Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
Palestinian-led international campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, launched in 2005, and the Israeli state and private campaigns against it
| Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement
| |
|---|---|
| Logo | .jpg) Banner reading “Boycott, divest, sanction”, Melbourne, 5 June 2010. Photograph: Takver, CC BY-SA 2.0. |
| Type | Palestinian-led international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign |
| Founded | 9 July 2005 |
| Founder(s) | Over 170 Palestinian civil society organisations (signatories of the 2005 BDS Call) |
| Location | International; coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Services | Campaigns for consumer, cultural and academic boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel |
| Key people | Omar Barghouti (prominent campaigner) |
| Website | https://bdsmovement.net/ |
| Remarks | The Israeli government regards the movement as a "strategic threat" and accuses it of antisemitism; the movement denies the accusation |
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a Palestinian-led international campaign that urges boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until Israel meets three demands: ending its occupation and colonisation of Arab lands and dismantling the Wall, recognising the full equality of its Arab-Palestinian citizens, and respecting the right of return of Palestinian refugees. It was launched by an open letter from Palestinian civil society organisations on 9 July 2005.[1] The movement is coordinated by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC).[2] The Israeli state has treated it as a strategic threat, using legislation, entry bans and monitoring by military and domestic intelligence; a private Israeli intelligence firm has also targeted its supporters.[3][4][5]
Origins and aims
The 2005 Call was issued a year after the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion that Israel's Wall in the occupied Palestinian territory was illegal. It invoked the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against apartheid South Africa, called on international civil society to impose "broad boycotts" and divestment initiatives and to press governments for embargoes and sanctions, and described the measures as "non-violent punitive measures" to be maintained until Israel complied with international law. It was endorsed by Palestinian unions, associations, coalitions and organisations representing refugees, Palestinians under occupation and Palestinian citizens of Israel, among them the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.[1]
The BNC says the campaign was coordinated at first by the groups that endorsed the Call, and that the first Palestinian BDS Conference, held in Ramallah in November 2007, produced the BNC as its coordinating body worldwide.[2] Omar Barghouti is a prominent BDS campaigner; in 2016 the Israeli authorities refused to renew his travel documents, and the interior minister, Aryeh Deri, was reported to be considering revoking his residence permit.[3]
Israeli state response
Legislation
The Knesset enacted the Law for Prevention of Damage to the State of Israel through Boycott on 11 July 2011. It creates civil liability for anyone who knowingly and publicly calls for a boycott of Israel, and lets the state exclude such people from tenders and benefits.[6] On 15 April 2015 the High Court of Justice upheld most of the law, adopting a narrow interpretation of the civil liability, but unanimously struck down the section allowing compensation without proof of damage; four of the nine justices dissented on the main civil-liability provisions, Justice Danziger holding that the law substantially violated freedom of political expression.[7]
On 6 March 2017 the Knesset passed a law barring entry visas and residence permits to non-citizens and non-permanent residents who, or whose organisation, have knowingly issued a public call to boycott Israel or pledged to take part in a boycott. Haaretz noted that its wording could affect Palestinians living in Israel on temporary residence while applying for permanent status.[3]
Military and domestic intelligence
In March 2011 Haaretz reported that Military Intelligence had created a department in its Research Division to monitor Western groups involved in boycotting, divesting from or imposing sanctions on Israel, groups seeking war-crimes charges against senior Israeli officials, and possible links between such groups and terrorist organisations. The unit had the support of Yosef Kuperwasser, then director-general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy.[8] In August 2015 Haaretz reported that this Delegitimization Department monitored dozens of overseas groups affiliated with BDS, each approved in advance by a senior officer, and that domestic activists involved in what the security services regard as "delegitimisation" were the Shin Bet's responsibility.[4] One activist, Re'ut Mor, said she was questioned by a Shin Bet officer about a Gaza flotilla and about her positions on BDS, the IDF and Zionism.[4]
Private intelligence
The New Yorker reported in 2019 that the Israeli private intelligence firm Psy-Group ran a campaign code-named Project Butterfly against BDS activists on United States college campuses from February 2016. According to its internal documents, operatives drew up lists of targets, gathered derogatory information from social media and the "deep" web and spread it through accounts that could not be traced to the firm or its donors, with the aim of creating "a new reality in which anti-Israeli activists are exposed and forced to confront the consequences of their actions". The project's advisory board included Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, who told the magazine he supported the goal of exposing BDS leaders on campuses and gathering intelligence on their links to Palestinian organisations; the firm also recruited Ram Ben-Barak, a former deputy director of Mossad, as a paid adviser. Psy-Group went out of business in February 2018 as the FBI began to investigate its work.[5]
Legal disputes in the United Kingdom
On 15 September 2016 the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government issued guidance to local government pension scheme authorities saying that using pension policies to pursue boycotts, divestment and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defence industries was "inappropriate", other than where the government had imposed formal legal sanctions, and that authorities should not pursue policies contrary to UK foreign or defence policy. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign challenged the guidance. On 29 April 2020 the Supreme Court, by a majority, held the two passages unlawful because the Secretary of State had exceeded the powers given by Parliament, and restored the High Court's order.[9]
Antisemitism dispute
The Guardian reported in 2017 that Israel sees the movement as a strategic threat and accuses it of antisemitism, a claim the movement denies.[3]
See also
- Delegitimization Department
- Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy
- Concert - Together for Israel
- Act.IL
- Psy-Group
- Black Cube
- Gilad Erdan
- Hasbara
- Gaza flotilla raid
- Who Profits
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Palestinian civil society organisations, Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, 9 July 2005, BDS Movement, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 BDS Movement, About BNC BDS Movement, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 AFP, Israel passes law barring entry for supporters of boycott of Jewish state The Guardian, 6 March 2017, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Gili Cohen, Israel's Military Intelligence Monitoring Dozens of BDS Groups Around the World Haaretz, 18 August 2015, archived at archive.ph/pIjXP, accessed 9 November 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Adam Entous, How a Private Israeli Intelligence Firm Spied on Pro-Palestinian Activists in the U.S. The New Yorker, 28 February 2019, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Adalah, Summary of the Supreme Court's decision on the Boycott Law, April 2015, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Cardozo Israeli Supreme Court Project, Avneri v. The Knesset (summary) (HCJ 5239/11), decided 15 April 2015, accessed 10 November 2026.
- ↑ Barak Ravid, Military Intelligence Monitoring Foreign Left-wing Organizations Haaretz, 21 March 2011, accessed 9 November 2026.
- ↑ UK Supreme Court, R (on the application of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd and another) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government: press summary [2020] UKSC 16, 29 April 2020, accessed 10 November 2026; case page, accessed 10 November 2026.