our country fundamentally, and the various boycotts of Israeli institutions and products will do the same there. It is our only nonviolent option."
Alice Walker, author

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