London- Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, global interest in the boycott movement (BDS) has increased, and it has turned into a means of expressing solidarity with Palestine and denouncing the support of major companies for the unprecedented aggression against the people of Gaza.
This global popular will coincides with the goals that the movement has been working on for years, and its media coordinator, Fatima Badr, reveals the growing awareness of the importance of the boycott and the achievements achieved since last October 7.
Badr spoke to Tel Aviv Tribune Net about the fierce war waged by the “Israeli lobby” to restrict the movement, and said that Tel Aviv is dealing with the boycott movement “as an existential threat that must be confronted.”
The following is the text of the interview:
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What are the latest developments in the boycott movement after October 7, 2023, and what is currently happening in Gaza?
Since the beginning of the Israeli war of annihilation against our people in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian National Committee to Boycott Israel – the broadest coalition in Palestinian society and the leadership of the Boycott Movement (BDS) – has called for participation in all popular activities and campaigns in support of our people in Gaza.
It also called for continued mobilization and pressure, raising demands for an immediate ceasefire, the opening of the Rafah land crossing, the immediate entry of emergency aid into the Strip, including fuel and electricity, and the provision of international protection for our people in the Gaza Strip.
Campaigns to boycott Israel were strengthened at all levels, starting with the boycott of companies involved in the Israeli colonial and apartheid system, all the way to the academic, cultural, artistic and sports boycott of this “enemy.”
The committee intensified campaigns to confront all forms of normalization in the Arab world, escalate global military embargo campaigns, and mobilize activists and provide them with effective tools to pressure decision-makers in their countries.
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What are the most important achievements achieved by the boycott movement during the past period? Are there any numbers on the success of campaigns to boycott certain products and brands?
It is still too early to obtain numbers and statistics, but we can give examples of the movement’s global impact, especially during recent months. At the beginning of last month, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACPI) – an important part of the Boycott of Israel (BDS) movement – announced S) – announced the victory of its campaign that has been ongoing for years in partnership with solidarity movements around the world against the German sportswear company Puma, as the company announced the termination of its contract with the Israeli Football Association.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim also announced the imposition of a ban on all ships owned by the “Israeli enemy,” especially the Israeli shipping company “Zim,” and those heading to Israeli ports, “in response to Tel Aviv’s actions that violate basic humanitarian principles and international laws.” This came. The decision follows the Boycott Malaysia movement’s hard work in building support for it.
The city of Barcelona completely severed its relations with Israel due to the war crimes it committed against the Palestinians in Gaza, becoming the first European city to do so.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al-Safadi announced that his country will not sign the energy and water exchange agreement with Israel, which was announced during Expo Dubai 2020 and became known as “Electricity for Water,” after great public pressure from the Jordanian street. Our “Jordan Boycott” partners played a role. major in it.
The campaigns of the boycott of Israel movement against complicit companies have also witnessed expansion in the Arab world. The Jordanian Bin Al-Ameed Company announced the closure of all its branches in Carrefour, which is complicit in the crime of genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip.
The administration of the Employment Forum at the American University in Cairo excluded the insurance company AXA from the list of sponsors, in response to calls from students at this university who demanded a boycott and exclusion of the company because of its investments in Israeli banks.
The movement also encouraged organic boycott campaigns initiated by Arab activists against huge American companies, such as McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and others, because the Israeli branches of these companies supported the Israeli army during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
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Did awareness of the importance of the boycott become greater after October 7? How successful are boycott campaigns?
The boycott campaigns have received great interaction since October 7, 2023, and we have witnessed a broad public uprising aimed at making all companies complicit in Israeli crimes pay the price for their involvement, by activating the weapon of boycott against those who supported the extermination of our people in the besieged Gaza Strip.
We now have fertile popular ground for spreading awareness about the targeted campaigns that the Boycott Israel Movement (BDS) is working on, which means focusing on a specific number of the most complicit and most important targets in order to multiply the impact, and not on untargeted boycotts.
For example, the movement launched a call to boycott “Carrefour” because of its involvement in the crimes of the occupation, and of course its role emerged during the ongoing genocidal aggression by donating thousands of personal shipments to soldiers of the occupation army or such as the campaign to boycott “H. BP, Puma, AXA and others.
Since the launch of the movement, it has achieved many successes, especially in the field of boycotting complicit companies. For example, the security company “G4S” completely withdrew its investments from the Israeli colonial and apartheid system after tireless boycott campaigns with the support of supporters and partners around the world.
The huge French telecommunications company “Orange” withdrew from the Israeli market and stopped dealing with the Israeli “Partner” following the threat of the popular campaign to boycott Israel in Egypt to boycott the Egyptian company “Mobinil”, of which Orange owns 98% of its shares.
The Kuwaiti government and the municipality of Kabd excluded Veolia from two contracts worth more than a billion dollars, which led – in addition to global pressure and the losses inflicted on the company by the Boycott Movement (BDS) – to its complete withdrawal from the Israeli market in late 2015.
After years of pressure and boycott campaigns, the American company General Mills announced the sale of its stake in its joint venture with the “Israeli enemy.”
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What projects or goals are you focusing on currently?
The movement’s most important priority currently is to direct all the popular power that we have built with our partners around the world over the years towards pressuring decision-makers in order to force the European-backed American-Israeli exterminating camp to stop the war of annihilation and end the siege on the Gaza Strip.
Part of this pressure comes through escalating boycott and divestment campaigns, and also through direct pressure on members of parliaments, governments, companies, and complicit media through the “peaceful occupation” of their headquarters, disrupting their usual work, and their continued complicity in various peaceful ways.
For example, we work closely with trade unions, especially those working in the field of maritime shipping, to obstruct the shipment of weapons to Israel, and this is what several unions have done in Belgium, Catalonia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and even California in the United States.
We also put strong pressure on governments friendly to our people to impose a military embargo on Israel and work to expel it from membership in the United Nations General Assembly, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), and others.
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Do you face any problems or harassment while doing your work?
Certainly, the Israeli government has, for years, devoted an entire ministry to fighting the boycott movement (BDS), since it has considered it since 2014 to be a “strategic threat” that may amount to an “existential threat,” as senior Israeli officials have stated.
Israel is also working with all its lobby groups – especially in the United States – to suppress all activity of the boycott movement, and allocates huge budgets for this, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars within a few years.
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There are several countries working to restrict the boycott movement, so how do you deal with the matter?
Israel and its allies are waging a legal war around the world against the Boycott (BDS) movement, and are trying to pressure it, restrict its activists, and prosecute them, specifically by enacting laws that demonize the movement and attempt to suppress some aspects of it, which undermines freedom of expression and the democratic rights of supporters of the Palestinian cause.
But this only reflects the state of bankruptcy and frustration that the occupation government has reached. The boycott movement has proven its ability to overcome these obstacles and continue to grow and spread, increasing its influence and achieving more successes, in addition to the growing isolation of the Israeli regime, which is an indication of the success of its tools.
The Israeli war against the boycott movement, such as banning activists from entering occupied Palestine and enacting anti-boycott laws, provokes even liberal movements that did not previously support boycott, and raises a spirit of challenge among supporters, especially young people.
